The Hand of the Lord Who Heals the Sick based on Matthew 8:1-4

Let us pray: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Have you ever been kept at arm’s length from someone? Maybe you were not considered good enough to be picked for the team on the playground. Or you were not thought as being worthy of being in the same room as the popular kids at school. Or you wonder if anyone really cares about you as a person. Whatever the reason is, being kept at arm’s length is not a fun thing.

In Matthew 8 we are told about a man with the skin disease of leprosy. According to Leviticus 13:45–46, “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.” Talk about being kept at arm’s length. Being a leprous person with a skin disease had to be torture. Tearing your clothes and letting others know you are a leper by not combing your hair and crying out, “Unclean, unclean,” and living alone would have been a painful way to live. Back in the Covid days people were told to wear masks to try to prevent the spread of the illness, but some people refused to wear a mask. If someone coughed in a public place, then people wondered if Covid was being spread into the air. Trying to visit someone with Covid in a care center or hospital was almost impossible.

The man in our Gospel lesson tonight was unique. The man would have made people afraid because of his skin disease. No one wanted to be considered “unclean” before God and possibly get the leprous skin disease. He had listened to the words of Jesus before and He believed in Jesus. Maybe he had seen Jesus heal people before. He most likely had heard the words of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount earlier. He boldly showed his faith in Jesus by kneeling in front of Jesus and calling Jesus, “Lord.” He had an interesting request in Matthew 8:2, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

The Old Testament lesson from 2 Kings 5 tells us about another man with leprosy. This man was a military commander in the Syrian army named Naaman. He had heard about the prophet Elisha in Israel and he wanted to be cured of his skin disease. When he arrived at Elisha’s home, he was upset that the prophet sent a servant out to him to tell him to wash seven times in the Jordan River. He wanted to have the prophet wave his hand over the skin disease and tell him he was now clean. Naaman thought the rivers of Syria were better rivers. His servants convinced him to do as the prophet wanted. Naaman washed himself and he was cured of his leprosy.

Now back to the Gospel lesson in Matthew 8. Jesus could have spoken the word and the man with leprosy would have been healed. Jesus did heal the servant of the Roman centurion with His spoken word as we hear in the rest of the Gospel lesson. When Jesus healed the ten lepers, He simply told them to go show themselves to the priests and they were healed, as Luke 17 records. Jesus is able to heal sick people in a number of different ways.

The man with leprosy wondered if Jesus was willing to make him clean. That brings up a good question about the healing power of the Lord. Why does the Lord heal some people today, but not others? Sometimes people think that illness is brought on by bad life choices. Some people get lung cancer after smoking packs of cigarettes a day for years. Other people smoke packs of cigarettes a day and never get lung cancer. Still others get lung cancer without smoking any cigarettes at all. So the healing ways of the Lord are still a mystery today. The Lord is able to heal anybody, but that is not always in His plans.

Jesus healed the centurion’s servant and the fever of Peter’s mother-in-law. The leprous man had the faith to know that Jesus is able to heal anyone He wants to heal. That gets us to the heart of Jesus. Jesus said, “I will, be clean.” Jesus was willing and able to heal the man. Jesus touched the man with His hand. Jesus did not become unclean, because He is the Holy One of God. The touch of Jesus did heal the illness of the man with the skin disease. Jesus was able and willing. The rest of the Gospel lesson shows that Jesus was able and willing to heal. He healed the centurion’s servant with a word. He healed the mother-in-law of Peter with a touch and after that she started to serve Him. Matthew 8:16 states, “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.” Jesus was able and willing to heal everyone who was sick or oppressed by demons that night.

Still today no one is beyond the healing hand of Jesus. He does not keep people at arm’s length. He is still full of love and compassion for the suffering and hurting people today. I have found that many times in my life when I was at a low point, Jesus sent someone to help me when I did not expect to see that person. I remember serving a Lutheran congregation in Lolo, Montana, in the mountains of western Montana around 25 years ago. I was very discouraged, but the Lord sent a Lutheran pastor who I had never met before to visit me and encourage me. My aunt and uncle also came to visit me one day when I did not know they were coming and they encouraged me, too. As the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10, “But (the Lord) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

A Lutheran pastor writes, “In Isenheim, France, there stands a medieval monastery that served as a hospital for people with skin diseases. In it, the artist Matthias Grünewald was commissioned to create an altarpiece. When the leaves of this altarpiece are closed, it shows the famous central scene of Jesus contorted upon the cross. While many are familiar with this painting, it is not often pointed out that Grünewald added a unique feature to this portrayal of Christ as a reminder for the patients at Isenheim. He depicted Christ’s body covered with many skin sores as a visual reminder for them that ‘He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’ When the people looked upon this depiction of Christ, they were reminded that their Lord was with them in the midst of their afflictions.

“Jesus does not stay far removed from us. You are never too far from Jesus’ touch. Jesus is the great Suffering Servant, who has come to us in our lowly estate. He bore the effects of our fallen world. The fallenness of this world is the cause of all infirmity and disease in this world. Our sin has created a separation between us and a holy and righteous God. But the Father is still compassionate to us in sending Jesus. Jesus willingly reached out to us in our sinful condition. ‘For our sake [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5:21). When Jesus healed the leprous man in our Gospel, He demonstrated His compassion for all those who are far off. The pinnacle of this compassion is shown in Christ’s elevation upon the cross, where He took on the disease of our sin. In fact, all the healings in the Scriptures point to Christ’s identity and ultimate mission, which is to defeat sin, taking it all to the cross and rising on the third day ‘to never die again’ (Romans 6:9).

“Indeed, the Lord can and still does work miracles of healing in this world. The Lord has not promised that healing in this life will always come. However, He does promise eternal healing that has begun at the cleansing waters of Baptism to heal sinners. So, we hold fast to what He promises and entrust the rest into His compassionate care. Just as someone who is ill has need of a physician, the sinner needs a savior. That is just who we have in Christ Jesus. He is your Savior. He is the one who has taken your sin to the cross.

“It does not matter the depth of your sin. You may be a (‘no-body’) to the world. That cannot keep your Lord’s outstretched hand from your life. There is no place that you can go to where He cannot reach. … No matter where you go, how far away you are, or how unhealthy you may be—physically, socially, emotionally, or spiritually—your Lord’s outstretched hand is reaching out to you today and freely offering His words of eternal healing.” Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.