Proof of Cleansing
Notes
Transcript
The Leper
The Leper
12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Look at what he asks Jesus. It is not “Lord, can you make me clean.” It’s “Lord do you want to make me clean.” There’s no question of Jesus’ ability to cleanse this man, only his desire.
Knowing Jesus as we do, it sounds like a silly question. Why wouldn’t Jesus want to heal this man? Because nobody else wanted anything to do with him.
The Disease
The Disease
This man is not just a leper, he’s full of leprosy. Leprosy should be translated more generally as “skin disease.” This man wasn’t suffering from Hansen’s disease where your nose and finger start to fall off. The ways of describing it in the OT (Lev 13) do not correspond to any of that. Leprosy in the bible could refer to any number of skin diseases:
Lupus
Ringworm
Even a really bad rash
The worst part of having these conditions was not the condition itself but what it did to your social standing.
Social Ramifications
Social Ramifications
Don’t read the slide
45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.
Don’t read the slide
Since God lived among his people they had to live by his house rules. Israel had to live by a system of clean and unclean. In order to stay in the community and get close to God in his temple you had to maintain ritual purity. Certain acts such as touching a dead body or blood, finding mold in your house, or any other number of things made you unclean and drove you away from God - outside the camp of Israel.
One could always go from being clean to unclean, and most importantly unclean to clean. Becoming unclean and cast from the camp was a temporary measure to protect the holiness of God’s people and dwelling place.
Permanent Lepers
Permanent Lepers
Unless you were like our friend here in Luke 5:12
Don’t read the slide
12 While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Don’t read the slide
It Was Hopeless
It Was Hopeless
Whatever kind of leprosy this man has, Luke tells us that he’s full of it. This was not a mild case. Some cases of leprosy were so severe that the person was deemed permanently unclean. Jewish Rabbi’s called these cases “walking corpses.” To cleanse such a person and reintegrate them into society was like raising the dead - impossible.
So this man had to deal with everything being unclean brought about.
Humiliation and Isolation
Humiliation and Isolation
And so for the rest of his life this man had to live according to the rule of Leviticus 13:45-46
45 “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.’ 46 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.
In order to protect the holiness of Israel he was forced to live outside any community, by himself, with nobody else. On the rare occasion he did have to come into town he had to make a spectacle of himself.
Ratty clothes
Unkempt hair
Shouting a warning that everyone needs to stay away. I’m unclean!
Condemnation
Condemnation
And rather than receive the eye of pity, this man would have been viewed with suspicion. Being unclean was not inherently sinful and could happen through no fault of your own. God encouraged his people to be fruitful an multiply, that he would bless them with children. Yet, because of the blood involved childbirth made you unclean.
Leprosy, however, had enough connections with curses to convince most Jews that if you did suffer from it, it was because you had sinned.
Gehazi was cursed for his greed and deceit 2 Kings 5:27
27 Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” So he went out from his presence a leper, like snow.
Uzziah for his presumption in offering incense 2 Chron 26:20
20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him.
Miriam for questioning Moses’ leadership Numbers 12:10
10 When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.
Joab for murdering Abner 2 Sam 3:29
29 May it fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father’s house, and may the house of Joab never be without one who has a discharge or who is leprous or who holds a spindle or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread!”
Promised curse for disobedience Deut 28:27, 35
35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.
This man was:
Alone
Ashamed
Condemned
Hopeless
By all appearances God hates this man. Would he really have any interest in cleansing someone like this?
Modern Lepers
Modern Lepers
Our sin will put us in the same position before Jesus.
We hide in our sin, ashamed of what we’ve done and feeling like outsiders to the church who might just throw us out unless we can sort it out.
We feel the condemnation in our own mind and in the judgmental eyes others.
We open up scripture and feel the hot flames of hell as we read of God’s wrath against the ungodly and those who commit the sins we can never seem to shake off.
Just like the leper we find ourselves covered in something unclean. And we end up:
Alone
Ashamed
Condemned
Hopeless
An incredible struggle for many people is not if God could forgive our sins, but does he want to? Salvation is grace which means that if he decided to not help anybody he would be completely justified in doing so.
I can see him helping the people who are nicer than me, more charitable than me, are more loving and sacrificial than me.
But Lord, do you want to make me clean?
13 Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean,” and immediately the leprosy left him.
Jesus Wants to Heal You
Jesus Wants to Heal You
Jesus reaches out and touches this man. Anyone who touched a leper would themselves become unclean. How long had it been since this man had felt human contact? And notice that Jesus reaches out to touch him before he heals him. Jesus, seeing us in all of our sin and uncleaness, is willing to to reach out and make contact with us. There is nobody to repulsive for Jesus.
We are fooled into thinking that Jesus will only cleanse us if we do a bit of cleaning ourselves. That God will only forgive us if we can show that we’re making progress. That Jesus will only reach out to bring us in after we’ve made the long journey to show our commitment. That we have to convince Jesus to heal us.
But nobody is twisting Jesus’ arm. He wants to do all of this for you. He is actively seeking you out. He willing died on the cross for you so you could be cleansed and brought into the people of God.
He wants to give you a family to be with
He wants to give you honor in place of shame
He wants to save the condemned
The most incredible thing about God’s forgiveness is not that he can forgive us, but that he wants to. We need to be reminded of that. The story of the leper teaches us that God wants to forgive you.
Now that we know the God wants to forgive us, we also need to be taught that God wants to forgive and cleanse others as well.
The Paralytic
The Paralytic
Immediately after this story we have another miraculous healing.
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,
19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
This is one of my favorite stories. We should aspire to have and be friends that carry one another like this. The paralyzed man is stuck in his bed. He can’t reach Jesus on his own. So his friends hoist him up and take him to Jesus.
But there’s a problem. Jesus is surrounded by the crowds, and they won’t make way for this paralyzed man.
Notice who the crowd is made of.
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
These are the most stringent keepers of the law. The Pharisees and teachers made the law of Moses even more strict with their traditions, piling requirement after requirement on how the law was expected to be obeyed. In their eyes, anyone who could not measure up to their standards was outside of the community of God. But of course they themselves were righteous and could stand before God.
Jesus’ favorite term for these people is hypocrite! He condemns their unjust judgments of others saying
13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
The Pharisees were very confident in knowing who was “in” and who was “out.”
Don’t hold our traditions? Out.
Not a Jew? Out.
You a sinner? Out.
Lepers? Out.
The Pharisees drew hard lines in the sand and kept anyone on the other side out with harsh judgments.
Don’t read the slide
Luke 5:17–19 (ESV)
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there… 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd...
And here they are, literally preventing a man from coming to Jesus.
Can God Heal Even Him?
Can God Heal Even Him?
God wants to forgive me, but I’m not so sure if he wants to heal that guy. In fact, I’m not even sure if God can. This is what the Pharisees are thinking as they see Jesus interact with the paralytic.
21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
We might think that we’re fair and that we know God can and wants to forgive anyone who comes to him. But is that lived out in our practice?
I saw a video from somebodies door camera recently. A couple of Mormon missionaries came up to the house and are just about to ring the doorbell when they stop just before they sound the bell. They happened to look down and see the homeowners doormat. SLIDE.
And so they didn’t ring the doorbell. They just walked away. After all, God’s word couldn’t reach somebody like that.
We say that God can forgive the anyone, no matter how sinful, no matter what sin it is. But in practice we’re much more likely to go after the people who already believe in God, who go to a church - just the wrong one, who are already such nice people that we like and wouldn’t need to change much. At least we think.
Do we make judgment calls on who will or won’t respond to the gospel? Do we become Pharisees and prevent people from coming to Jesus because they don’t measure up to our standards? Do we never bother trying to teach some people and actively doubt that they could ever be made right with God? Do we see people beginning to follow Jesus and ask “Is God really going to forgive them?”
22 When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, “Why do you question in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the man who was paralyzed—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
25 And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God. 26 And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”
Jesus’ healing miracles work as signs. We cannot see how sin has deformed and crippled our spirits like we can see physical diseases. So Jesus uses the physical healings to prove that our spiritual conditions are healed.
He can make the blind see the light of the gospel
He can make the lame walk on his paths
He can cleanse the unclean of their sins
Who are we to question if Jesus can forgive someone of their sins?
Faith for Others
Faith for Others
Rather, we need to be long the friends of the paralytic.
20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
It wasn’t the paralytics faith alone that Jesus recognized, but the friends as well. They had a faith strong enough to believe that Jesus could heal their friend. They had a love strong enough:
To organize the effort
To carry their friend
To persist despite the crowds
To dig a hole through somebody else’s roof
I wonder how much the crowd who blocked their access to Jesus would have also tried to prevent them from going through the roof. Did anyone ask what they were doing? Did anyone try to stop them from digging into the roof, down into the lecture hall of a holy man?
Whatever obstacles these friends faced, they overcame it through faith. We need to have enough faith to believe that God can heal our neighbors and enough love to do the work needed to get them their.
Evangelism is tough work. It’s not just a matter of getting people to know the right things. It’s heart surgery. We are presenting people with the choice of having their lives completely reinvented by Jesus. And as our new brothers and sisters begin their walk with Jesus they still need the training wheels on. And we will see mistakes, immaturity, and disappointments.
We will be tempted to give up on them. Because we will see more obstacles we need to get over with them than hope, more difficulties than discipleship, and constant apologies.
We need to have faith that God will transform them. That God wants to transform them - just as he is doing with us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God wants you to be saved. We need to remember that he wants everyone else to be saved too.
Are we going to be the self-righteous crowd and deny people the chance to meet Jesus? Or will be the friend who breaks through roofs to help save souls?
