Holiness and Healing

Introduction: Picture of front door of hospital

Social distancing: isn’t in the Bible, but it’s in the Bible

Bald people- don’t need to isolate

But bald people with red spots? Yes, they need to be isolated.

Before we deal specificlly with the rules of engagement will leprosy, lets first get our catagories in place.

Temples used to play that role

Some cultures: Witchdoctors

IMMEDIATE Healing

Immediate Healing THROUGH TOUCH

Immediate healing through touch TO RESTORE RELATIONSHIP

Quarantine Conditions

Catagories:

Leviticus 10:10-11

10 You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, 11 and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”

Holy

Holy Bridges

Clean

Unclean

Profane

Holy to Profane

Leviticus 19:5-8: “When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. 6 It shall be eaten the same day you offer it or on the day after, and anything left over until the third day shall be burned up with fire. 7 If it is eaten at all on the third day, it is tainted; it will not be accepted, 8 and everyone who eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned what is holy to the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from his people.

About the Priests: Leviticus 21:5 They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body. 6 They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God.

Clean to Profane

Leviticus 19:12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Leviticus 20:3: I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name.

Clean to Unclean back to Clean

I’m no doctor- interesting reading commentaries on this: on verses 3-4: “The examining priest would be looking for changes in the cuticle or epidermis, including the possibility of subcutaneous penetration and a change in the colour of any hair in the vicinity of the eruption.” R.K. Harrison

Temple: Place of healing

Witchdoctors: People of healing

Leprosy: Ancient World of Quarantining Disease

Clean and Unclean

Unclean not a position you want to be in:

vv.45-46: “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.”

“Plight of the living dead”= Mourning their own funeral? (Roy Gane)

ESVSB: “Ritually dead”

“The Walking Dead”

Leprosy was taken out of the camp for social distancing purposes. Afraid of infection- both literal and spiritual. Even the potential for uncleanliness wasn’t allowed near the camp.

WHY? Is it the same reason that we’re all quarentined right now? No!

Quarantine was for God’s holiness’ sake

Clean- unclean- clean-unclean:

Where do I stand before my whole God?

Along comes Jesus:

Already talked about Jesus is full deity made bodily

But what’s the practical application?

Jesus: Reorganizing the Categories

Surprise #1: Zombie-like Faith

Comes out of quarantine

“Full” of leprosy. Visible skin problems.

He would have looked like a zombie!

“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

Doesn’t go to the Temple or the Priests, clearly not clean.

He goes to Jesus with full confidence that Jesus could heal him if he wanted.

So this is a shocking event here.

Leper goes to Jesus

He somehow recognizes the Holy Hot Spot of God in Jesus!

He breaks the spiritual catagories because Jesus fulfilled them!

Doesn’t go to the Priests. Doesn’t make his way to Mount Zion. That he even leaves quarantine in the first place is shocking!

This zombie-like faith is something that has encouraged me all week while working on this passage:

Although Jesus fulfilled these spiritual catagories, we still create social ones. We still have those we throw out into the category of “unredeemable”.

This passage slaps us in the face to remind us:

Those who belong to Christ may include all those we have caste aside, tossed to the Spiritual curb.

Where there’s life, there’s the potential for redemption. If a man “FULL” of leprosy can receive phsyical healing, that gives us hope for all of us full of sin!

We can go straight to Jesus! Whether we have done profane things, unclean things, or consider ourselves morally neutral! We ALL fall short of the Glory of God and we all need to come out of our quarantine to be with Jesus.

Surprise #2: Jesus Reaches out and Touches

He stretched out his hand and touched him.

Luke could have just left out that detail… Could have just recorded what Jesus said… He could have just said he touched him… But Luke carefully records the words: Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.

Touch: 28x in Leviticus: Touching an unclean man would make Jesus unclean, wouldn’t it?

Jesus embraced the walking dead, saw beneath the skin, looked beyond appearance, and granted healing.

Without Levitical Authority- remember, Jesus is from the tribe of Judah- He said, “ I will: Be clean.”

By touching this man, Jesus transcending the spiritual code established years ago in Leviticus.

He is the Lord, as the Leper confesses, and as such, he’s creating a new system of connection with God!

Now, the application here is not that you are called to reach out and touch someone! Stay 6 feet apart!!

But like all of Jesus miracles, they point to a SPIRITUAL reality! And the spiritual reality is that Jesus reaches out, touches us, and cleanses us!

This is especially important for those of you feeling isolated right now! He is right there with you. He promises to be with you. He has the power to cleanse you from all your brokenness, shame, guilt.

Have you come out of your spiritual quarentine to be touched by Jesus?

Have you received his healing touch over all your brokenness?

Are their areas you have quarantined in your heart that you will not anyone to access, including Jesus himself?

What will it take for you to open that vault in order for Jesus healing power to come in?

Surprise #3: Jesus Honors Leviticus 14

Chapter 14: Healing:

“He shall be brought to the priest. and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look...”

Clean person shall one bird and the priest shall sprinkle that person with blood- 7 times using the live bird. The other bird shall go and fly away (v.7)

v. 9: Shave hair, wash clothes, and bathe.

v.10: Two male lambs sacrificed

v. 13: And he shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy.

If Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament, than why did he tell the leper to keep performing Old Testament rules?

We go and show himself to the priest, offer the appropriate sacrifices “for your cleansing”.

Answer: I think what’s going on here is Jesus is pointing the necessity of sacrifice as the method of cleansing. Yes, Jesus has the power to heal on the spot, but ultimate healing, true cleansing, happens through sacrifice. It’s like Jesus is foreshadowing his death.

You want cleansing? Cling to the Cross. That verse from Hebrews 13 keeps popping up in this series:

Get out of the camp! Get out of the Walls of Jerusalem! Leave your creature comforts and religious systems, and cling to the Cross! That’s where you’ll find healing.

In other words, Jesus wasn’t just concerned about including the quarantined- the socially ostracized- his desire is to push them to daily discipleship and obedience.

He steering all of us who are spiritual separated to experience daily lives of sacrifice.

Receiving total forgiveness from Jesus requires clinging to him each and every day.

Jesus wasn’t in this to win a popularity contest in Judea.

There’s some mystery as to why Jesus would tell the man to stay quiet, but the best answer I know of is that people would confuse his kingly identity.

The Leper knew Jesus was the Lord- a miraculous claim! But no one at that time had any idea what that would mean?

Their scope for what constitutes a King was infinitely limited to local politics:

But Jesus had no desire for our version of power.

He had no concern to dethrone local leaders.

He wasn’t concerned about Roman occupation over Jerusalem.

His scope was cosmic! Isolated physical healing like this would confuse the categories for people: That he can heal physical healer- imagine an army whose soldiers can get fixed immediately after they’ve been injured!

But if miracles were just understood as physical fixes, then we’re missing the point.

These miracles were intended to point beyond the physical!

Jesus will eventually win the polarity contest. He is the most recognized name on planet earth. He is the most influential person in human history.

He is also the King of kings, Lord of All. He is also, as Ephesians 1:20-21 says:

[at the Father’s] right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

How does that help us?

Don’t confuse who Jesus is...

Jesus is not your