The Healing of a Leper

Introduction

At first reading, this story has the tones of a divine miracle. Something that would have been incredible to see as a member of the crowd. The image of a poor wretched man, probably on his last days on earth, begging the Lord Jesus for a new lease on life, and getting just that. In reality, it is exactly that, but so much more. If we stop and consider what is going on here on a deeper level we find some amazing truths in the richness of God’s Word; which is why we do what we are doing every Sunday morning.

Dr. Luke spent the last 4 chapters establishing the identity of Jesus as the eternal, omnipotent God, supreme in authority over all nature, all sickness, all sin, and over all the kingdom of darkness. The healing of a leper would be the supreme healing of sickness. There is not ambiguity here. It is undeniable and the early readers of the Dr. Luke’s words would undeniably know this because Leprosy was among the most dreaded diseases.

Leprosy attacks the skin, peripheral nerves (especially near the wrists, elbows, and knees), and mucus membrane. It forms lesions on the skin, and can disfigure the face by collapsing the nose and causing folding of the skin (leading some to call it “lion’s disease” due to the resulting lionlike appearance of the face). Contrary to popular belief, leprosy does not eat away the flesh. (John F. MacArthur)

What is important to understand is that leprosy, or Hansen’s disease as it is better known today (named after the man who diagnosed its cause), is not a rotting infection as was once commonly thought, nor are the sufferer’s outward physical deformities horribly disfigured by the disease. In recent years the research of Dr. Paul Brand and others has proven that the disfigurement associated with Hansen’s disease comes solely because the body’s warning system of pain is destroyed. The disease brings numbness to the extremities as well as to the ears, eyes, and nose. The devastation that follows comes from incidents such as reaching into a charcoal fire to retrieve a dropped potato, or washing one’s face with scalding water, or gripping a tool so tightly that the hands become traumatized and eventually stump-like. In Third-World countries, vermin sometimes chew on sleeping lepers without the lepers even knowing it. Dr. Brand, after performing corrective surgery on a leper, would send a cat home with him as normal postoperative procedure. Dr. Brand calls the disease a “painless hell.” The poor man in Luke had not been able to feel for years, and his body, mutilated from head to foot, was foul and rotting. (R. Kent Hughes)

Just as devastating to the physical deformity is the social destruction. The leper is an outcast of society. Unable to be touched by anyone. Levitical Law required the Leper to live outside of the camp and if they came anywhere close in proximity to someone, they were to cry out “Unclean, Unclean.” They lived in virtual isolation. It is still a common disease today in third-world countries with nearly 800,000 cases reported annually.

In the Old Testament, Leprosy is a picture of sin and it certainly fits the narrative here. With this information in mind, lets look at the text:

Luke 5:12–15 ESV

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.” 13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities.

The Desperate Condition of the Man

One thing we notice immediately is Luke’s description of the man. Luke tells us that he is “full of leprosy.” By this we understand that the disease had run its course. None of us needs a detailed description of the poor man’s loathsome appearance. If you have seen one picture of someone full of leprosy, it is enough.

What Luke wants us to know is the desperation of this man. He is literally on the last legs of his life. This poor outcast had not hope, humanly speaking. His disease was incurable, he lost all other human contact, and many people viewed his condition as a punishment from God for his sins.

So great was the fear of contagion that lepers were barred from Jerusalem or any other walled city (2 Kings 7:3). They were forbidden to come within six feet of a healthy person (one hundred and fifty feet if the wind was blowing from the direction of the leper) and were restricted to a special compartment in the synagogue. One rabbi refused to eat an egg bought on a street where there was a leper. Another advocated throwing stones at lepers to force them to keep their distance. (cf. Alfred Edersheim)

Leprosy is an ugly but accurate illustration of our spiritual condition before we are healed by the gospel. We are unholy and desperate. There is no cure, save divine intervention. It’s not enough for the symptoms to stopped; we need restoration from our wretched disfigurement. The unregenerate sinner is also living in a “painless hell.” We are dead long before the grave—“dead in … transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). If we could see ourselves with spiritual eyes as we are apart from Christ, we would know that we are walking dead trying to cover ourselves with filthy rags. (Hughes).

The Man’s Worship of the Lord

English Standard Version Chapter 5

And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

Lepers were required to stand at a distance; 50 paces from healthy society. The law also said that a leper’s entrance into a house contaminated it, and a leper’s standing under a tree polluted anyone who passed under it. By this leper approaching Jesus he broke the law and social customs to reach Jesus hoping to be healed.

Luke tells us that the Leper “worshipped” (proskune) Jesus. This word means to bow down and kiss the ground at his feet. Here he is in all his foulness, deformity, and wretched state. It would have been years since anyone had gazed upon him without a look of horror. The crowd around Jesus would have gasped and audibly cried out. Many probably backed away or fled. Some would have warned Jesus of the man’s vile condition.

This is an image of us before God as we worship him. This is the message of hope. That we can come and bow before our God and worship him with the same passion and the same humility. That if we do not come before our Lord we will die the same wretched death.

Romans 10:9 ESV

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

John 8:28 ESV

28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

Also notice that he came with urgency in his worship. It says in verse 12 that he begged Jesus. This is an incessant plea of humility. He is self-aware of his condition. There’s no entitlement here. It is an emotional picture—the leper, still prostrate, repeating in the hoarse voice typical of those with advanced leprosy, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean—Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean—Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” No doubt he had heard of Jesus’ miraculous power and, listening to him, that day came to the conclusion that Christ was his last and only hope” (Hughes).

I fear we often come to God with this sense of entitlement, rather than humility. Sin controls people through two opposing lies. First we come to the conclusion that are not sinners—nothing is wrong with us. The second is, we are sinners, but we are so bad that we are beyond help. Neither one of these hold any truth. In fact they rob us of God’s hope through the cross

The Master’s Touch

Contrary to Leviticus 5:3, Jesus didn’t flee from the man. He does the opposite. Mark 1:41 says that Jesus was moved with compassion for him. Jesus touched the untouchable, healed the unhealable. Touching a leper was forbidden, not just by God’s law, but by the laws of nature of the disease. The Word used for touch “expresses more than superficial contact.” It is often translated, “to take hold of.” (Westcott). WIth a word and a touch of the Master’s hand resting firmly on the dreadful disease, the divine power of Jesus healed the leper.

The touch said, “I am with you, I understand, I love you.” But there was also an overshadowing theological reason: the touch of Christ’s pure hand on the rotting leper is a parable of the Incarnation and the Cross. Jesus took on flesh, became sin for us, and gave us his purity. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Ordinarily, when something clean touches something unclean, it becomes unclean as well. But for here, for the first time in history, things ran in the other direction as the holiness of Jesus not only healed the leper, but made him clean. The touch of Jesus is always purifying. This healing gesture was a prophetic symbol of Christ’s atoning righteousness. Just as Jesus took away the man’s disease and transferred healthy skin to his ailing body, so Jesus takes away the sin of every penitent sinner and imputes to us his saving righteousness.

The Blessed Confirmation

Luke 5:14–16 ESV

14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

There was something now that the newly cleansed leper had to do. First, Jesus told the man to tell no one. That’s as tough order. The priority was going to the priest for the ceremonial confirmation of cleansing as directed by Leviticus 14:

Luke, Vol. 1—That You May Know the Truth Chapter 20: Healed Indeed

It began when a priest met the would-be celebrant outside the camp and verified that he actually was healed. Then, still outside the camp, two birds were presented along with some cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop. One of the birds was killed in a clay pot (so that none of its blood was lost). This was done above fresh water (symbolic of cleansing). Next the live bird, along with the wood, yarn, and hyssop, was dipped in the blood, and blood was sprinkled upon the leper seven times as he was pronounced “clean.” This initial ceremony concluded with the live bird being released in the open fields to wing its way to freedom (vv. 1–7). As a result, the blood-sprinkled person could once again join the community. This foreshadowed the effect of Christ’s blood, which reconciles man to God and makes it possible for the sinner to join the household of faith.

After the bird’s release the cleansed man washed his clothing, shaved the hair from his body, bathed, and entered the camp, where he, his family, and friends rejoiced for seven days (vv. 8, 9). On the seventh day his head, eyebrows, and beard were shaved, and he again bathed, so that, like a newborn, he was ready to enter a new phase of his existence.

On the eighth day the former leper offered three unblemished lambs as a guilt offering, a sin offering, and a burnt offering. The guilt offering was not an atoning sacrifice but a restitution for the offerings and sacrifices he was unable to make while a leper. His restitution and fresh commitment were then dramatically emphasized when the priest took some of the blood and smeared it on the offerer’s right ear, thumb, and toe, then coated each smear with a second anointing of oil, thereby symbolizing that the man would listen to God’s voice, use his hands for God’s glory, and walk in God’s ways. Fittingly, his shaved head was then anointed with the remaining oil (vv. 12–18; cf. Exodus 30:23–25). Finally, having thus declared the leper to be in the Lord’s service, the priest made atonement for him with sin, burnt, and cereal offerings, the last being a joyous expression of gratitude (Leviticus 14:19, 20).

We learn some valuable lessons from the healing of this leper. First, our spiritual condition without the touch and Word of Christ is the same as this leper’s body. Anyone wanting Christ’s spiritual healing must put these lessons to work:

We must come to Christ with a deep awareness of our sin and that we have nothing in ourselves to save us from our condition or to commend us to God. Do we mourn our sins?

We must come to Jesus humble and reverently, knowing that he is our only hope and if He does not touch us, we are are eternally lost

We must believe and put our faith in him as the one who took on our sin and carried them to the cross.