Part 25 | Jesus Cleanses Us

Matthew 8:1–4 (ESV)

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

In our journey through Matthew, we just completed our study of ‘The Sermon on the Mount,” which is this profound message where Jesus speaks about ‘The Good News of God Kingdom,’ and tells His listeners what it looks like to live as God’s people on the earth.

After documenting the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew gives us the people’s response:

Matthew 7:28–29 (ESV)

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

The crowds of Jewish people who just witnessed ‘The Sermon on the Mount,’ were quite accustomed to hearing teachings about God and His Law by those who were well-trained in the Hebrew Scriptures.

But when they listened to Jesus, something was different. He taught in a way that absolutely astonished them. He taught with authority.

A skeptic might ask, “Where did Jesus get authority to teach the Scriptures in such a way?”. Matthew has already shown that Jesus has his authority because He is Israel’s Messiah— the anointed One through whom God would work His redemptive purposes.

Now, Matthew builds His case by testifying of Jesus’ miracles.

In chapters 8 and 9, Matthew groups together nine stories that contain ten specific miracles.

By including these testimonies, Matthew shows that Jesus has the power over sickness, demons, the natural world, and death— AND, he has the authority to forgive sins.

He wants us to see that Jesus is, in fact, the long-awaited Messiah; he wants us to see Jesus authority and His deity— that He is the Son of God.

In this first story we see that the compassion of Jesus and the fact that He is more than a miracle worker— we get a glimpse of His true mission.

So, as we walk through the text, I want us to consider three points:

(1) The Posture of the Leper

(2) The Power and Compassion of Jesus

(3) The Mission of Jesus

I. The Posture of the Leper

Leprosy was an unattractive skin disease that was considered to be incurable. A leper was destined for a life of quarantine and misery.

It is interesting that we are not told the name of this sick man; he is just referred to as “the leper.” In other words, his identity was completely wrapped up in his ailment.

This reminds me of the story in Luke 7 where a women falls at the feet of Jesus, washing His feet with her tears.

Luke 7:37–38 (ESV)

And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

This woman is unnamed—she is simply known as the town sinner.

Maybe you or someone you know has experienced something similar—being known as the drunk, or the addict, or the cancer patient, or the adulterer, or the liberal—so on and so forth.

This man had likely given up hope of being known as anything but the leper.

However, listen to what Matthew tells us in chapter 4, verse 23:

Matthew 4:23 (ESV)

And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

The leper had likely heard this man named Jesus who was able and willing to heal the sick. Finally— he had a glimmer of hope. So he approaches Jesus., and I want us to notice his posture as he does so.

Matthew 8:2 (ESV)

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

I grew up in a church that rarely, if ever, remember hearing about the miraculous. Signs, wonders, and spiritual gifts seemed to be something of the past. Real Life is part of the Assemblies of God— which still believes—wonderfully— in spiritual gifts and the micaculous.

Before joining the Assemblies of God, I remember first learning about Jesus’ power to heal. I was told by certain preachers that in order to be healed, you could never use the word “if,” as doing so would show a lack of faith.

Furthermore, I was taught that we don’t ask for healing, because it is our right— we, instead, should decree and declare healing in Jesus name and then God is bound to perform the miracle.

I know men and women who love Jesus, who hold to this view. But I think it is a gross misunderstanding of the Bible and prayer.

Let’s consider our text.

The leper doesn’t stand up and decree “Jesus, you healed other people, you owe it to me— you are no respecter of persons.”

What’s he do? He kneels before Jesus and calls Him Lord. This is a sign of submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Then he says, “IF you will, you can make me clean.” He DOESN’T say, “if you can, you will make me clean.” In other words, Jesus, “I know you have the power to rid me of this horrible disease, and if it would please you, you will cleanse me.” In other words, “Jesus, I want and trust your perfect will.”

The Leper expresses faith in the power of Jesus; and His posture—when he approaches Him— is one of great humility and trust.

I am a huge believer that you and I should approach God with that same posture. We should go to Him with humility and trust.

II. The Power and Compassion of Jesus

Matthew 8:3 (ESV)

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you know nothing about Jesus. And you read Matthew 8:1-4 for the first time. What would you think of Jesus? You would probably say, “wow, this guy is amazing! He is compassionate and He has the power to heal people.

If you read this, and that is what you get out of it… you would be right! Jesus is pretty amazing.

When you read through this entire section, you see how compassionate Jesus is.

In the ancient world, people who were sinful, sick, and poor were often seen as “less-than,” and they were often avoided, even by the most religious. But Jesus doesn’t avoid them—quite the contrary: He makes a beeline to the most sinful, the sick, and the poor—the marginalized— and He shows them compassion and transforms their lives.

So, you would be right to think that Jesus is amazing, powerful, and compassionate. That is one layer of what we see in this text. But there is another layer here—there is something deeper going on that I don’t want you to miss: If we look closely we will get a true glimpse of the true mission of Jesus.

III. The Mission of Jesus

Let’s look closely, again, at verse 2:

Matthew 8:2 (ESV)

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

What’s wrong with this man? He’s ill, right? He has this horrible skin disease.

But what does he ask Jesus to do? He doesn’t ask Him for healing; he asks Him to make him clean. In this request, he is certainly asking for restored health—but there is a deeper, more profound request here, and in order to understand it, we need to take a quick journey back to the Old Testament.

Leviticus 11:44–45 (ESV)

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

Did you notice a repetitive word in this text? The word “holy”… let me spend just a moment unpacking the concept of what it means to be holy.

Holy

In the first pages of the Bible, God creates this beautiful and glorious world, where He dwells with humans.

Adam and Eve disobey God (they sin), and this wreaks havoc upon the world, bringing sickness, turmoil, violence, and death — and ultimately—separation from God.

With the aim of restoring His relationship with humans God makes a covenant with Abraham, whose family will become a special people unto Him, through whom the whole world would be blessed.

So, Abraham’s family, who become known as Israel, end up in Egypt where they are slaves for some 400 years. God uses Moses and Aaron to deliver them out of the bondage of Egypt. He brings them through the waters of the Red Sea and then they journey through the wilderness on their way to their promised land.

While they are on this journey, God’s promises to dwell with them.

His presence is housed in this sacred tent called the tabernacle.

Often, when we think of holiness, we think of morality. Holiness includes morality, but it is more than that.

It means to be unique, to be distinct, to be different = ultimately it means to be “set apart.”

God is holy, which means the space around God is holy, and, consequently, the people who are near the presence of God are supposed to be holy.

The Leviticus text tells us that God’s people are not to be defiled, which means they are not to be unclean.

So whatever holy means… it is the opposite of “unclean.”

An Israelite who was unclean, was put outside of the community, away from the presence of God, until they were purified.

Unclean

How did a person become unclean?

Numbers 5:1–4 (ESV)

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.” And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp; as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did.

According to this text there are four things that would make a person unclean:

Leprosy - this class of skin diseases

The discharge of blood

The discharge of semen

Coming into contact with a dead body

When we read this, most of us are likely puzzled; it’s like why are these things relevant? Like, if you’ve been to a funeral and touch the hand of the body in the casket you are rendered unclean?

If you have a skin disease, by no fault of your own, doesn’t it seem a bit harsh to say that you can’t be near the presence of God?

Fair enough… but these regulations are actually profound:

Tim Mackie gives an illustration that will help us better understand this concept of holiness and uncleaness.

How many of you have ever been in a hospital, either as a patient or a visitor? I would assume that would be all of us.

How many of you have been in an operating room? Not near as many.

As a pastor, I go to visit people in the hospital very frequently; I was just at Central Baptist visiting someone in ICU on Tuesday.

However, I have NEVER stepped foot in an operating room.

Why? Because the operating room is distinct. It is set apart. You can’t just go visit someone in there.

What is it for? It is for saving lives and improving the quality of life. If you are a patient and you go to the operating room, it is likely that you have something seriously wrong that requires surgery.

Only certain people can go into the operating room—such as surgeons, doctors, and nurses. And when they go in, there is a whole list of rituals that they have to go through before entering. They have to wash their hands, put on a mask, put on booties and clean clothes—ultimately, they have to be sterile(free from bacteria). Why? Because the person on the operating table will be opened up and nothing can bring into the room that would contaminate that persons body.

The operating room is a special space, designated for saving lives. So, anything that would lead to contamination or death would not be welcome in this particular room.

It’s like, you wouldn’t want a doctor with COVID or any other disease operating on you. You would want someone who just buried their dead animal to come into the operating their room without first going through some type of sanitizing rituals.

God’s holiness is connected to Him being the creator and sustainer of life. He is the Living God.

So, the life-infused, sacred space in the tabernacle was not to be contaminated with the realm of death:

Contact with dead bodies would self-evidently bring a person into contact with the realm of death.

The discharge of blood and semen—both were associated with life… hence, the discharge of them moved you away from the realm of life towards the realm of death.

The skins diseases that fall under the category of leprosy would literally eat away the flesh moving a person towards the realm of death.

So the idea is that a person who was unclean would contaminate God’s holy place.

There is a profound truth in these purification laws of the OT.

As modern people, we tend to think that the only thing that separates us from God us bad behavior. But the issue is much deeper than that. It is more than adultery, lying, stealing, gossip and other sins that separate us from God. Apart from Jesus, we are dead in our trespasses and sin. It is the human condition that is the problem; we all have inherited this body of death from our first forefather, Adam. I am, and you are, by nature, defiled an unclean, moving towards the realm of death.

What these Laws show us, is that we are in desperate need of purification. We cannot keep ourselves clean. Thankfully the story doesn’t end in Leviticus and Numbers.

With that in mind, let’s go back to Matthew:

Matthew 8:2–3 (ESV)

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean”…

What does Jesus do hear? He comes in contact with leprosy. What would the crowd expect to happen? Jesus would be contaminated by the man’s uncleanness. But what actually happens?

Matthew 8:3–4 (ESV)

And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

The lepers uncleanness did NOT contaminate Jesus’ holiness, but Jesus’ holiness cleansed the leper.

The OT shows us our profound separation from the Living and Holy God. And that issue found its answer in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to bring us from death to life. He made us clean by taking death upon Himself.

Unclean people would be taken outside the gate, away from the people.

Hebrews 13:12 (ESV)

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Jesus was cut off from fellowship with God at Calvary.

And now, because Jesus took the burden of death and sin upon Himself, we can now be clean through Him, welcomed into the presence of God. That is the Good News of the Gospel! It is through Jesus that we are made clean and kept clean—taken from death to life.

Jesus did not just heal the leper, but he cleansed him, restoring him to his community.

So, what is the mission of Jesus? It is to glorify God by completing transforming people, restoring our relationship to the Father. Which means his mission is more than practical miracles. It is more than teaching us how to live. It is transformation.

Application:

(1) In Matthew 8 and 9, we see what it looks like for God’s Kingdom to come and His will to be done. We should pray for the sick and the hurting. We serve a compassionate God. We want to take time and do that this morning.

(2) We should remember that Jesus is more than a healer. Often we come to Jesus just wanting Him to fix our problems—fix a broken marriage, fix a health issue, fix a financial issue… and so on. And Jesus certainly cares about these things. But what He wants for us goes way beyond these physical blessings. He desires to transform us, to make us clean, to give us right standing with God.

(3) Don’t let your sin keep you from God. When we sin we often hide from God, like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. It is like we think that we might contaminate God’s holiness. But, we need to be like the sinful woman in Luke who falls at the feet of Jesus in her sin… we need to bring our sin to the Savior. When we do, we won’t contaminate Him, but He will transform us.