Sermon on the Mount
Entering the Kingdom
Part IV On the Move
Matthew 8: 1-3; Leviticus 13: 45-46
Introduction
Hansen’s disease, or leprosy, named Hansen’s disease after Dr. Gerhard Hansen a Norwegian physician discovered that it is an infection caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium leprae. These bacteria grow very slowly and it may take up to 20 years to develop signs of the infection.
The disease can affect the nerves, skin, eyes, and lining of the nose (nasal mucosa). The bacteria attack the nerves, which can become swollen under the skin. This can cause the affected areas to lose the ability to sense touch and pain, which can lead to injuries, like cuts and burns. Usually, the affected skin changes color and either becomes:
- Lighter or darker, often dry or flaky, with loss of feeling, or
- Reddish due to inflammation of the skin.
Left untreated, the nerve damage can result in paralysis of hands and feet. In very advanced cases, the person may have multiple injuries due to lack of sensation, and eventually, the body may reabsorb the affected digits over time, resulting in the apparent loss of toes and fingers. Corneal ulcers and blindness can also occur if facial nerves are affected. Other signs of advanced Hansen’s disease may include loss of eyebrows and saddle-nose deformity resulting from damage to the nasal septum, the cartilage that divides the nose cavity in half.
In the past, Hansen’s disease was feared as a highly contagious, devastating disease, but now we know that it’s hard to spread and it’s easily treatable once recognized. Still, a lot of stigma and prejudice remains about the disease, and those suffering from it are isolated and discriminated against in many places where the disease is seen.
Confusion in Translation?
The word Leprosy comes from the ancient Greek word, lepra meaning “a disease that makes the skin scaly.” Many of the English translations translate the Hebrew word tazaraath as leprosy, and the apparent confusion was in that the Talmud refers to various types of lesions occurring on cloth, leather or houses as well as skin.
Transition
The first verses of Chapter 8 record for us what happened immediately after Jesus descended from the mount after giving His sermon.
In the beginning, His sermon Jesus gave the character, the attitudes of the true children of God describing the inner character of the members of His kingdom; going on He described how they live their lives in this world.
So as to not have the sermon wasted, He gives one illustration of what the character of the kingdom is like; He gives a living illustration by the healing of a leprous man.
Now the lot of the leper in Israel is summed up in Leviticus chapter 13. Josephus, the Jewish historian summed it up by saying that the lepers were treated as “the walking dead.”
Add to this was the issue that those with leprosy had contacted it because of some great sin. This erroneous thought came about because of the past history people such as Miriam (Moses’ sister, Numbers 12: 6-10), & Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:19) had been judged with leprosy.
In Jesus’ time it was horrible for anyone with leprosy, being barred from society, the leper, sick and rotting and with no hope of healing and made to cry “unclean, unclean.”
The unreasonable strictness of the rabbis and the assumption that the lepers were great sinners made the situation unbearable.
The plight of the leper illustrates the effects of sin, even though the leper was no more a sinner than anyone else. The Greek scholar R. C. Trench says that though the leper was not worse or guiltier than his fellow Jews, the leper was a parable of sin - “an outward and visible sign of innermost spiritual corruption.”
So the leper can be seen as a physical illustration of every human heart. The prophet Jeremiah wrote - “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (17:9). When the Pharisees & scribes asked Jesus why His disciples didn’t wash their hands when they ate, as was the tradition of the elders, He tells them what defiles a person: For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander These are what defile a person.(Matt. 15: 19-20).
Look, if we could see a visible incarnation of ourselves, how we appear to God apart from the cleansing work of Jesus Christ, we’d see ourselves like the “walking dead” - the Zombies from the TV series - trying to cover ourselves with filthy rags.
Apart from Christ, we are no different than Charles Manson, Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, Attila the Hun, Leopold II of Belgium, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, no different than Cain. One’s heart can be changed, one can be cleaned.
Jesus’ Healing Touch (vv. 1, 2)
This had to be quite a scene. Almost like a political rally today; maybe even more so. When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. The people then were hungry, they were looking for a savior, and I’d go so far as to say that they were desperate. All these people there to hear the greatest sermon ever preached.
Then, something startling, strange, something disgusting happened. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him. obviously, the noise of the crowd coming down with Jesus was considerable, but above that noise, you could hear the words shouted out with persistence and clarity, unclean, unclean!!
As the man approached imagine the people standing, falling back fearing contamination. I wouldn’t put it past some that they cursed him. Don’t we do the same to those ragged, filthy lost that walk the streets; the vagrants?
The man continued his approach yelling “unclean, unclean” until Jesus was face-to-face with a foul-smelling, decaying leper, full of leprosy from head to toe.
The Three Requirements
Here we are given a glimpse of the first fundamental requirement for obtaining the healing touch of Jesus Christ – being aware of your condition – The man didn’t just say he was unclean, he knew he was unclean. All he had to do was hold his hand in front of his eyes and any illusions to the contrary that he had would vanish right then and there,
He also saw himself as perfectly hopeless. There wasn’t anything he could do to help himself. Everybody else had more than likely given up on him also. His family, after all the years of this illness, had probably given up and discontinued praying for him. This man exemplified the blessed spiritual awareness found in the very first words of Jesus’ sermon: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matt. 5:3-4).
You have to know that this man spent his years mourning his condition; who wouldn’t? The piteous chorus, unclean, unclean, shaped his innermost self. He acknowledged there was nothing in him that would commend him to God.
He was in the perfect posture to receive grace; God doesn’t come to the self-sufficient, to those who imagine they can make it on their own. He comes to the bankrupt, those who truly mourn their condition.
He may have sitting off from the crowd yet close enough to hear Jesus’ opening words and the masterful argument that followed. The Holy Spirit caused truth to pierce his heart & brought him to Jesus as his only hope.
This is the only way we can come to Him – saying unclean, unclean – If we think and say we are only partially clean, He won’t receive us. Have you come to Jesus Christ totally unclean? It is only then that He gives the healing touch that we all need.
The second requirement we see in verse 2, a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean. Here we worshipful submission. The literal meaning of “bowed” meant to “kiss” as in kissing the earth as one lays prostrate before the gods.
As an aside, one hears a lot of criticism of the Muslim when they have their prayer time and prostrate themselves, but think of why we don’t prostrate ourselves before God when we pray? Are we afraid of what someone may think or say? I know we are not to “show-off” in public, but why do we criticize? They may worship a false god, but they show more devotion than we who worship the true and only God.
Anyway, Luke tells in 5:12 that the man fell on his face, which enhances the picture. This humble leper put his whole soul into obeisance & adoration as he lay on the ground before Christ. He worshiped Christ as the only source of his healing. The lesson is loud & clear; Jesus’ healing touch doesn’t come with casual, irreverent acknowledgment; I’m cool, I’m saved, Jesus will heal me. It comes as we bow low before Him in the realization that He is our only hope.
And the third is the healing touch of Christ is obtained in faith. The leper demonstrated remarkable faith. a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.
Mark 1:40 indicates that he repeated this several times. How moving this picture is with the prostrate leper repeating in a hoarse voice, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” He realized that this Jesus was all-powerful & more, the man said to Jesus, You can make me clean. He believed that Jesus could save him. Maybe you fall under the category of persons that when under the convection of sin you secretly think that you are beyond God’s grace. Believe me, you are not alone.
If we’re going to ask for the healing touch of Christ we will recognize our condition, bowing before Him in reverence as the only source of healing & forgiveness.
To Experience that Healing Touch (v3)
Jesus looked at the leper in a way that he had never been looked at before, Mark 1:41 it says that Jesus was moved with compassion, the ESV says with pity. Jesus felt the man’s pain. Then we see the grand beautiful apex of the encounter, Jesus stretched out His hand & healed him, (v3).
We don’t have a clue as to how long it had been since a non-leprous hand had touched him. One thing is certain that Jewish law said no one could be closer than six feet from him. But now Christ touched him. This wasn’t just a superficial contact; the word translated “take hold of” meant Jesus placed his hand firmly on the man right there in front of the multitude. Everybody that saw this, including the disciples, was appalled and shocked.
Jesus, now listen, was by the Jewish law, ceremonially unclean.
Reaching out to him was the instinct of His loving heart. He wanted the leper to feel His willingness & sympathy. The touch of Jesus’ pure hand on the rotting leper was a parable of the incarnation. He took on our flesh, and then became sin for us, though He Himself never sinned. In the incarnation, He took our sins upon Himself & gave us His cleanliness.
Jesus took on our flesh, our sins, our filth. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus lay hold of our flesh & touched us & healed us.
The leper’s healing was dramatic; Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Instantaneous was the healing. Everybody saw it, it wasn’t some mysterious backache going away or restored hearing. The face, the eyebrows, the hair were all instantly restored. The stubs & claw like hands and feet were completely whole.
Now instead of “unclean, unclean”, his shout would be “I’m clean, I’m clean!!!
Conclusion
That’s how it is for us when Jesus touched us & took away our sin. That is what God can do for anyone in a split second of belief. Just as the leper who came to Christ and asked. If you come to Him, fully aware of leprosy in your heart, your sin, realizing that He can and will heal you, you will be saved. I know He can, and that He will heal you from your soul’s sin … I am living testimony ….
I pray that you experience His healing touch today and always
If you haven’t, come to Him today and be healed, be made whole, receive the joy of forgiveness, the joy of eternal life.
