In the time of Jesus, leprosy was viewed as the classic punishment for sin. It was the telltale sign that the sufferer was a culprit who had committed sins unknown to his neighbors. The suffering indicated that while sin might be hidden from others, it could not be hidden from God, and it served as forewarning of the ultimate fate of the sinner.

It was the widespread belief in Israel that only God could heal leprosy. When the king of Israel was requested to heal the Syrian general Naaman of his leprosy he cried, "Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy?" (2 Kings 5:7)

This leper does not keep a safe distance but breaks through the religious barricade to confront Jesus. The leper asks Jesus if he is willing to cleanse him of his disease. He is assuming that Jesus is like God, who can do as he wills. Jesus could have protested as did the king of Israel , or he could have cried out in intercession as did Moses for his sister Miriam (Numbers 12:13). Or, he could have told him to go wash seven times in the Jordan , with the hope that God would forgive his sin and heal his leprosy. Instead, Jesus stretches out his hand like God (Exodus 4:4;7:19;8:1;9:22;14:16,21,26), touches him, announces, "I am willing," and commands, "Be clean!"

By healing him of leprosy Jesus was ending his isolation from others and his ritual separation from God. He was restoring him to fellowship and admitting him into the presence of God. This cleansing of the leper is a sign that Jesus as God is willing to heal us and to end whatever divides us, separates us, from God and our neighbor.

Bill Gaither expressed what this leper must have felt, and what his cleansing means to us.

"Shackled by a heavy burden, 'Neath a load of guilt and shame;

Then the hand of Jesus touched me, And now I am no longer the same.

He touched me, O, he touched me,

And O, the joy that floods my soul;

Something happened, and now I know,

He touched me and made me whole."

The touch is a sign of contact, of acceptance, of identification with the sufferer. Jesus does not treat people as outcasts or as some kind of pollutant. He is concerned to integrate the cured leper back into the community of faith, so he tells him to show himself to the priest, and to offer the sacrifices Moses commanded for his cleansing as a testimony to them.

What is leprosy a sign of for us? What is it that we need cleansing from? What is it that we are ashamed of? What is it that comes between us and others, between us and God? What is it that we do not want others to know about us? What is it that makes our life miserable? What is it that disfigures us, that makes us ugly? The first step towards cleansing is to be able to identify our condition, to be aware of our need. The second step is to be willing to come to Jesus, to break through the barricade that has been erected between us and God, and to ask for help.

There are three miracles present in this story. The first miracle is that the leper broke out of his isolation, his despair, his bitterness, and came to Jesus. His was a miracle of faith: "If you are willing, you can make me clean." We have to be willing to ask if we are to receive. Our natural tendency is to turn inward, to lick our wounds, to nurse our grievance, to succumb to anger against God, and to be filled with self-pity. It takes a miracle of faith to be willing to risk by reaching out for help. We have to believe that God is able to change our situation; that God is able to restore us to fellowship, and to give us a fresh start. We have to believe. Such faith is a miracle in a life jaded by low expectations, repeated disappointments, individual isolation, or a sceptical mindset.

The second miracle is that of love. "Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched the man. 'I am willing,' he said. 'Be clean!'" In what seems to be an indifferent and uncaring universe, the God of love reached out and touched him with sympathy and concern. The will of God is to love. "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever should believe in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) Love is a miracle. It gives a lie to the secular materialist who claims that the universe is formed only by blind forces of natural selection and random mutation; that we are an insignificant race located on an infinitesimal planet in a vast impersonal galaxy. Love believes all things, even that damage can be repaired and restoration accomplished. In an uncaring universe love cannot exist. But there is more to nature than meets the eye. Even a landscape disfigured by fire is gradually repaired and restored by nature so that it is better than before. There is a God who cares, who loves, who reaches out and touches us. He is willing and able to do so because he is filled with compassion. "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love." (Psalm 103:8)

The third miracle is that of power. "Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured." The contagious power of the most infectious and putrefying disease of the human spirit is no contest for the contagious power of the love of Christ. All the polluted influences of the world, the flesh and the devil cannot withstand the purifying power of the Savior. Any defilement or sordidness that we have experienced can be cleansed by the power of the Cross of Christ.

The power of moral decay, the power of spiritual disease, the power of death and destruction, can only be overcome by the power of the gospel of resurrection. When all seems hopeless and lost, when we are tempted to give up and succumb, we are told to pray that we may know the hope to which God has called us, "his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come." (Ephesians 1:18-21)

No matter how bad a person can be, no matter how low they can go, or how far they can have wandered from the Lord or have been alienated from others,, Christ can reach out and touch them with his cleansing power. We should never lose hope for the lowest, the least and the lost.

What does it mean to be made clean? What does healing mean to you?

"It took a miracle to put the stars in place,

It took a miracle to hang the world in space;

But when he saved my soul,

Cleansed and made me whole;

It took a miracle of love and grace." (John W. Peterson)

"Cleansed and made me whole." That is what Jesus is willing and able to do. That is the good news. Who would not want this kind of miracle in their life?

(Source material from The NIV Application Commentary, David E. Garland)