November 26, 2012
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 8:1-4
OBSERVATIONS
1. It is not clear that leprosy as we know it today (Hansen’s disease) is the same thing as leprosy in the bible. Whatever it was, it was a terrible disease to be afflicted with causing the person to be rejected and by society and family. They were ‘unclean’ (contagious, quarantined). This man desperately wants to be ‘clean’.
2. Jesus touches him, something people did not do. Not only is He able to heal with a word, and willing, but He is willing to touch, connect with, restore him to society. This was more than a physical healing, it was a full restoration of an outcast into community life.
3. Jesus still lives under the Jewish Law. He does not advocating rebellion against the Law of Moses, He tells Him to do what the Law requires, ie report his healing to the priests, to be publicly restored. He also tells him to keep quiet, which seems different than how faith healers today operate.
What do you notice in this passage?
APPLICATION
1. I believe God/Jesus is able, but I also wonder if Jesus is willing. I have not seen Him heal people when I asked Him. Was it because I did not have enough faith, or because or those cases He was not willing? Why does God not heal to the same extent, in the same way, as He did through Jesus?
2. Who are the untouchables today? The one’s that I avoid, am uncomfortable with, scared of? I have at times felt very uncomfortable with – and avoided if possible – people with severe disabilities. Does the love of Jesus compel me to reach out and touch them, bless them, draw them into community… or do I keep my distance?
3. Why did Jesus not want to attract attention to His good deeds, and why do I like to tell people about mine? For me it is a way of exciting people about what God is doing, getting them interested in partnering with us in our kingdom witness.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
God, I believe that You are able, but I am not convinced that You are willing. But who am I to talk, I am able to reach out and bless people in need, but I am not willing either. Help me be willing to do what I can, and to trust that You will do what you can.
After the teaching on the sermon on the mount, large crowds followed him. I see that Jesus focuses in on an individual, not on the mass crowds. The sermon was for the mass crowds, but Jesus does not remain at that level. He is interested in one person. I can take that to mean that I am important to Him, and that he cares for me. It was interesting how this person with leprosy approached Jesus. He was not demanding, or begging. He made the request with a sense of hope. “If you want to you can make me clean??” Even though there were crowds who followed Jesus, it is as if there was no one else around. Jesus was totally focused on this one person. And this person received the answer to his request.
Then Jesus says to the man “Don’t tell anyone”. Sometimes I don’t understand what is going on. Would not a testimony of a healing be a great story to tell, to point to the power and grace of Jesus? Would not any advertising manager want to shout this story from the rooftops? If stories like this would help to spread the news of God’s kingdom, then why not share your experience? However, Jesus at this point asks that this healing go unreported, except to the priest.
And why report to the priest? This is so the man can be classified as “whole” and can integrate back into society. It is like me going to the doctor to get a clean bill of health, but even more so. In those days, a person with leprosy was shunned and avoided. To be declared clean (This is what the man asked for) meant that he could have a normal life. Jesus does not only heal the man, but he tells him to go through the procedure to have his request met. Jesus in interested in the details of this man’s life, and he is interested in the details of each one of us.
I pray that I may ask Jesus for what I want or need, knowing that He is interested in me as a person. He wants me to be the best that I can.
Observations:
There was a large crowd already following Jesus.
The leper asked for cleansing and not healing.
Jesus touched him and made a choice to heal his leprosy.
Don’t tell but show yourself to the priests as a testimony. The priests had to deal with those healed.
Applications:
Leprosy is an example of sin and its effects. It is contagious and it affects the whole of man. They were a despised people, rejected. Outcasts. Yet Jesus reaches out and touches him which was against the ceremonial laws. The man was healed and was commanded to give testimony to the priests.
I too need to give testimony what the Lord has done in my life. His love has cleansed me and made me free – free to serve Him – a living witness.
Prayer:
TGIF – help me this day to put You first in all I do and say so that I am a living witness. Use me as an instrument of Your peace.
Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
And where there is sadness, joy.
O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive-
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.