Cleansed Lepers

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s Disease, is a horrible affliction.  It can attack the body’s nervous system and cause the victim to no longer feel pain.  Once he cannot feel pain, the victim is unaware of injuries or infections resulting in the loss of limbs.  The body just literally rots away.

Symptoms are characterized by white spots appearing on the skin which penetrate below the surface.  The spot becomes a circle with raw skin at the center.  The hairs of the infected area turn white.  Leviticus chapter 13 is dedicated to recognizing this disease and the procedure for preventing its spread.

In Scripture, when someone was healed of leprosy, the healing was described as a cleansing rather than a healing. That’s appropriate since leprosy is more easily transmitted in unsanitary conditions.  If you and I had close contact with lepers, careful bathing every day would go a long way to prevent contracting the disease. 

Father Damien as an example, headed the leper colony on Molokai, Hawaii for 16 years.  He ate out of the same bowls as the lepers and worked closely with them building homes, schools, and roads.  He bathed regularly and so did not show any symptoms of the disease for 11 years.  Though he did eventually die of the disease in 1889, he showed us close attention to personal hygiene can go a long way in prevention.

In biblical times, leprosy was a long and lingering death sentence.  One needed to be inspected by the priests to confirm the disease (Leviticus 13 deals exclusively with leprosy). Those who had the disease were separated from the community and had to call out “unclean” whenever they were near others.  Imagine the loneliness and isolation for these people.  They could only mingle with other lepers.

We’ve looked at leprosy as such an ultimate example of filth and infection. Now, let’s look at the other extreme, the holiness and purity of God. 

God is free from evil and sin.  He is “without spot.” When man stands before God, he must feel he is nothing but “unclean.”

Isaiah 6:5 (ESV)
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

This is why Paul says his greatest achievements are trash compared to Christ:

Philippians 3:7-8 (ESV)
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

So, we have looked at the contrasts between the clean priests and the unclean lepers; between the holy spotless God and filthy sinful man.  The separations are tremendous. 

When I reach out to God in prayer and feel His presence, I feel as though, Like Isiah, I should shout “UNCLEAN!”  Yet that holy and pure God Who took on human form feels compassion on me as He did 2,000 years ago.  Jesus, as a flesh and blood man Who was not to touch the diseased person reached out to touch the dirtiest human in that society, the leper:

Matthew 8:3 (ESV)
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Jesus doesn’t move away from us because we’re unclean but reaches out to us to cleanse us no matter how filthy or diseased we may be by sin.  If He will touch the leper, He will touch us too. If we let Him, we can become “cleansed lepers.”