Matthew 8:1-3 records the story of a leper who came to Jesus to be healed.

When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Matthew 8:1–3 (CSB)

There are several things that are noteworthy about this story, but the most shocking thing of all is that Jesus touched the leper.

Why is this shocking?

It is shocking because no-one touched lepers. It was not done. First, there was the fear of catching the disease. Second, leprosy was a sign of judgment, so no-one would want to associate with someone whom God had cursed (or so they thought). Thirdly, in most cases, the disease would have ravaged the victim to the point where he would have been physically repulsive.

Still Jesus touched him.

There are some implications to this that I would like to explore.

First, by touching the leper, Jesus met a need that had gone unmet for a long time. One of the other gospels adds the detail that the leper was “full” of leprosy. In this case, the leper had been suffering the effects of the disease for a long time. He likely had not be touched or hugged or had any physical contact with anyone other than another leper since he had been diagnosed with the disease.

Secondly, by touching the leper while working the cleansing, Jesus gave a visible indication that the leper was restored to society. The leper was no longer an outcast, he rightfully belonged in the company of his people.

Thirdly, by touching the leper, Jesus demonstrated his power over disease and brokenness. The combination of words and action on the part of Jesus affected the cure of the leper.

But how does this apply today? It is easy to assent that this is a very cool story that happened long ago, while remaining unaffected by it.

One way to apply this is to see leprosy as a metaphor for our sinful condition and need of a savior. The healing of the leper provides a beautiful picture of our spiritual condition before and after an encounter with Jesus. Jesus steps into the ugliness of our lives and provides healing and restoration of all the mess that we bring to him.

I should note that while the physical healing of the leper was instantaneous, our spiritual healing is a process. When I forget this, I get discouraged by the fact that I am not completely cured of resentment, anger, prejudice, pride and other sins. While I can see progress over the years, my growth has not been linear; there have been ups and downs in the trend line.

Another application of this passage is that the church (those of us who claim to be believers in Jesus) should emulate Jesus in associating with and helping those whose need is greatest. Too often the people who have made a mess of life find condemnation in the church where they should find acceptance and love.

We need to emulate both Jesus and the leper in this story. We emulate the leper by coming to Jesus as the only means of curing our spiritual disease. We emulate Jesus by being the conduit for Jesus to show his love to others who are in desperate need of it.

We all want to be blessed and happy.

May God be gracious to us and bless us;
may he make his face shine upon us
so that your way may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.

Psalm 67:1-2 (CSB)

I want to be blessed because it makes my life easier or more comfortable. Ease and comfort are the standards that I too often use to assess if I am being blessed. If I am uncomfortable or something is going on in my life which is difficult, I feel like the blessing switch has been turned off.

The verses quoted above remind me that any blessing I receive is not for my comfort or personal benefit. The psalmist reminds us that the purpose of God blessing his people is so that his name will be known and his plan of salvation for all people will be made know.

So then, the blessing is not physical comfort, or at least it is not always physical comfort. My brothers and sisters in the prosperity movement may disagree with this, but it seems consistent with both Scripture and experience.

Jesus himself said that the world will give us trouble (John 16:33). Neither Jesus or the Apostles has given us much reason to suspect that we will get through life without difficulties.

Then there is that whole sheep in the midst of wolves thing. Part of how the world knows that we are different is because we are called to do weird things like love the people that hurt us.

We also know that in many parts of the world, Christians are paying a huge cost to be followers of Jesus. There are places where to claim allegiance to Christ is to invite hostility or death. Are these believers outside of God’s blessing? I think not.

Therefore, the way to evaluate blessing cannot be personal comfort. I have to learn to look beyond the problems to the one that sustains me through the problem.

Jesus hinted at this when he said:

Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:28 (CSB)

The Gospel tells me that I don’t have to fear God. Furthermore, my confidence in this truth is not based on my performance. My confidence can only be in the the work that Jesus has done for me.

On my own, I am big a whiner as there ever was. But when I allow these truths to sink deep into me, I am becoming less of a whiner.

Thank God for small victories.

Perhaps one of the more famous stories from the Gospels is the story of the woman caught in adultery found in John 8. I was recently thinking of this story as an example of how to respond to a situation a particular situation. As a result, I want to share some thoughts as I pondered this story.

First, there is no indication in the story that the woman was not guilty of adultery. Multiple witnesses testified that she was caught in the act. The woman herself does not plead innocence. So we can conclude that Jesus did not let her avoid punishment because she was not guilty.

Secondly, many commentators have pointed out that the men who brought her to Jesus were not following Old Testament law. According to the law, both partners in the adultery were to be brought and charged together for the offense. Because of their neglect of the law, the men who brought the woman to Jesus were not without guilt in this matter.

In his wisdom, Jesus confronts the men with their duplicity by saying the famous line, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” The accusers could not bear up under such scrutiny and they scattered without pursuing the matter further.

The third observation is the order of the statements with which Jesus responded to the woman. After acknowledging that all the accusers had gone, Jesus said to the woman, “neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” Notice that Jesus pronounced his pardon before he commanded her to cease from her sin.

The order of these statements is critical to our understanding of the Gospel. We don’t need to clean ourselves up before coming to Jesus. In fact, a proper understanding of Scripture would teach us that we are unable to clean ourselves up. Only God can do it.

The Apostle Paul uses the analogy of a dead man. Until God makes us alive, we are spiritually dead. Dead people do not respond to verbal commands or any other form of stimulus.

My point in all this is that we are broken people living in a broken culture and we are called to minister to people like us who have made a mess of life. We must invite them into relationship with Jesus without laying on them the impossible task of cleaning themselves up first.

I make this point because large segments of the church, whether from bad theology or just bad practice, do indeed push people to change their behavior as a condition for coming to Jesus.

If you are in a church that does this, please stop. Jesus will have a huge issue with you if you handle “sinners” in a way that goes against his example.