Untouchable

Matthew 8 begins with 4 verses about Jesus healing a man with leprosy.  Leprosy was an absolutely horrible disease of sometimes epidemic proportions in ancient times.  It was marked by incredible disfigurement and ugly sores.  Ironically though, it did not cause much physical pain for its victims.  Leprosy is caused by a deadening of nerve endings in the skin.  So when the sores and lesions began, most of its victims could not tell that they were afflicted with leprosy.

However, what we do know of ancient customs regarding leprosy is that the emotional and physical pain of this disease was real and intense.  Jews that were afflicted with leprosy were cast out from the community according to Mosaic law because they were unclean.  As populations increased in towns and cities, those afflicted with leprosy were sent to live with other lepers so that they did not infect healthy people.  

Imagine if you can what this must have been like.  You are afflicted with a disease that will slowly kill you over a period of years as necrosis sets into your body.  Rather than receiving any kind of treatment or care, you are sent off to endure the rest of your days with other people that are as sick as you are.  You live in a constant state of misery and horrid stench as those like you watch their bodies decay and become necrotic right before their very eyes.  

You are untouchable.  

Even though your family may miss you and long to be with you, they would not and could not touch you.  People who were otherwise healthy, though they may sympathize with your condition and wish for your healing, would not and could not touch you.  History tells us that when lepers would leave their colonies and venture among healthy citizens were forced to ring a bell and yell out "Unclean, Unclean," so that those in their path could move out of their way. 

There was never any escape from the emotional and spiritual pain that leprosy caused.

On top of that, if you were a Jew, you were cut off from your worshipping community.  In the early stages of leprosy, most of its victims were still very able bodied and could go to the Temple to worship and have sacrifices offered on their behalf if they would have been allowed to.  But they were cut off because they were unclean.  Imagine what this would have been like.  You long for God’s presence.  You long to be obedient to Him and participate in the worship of your people.  But because of a disease beyond your control, you are cut off.  You are in isolation and you cannot escape your disease.

You are untouchable.

Matthew 8:2 tells us this about the man with leprosy: “A man with leprosy came and knelt before him (Jesus) and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

It took incredible courage for this man to make his way to Jesus.  And it actually required that he defy the rules that the religious leaders had made concerning him.  Look again at 4 words he said, “. . . if you are willing . . .”  He didn’t know how Jesus would respond.  He didn’t know if Jesus would be like the priests and the teachers of the law and rebuke Him.  I think he was expecting to be rebuked, but hoping beyond hope that Jesus could do something for him. 

The response of Jesus to his request is mind blowing.  Before he spoke a word, Jesus did something that nobody had dared to do since this man had been afflicted.  Jesus touched him.  Jesus reached out his hand and touched this man who was untouchable and in that moment the richest grace of Heaven was revealed as it collided with the sin, brokenness and disease of man.  With a touch and with a word, this man was cured of a great scourge that had killed his heart and soul.  “I am willing,” he said, “Be clean!”

Do you see the willingness of Jesus to heal what is broken?  Do you see the willingness of Jesus to touch what is untouchable?  Do you see the willingness of Jesus to love those who are unlovable?  Do you see the willingness of Jesus to bring restoration to what seems to be beyond repair?

I do, and I’m humbled by it.  It’s a reminder to me that I was once like that leper.  I was separated from God because of my sin, and in his grace and truth, Jesus reached out and healed me, touched me, loved me, and restored a broken relationship with God the Father.  

It’s also a reminder to me that I can’t be afraid to touch the untouchable and to love the unlovable.  I think one of the biggest dangers that those who follow Christ can fall into is that we insulate ourselves from the hurt and need of the world around us.  As we deal with people in our lives each day who are far from God and separated from Him for so many reasons, one of the most loving, compassionate things that we can do is to touch them and to love them right where they’re at.

So many Christians want to live in a bubble of insulation from the brokenness of the world and cast judgment on those who are isolated from God.  It’s not judgmental to look at someone and say, “Wow, they’re really broken and hurting because of their sin.”  But it is cruelty of the highest order to walk away from them shaking our heads and muttering, “I don’t care what happens to them.  They’ve just got to reap the consequences of their sin.  They’re untouchable.”

But with Jesus, nobody is untouchable.  Every.  Single.  Person.  Matters.  To.  Jesus.

And they ought to matter to us.