Matthew 8:3 NKJV
“Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
Our Scripture of reference presents one of the places where Jesus handled a case that would ordinarily make others distance themselves. It was a leprosy case, which was known to be contagious and unclean. The leper had come to Jesus, bowed before Him and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean” (Mat 8:2 NKJV). Indeed, this infirmity needed no explanation to understand what it was. It robbed men of their dignity and respect because the Law of Moses was so cruel against those infected on two major fronts: firstly, the Law demanded that those infected should remain isolated from others (Lev 13).
Secondly, the Law also says, “…the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!'” (Lev 13:45 NKJV). Besides these troubling demands, the leper had two other things to face, again: first, it was only the priest who could examine his body upon recovery and either pronounce him clean or unclean (Lev 13). Second, there were offerings that the leper had to present to be pronounced clean (Lev 14). Notice, the priest’s work was to examine the extent of infection and make a pronouncement. But, he was under no duty to heal the leper, if at all he could.
When the leper came to Jesus Christ, however, he did not ask the Lord to examine him, and hopefully pronounce him clean to start associating with others. Rather, he told Jesus, “MAKE me clean”. Hallelujah! Possibly, the man considered Christ as the Healer to change his situation completely. The Law could only point out the issue, examine it, but do nothing about it. However, the “grace and truth [that] came through Jesus Christ” (Joh 1:17 NKJV) completely changed everything for good! Beloved, spiritually speaking, sin had made us leprous; but Christ graciously and freely touched us and made us whole. Hallelujah!
Pst. Emmanuel