"If You Are Willing.." Healing a Leper-Luke 5:12-15

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.
Luke 5:12-15

Speaking...the Unspeakable,
Doing.........the Undoable,
TOUCHING...the Untouchable!
Leprosy is a disease of the nervous system, you can’t feel pain, you get infection, your body deforms and then your limbs deteriorate. Leprosy made a person ritually unclean. To touch a leper defiled a Jew almost as much as touching a dead person. In a sense, leprosy was a sign of God's disfavor. Healing a leper had not been done in Israel for 700 years, and was thought to be an earmark of the Messianic Age when leprosy would no longer afflict people. Jesus sent a message of this to John per his disciples in Luke 7:20-23:

When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?' " At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

To the rabbis, the cure of a leper was as difficult as raising a person from the dead. In all Biblical history only two people had been cured of leprosy -- Miriam, who had leprosy for seven days as a punishment for speaking against Moses' leadership (Numbers 12:9-15), and Naaman, general of the army of Aram, an heathen from Damascus (2 Kings 5). When he obeyed Elijah's instruction to wash seven times in the Jordan River he was healed.

But what about this man, this leper?

He would have been subject to the rules of the law.

"The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp" Leviticus 13:45-46

But, the Healer is in town...the new rabbi on the scene, the one who does things different, speaks different, is different. Maybe if he could get to him...things would be different. Desperate times call for desperate measures...so he runs, not shouting "Unclean", and then falls down on his face in front of this new and different Rabbi.

LORD, IF YOU ARE WILLING..., YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN!

It is a statement of FAITH.A deep faith that believes Jesus WILL DO something that has not been done in 700 years! (Why can’t we believe that Jesus is will to heal our pasts, or what happened just months ago?) It isn't a matter of ABILITY, the leper is saying. It is ONLY a matter of WILL. Jesus is ABLE to heal him. And then, the new Rabbi breaks the rules too, he goes way over the "comfort zone" of the day, the crowd gasps in astonishment and Jesus does the unthinkable...He reaches down and touches the man with his deformed and deteriorated skin and says,

I WANT TO...BE CLEAN!

3 LESSSONS FROM A LEPER:
1. Jesus' expressed will is to HEAL. That should be our assumption, not considered the exception. We have forgotten Jesus had a threefold ministry of Preaching, Teaching, & Healing.
2. Jesus doesn't shrink from TOUCHING the unlovely. Neither should we.
3. Our FAITH should be as BOLD as the leper's in order to receive from Jesus.

We need to KNOW & LEARN the difference between believing God CAN DO something for us... and believing that he WANTS TO DO something for us
LEPROSY is much like SIN...It starts inside us, it spreads,it eats away in us, it rots us, it defiles us, it make us UNCLEAN to a HOLY GOD! Just as leprosy ISOLATED people then, one day SIN will isolate people to HELL, and result in everlasting DEATH.

And with this new cleanness, the man is given a new command: "Go and show yourself" to the priest...as a testimony. Notice that Jesus stays within the tradition of the day...he honors it. But Jesus also orders him not to tell anyone about this incident, to which the other Gospels writers say he went and told everyone.

How ironic, Jesus told people in his day NOT to TELL ANYONE about Him and they TOLD EVERYONE, but Jesus told US to TELL EVERYONE about Him and what He does, and most of us DON'T TELL anyone!

So, if YOU know what God CAN DO, then what is keeping you from asking him what He WILL DO for you in your situation, with your past, with your infirmity?

Questions to Discuss:

1. Who in our society are treated like lepers were treated in Jesus' day? Who sometimes feels like a leper in the presence of Jesus?

2. Describe the kind of faith it takes to act and speak as this leper did. What level of belief was required of him?

3. What is the difference between believing God CAN do something for us and believing that he WANTS to do something for us? Would you call the difference faith? or knowledge? or both?

4. After Jesus touched the man and cured him of leprosy, why did he have to show himself to the priest? (Leviticus 13 and 14)

5. What person in your life could most benefit from a caring touch from you in the name of Christ?