Matthew 8:1-4 – Restoration of a social outcast

Beginning from these verses to chapter 10, Jesus would show what true authority looks like. So He began with the healing of a leper. When He came down from the mountain after His teaching, large crowd followed Him. He was greeted by a leper. Leprosy, as we know, is an infectious disease. It causes severe disfiguring, skin sores and nerve damage in the arms and legs. It’s not only physically debilitating, it also makes a social outcast out of a victim. Since leprosy is a highly contagious disease, a victim is expected to stay away from people. No one wants to approach a leper. And in Jesus day, a leper was required to shout “unclean, unclean”, so that people could avoid him.

 

Jesus did a thing that was so highly unexpected. He entertained the leper. What‘s unthinkable to most people would be the fact that Jesus even touched Him. Just imagine the joy and exhilaration of a man starved of a touch. Most probably, he had not been touched by anyone for years. Now with that touch of Jesus, unwittingly, he was caught up in a moment that God had initiated, to restore people to Himself. What’s so different about Jesus is His willingness to restore a person who dares to approach Him.  

Of course Jesus came to fulfill the law. He was not about to encourage that the law should be abandoned. The leper needed physical healing and he also needed restoration to his family and neighbors. So He told the cleansed leper to go through the usual process and have his condition certified by a priest, as stipulated in the law.  From this brief account we can see that restoring people to God and community is part of the agenda of the Gospel. It certainly has the power to make a person whole, and more important, it restores a person’s relationship to God and to His people.  Sin is like leprosy. It separates us from God and people. We thank the Lord that He has cleansed us of our spiritual leprosy and has restored us to Himself.