Breakfast with a leper

This morning we had one of the largest crowds of men ever to gather together for breakfast, Bible study, and prayer. The passage under investigation was Matthew 8:1-4, which describes an occasion when Jesus heals a leper who comes to Him. One of the unusual things about this healing is that Jesus reaches out and touches the leper to heal him. Now, each one of us would readily admit that Jesus had no need to touch this leper to heal him. He could simply have said the word and this man would have been healed. That is exactly what He did in the very next passage (Matt. 8:5-13) when He heals the centurion's servant. But here Jesus touches the man. Why?

The advances in modern medicine have taught us a lot about leprosy (Hansen's Disease). But before these advances, people were extremely fearful of the disease and of those who had it (kind of like AIDS in our day!). Lepers were shunned and no one dared to come near, much less to touch one.

We don't know much about our leper in Matt. 8. We know that he called out to the "Lord," knelt before Him, and asked Him to make him clean "if you are willing." So, apparently, he knew something about the Lord before he approached Him, enough to give him the boldness to come into the open and approach Him. We don't know how long it had been since this leper had had contact with another human being. We don't know how long it had been since he had last been touched by another human being. But we do know that Jesus reaches out His hand and touches him.

Surely we are to see in this occasion the deep compassion of Christ for people, especially for those who are the "outcasts" of society, those who respectable persons want nothing to do with. Sometimes it is easy to live in our walled houses, drive in our walled cars, work in our walled offices, and basically operate in our walled worlds, and never venture outside of these walls. Jesus ventured outside the walls of His society to show compassion on this leper. What is more, He ventured outside the walls of Jerusalem ("outside the camp," see Hebrews 13:11-12) to die for your sins and mine, for all who would ever believe on Him. I, for one, am glad that He did.

Isn't it interesting, though, that Hebrews 13:13, after stating that Christ went outside the city walls to die for us, says: "Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured." Let us, then, venture outside our walls and go to Him, even if it means bearing the reproach of a world that loves its walls!