- The Daily Bread
- Posts
- He Takes Our Uncleanliness | Matthew 8:1-4
He Takes Our Uncleanliness | Matthew 8:1-4
He replaces it with His cleanliness
Caleb Lee
February 02, 2024
The more I learn about Jesus, the more I’m blown away by His love for His creation.
When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
This passage blows me away for a couple of reasons.
If you were to read this on its own, it looks like just another one of Jesus’ miracles. But this is directly following the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus has every right to be tired, and to continue on His way. But He has mercy on a leper and cleanses him.
The seriousness of leprosy is lost on us today because it’s so rare.
But back in their day, lepers weren’t allowed to be near other people. If you were a non-leper and accidentally made contact with a leper, you were considered “unclean” and there was a whole cleansing ritual that had to take place.
Here’s the thing.
Jesus could have healed this man without touching him.
The next miracle we see is Jesus healing a centurion’s servant without even being in the vicinity of his house.
So why did Jesus reach out and touch this man? Especially if it meant that Jesus was now technically “unclean”?
It was to show the world what He came down to do.
Jesus takes the uncleanliness from the leper and puts it on Himself. And in doing so, the leper is cleansed.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It was to show the world that He came down to cleanse the world by taking its sin and uncleanliness upon Himself and replacing it with His righteousness.
But Jesus takes a very personal approach to the leper.
He reaches out and touches this man, likely someone who had not felt the touch of another human in some time, to show him that he was loved. He wasn’t forgotten. He wasn’t a nuisance.
And that’s the approach that Jesus takes to you and me.
A personal one. One that exudes love and mercy.
What amazing grace.
Have a blessed Friday, my friends.