Luke 5:12-16 "The Leper"
A lot of times when we’re reading through the Gospels, we come across a story about Jesus doing something or saying something, and we’re like, “that’s cool—Jesus is awesome.” But we don’t really see what’s actually going on. Today Jesus is going to heal a man with leprosy. It’s a pretty short passage, you might be tempted to hurry past it and get to the next story. I always am. But that’d be a mistake—we need to dig into this one a lot deeper. I think you’ll see what I mean.
Luke chapter 5:12-16. I’m just going to start off by reading it:
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Speaking of prayer: Father, open our eyes. Your Word is alive and powerful. Show us what You want us to see about You, about Jesus, and about ourselves in this passage. AMEN
Verse 12:
While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy.
Luke kinda jumps ahead for this story. We know from the other Gospels this probably happens after the Sermon on the Mount. He puts it here because he wants us to see the similarities between the leper and Peter from last week’s message. The connection between the leper and everyone Jesus came to rescue—including you and me. Also, if anyone is still wondering if Jesus is the promised Messiah—healing lepers is at the top of the list of things the Messiah is supposed to do, so Luke starts with it. A leper is a person with a skin disease that makes them unclean according to Old Testament Law—it’s nasty, the person’s skin rots, hands and feet disintegrate into stumps.
It says he was “full of leprosy.” He didn’t have a mild case—he was ravaged with it. Eaten up with it. I’m going to show you a photo of what that looks like—you might not want to look. This is the face of a person who is full of leprosy. It’s hard to look at.
This is what “unclean” looks like to God. This is what you and me looked like to God before Jesus rescued us. If you don’t understand that this is what sin and sinners look like to Him, then you don’t really understand anything at all about what Jesus came to do. “Unclean,” “unholy,” “unrighteous,” “unfaithful,” these are all the same thing. God doesn’t make a distinction between being physically unclean and spiritually unclean. God doesn’t make a distinction between the sinful nature we were all born with, the sins we actually commit during our life, and the way all that sin disfigures us into a grotesque parody of His image. A man full of leprosy is a perfect picture of the human race eaten up with sin.
You and me were just like the man who was covered with leprosy. We continue reading: And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him,
“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Like Peter after the great catch of fish last week, the man fell to his face on the ground. He bowed. Like Peter, he called him “Lord.” Unlike Peter, he doesn’t tell Jesus to “go away.” But it’s not because he doesn’t understand he’s a sinner and unclean. He’s the textbook example of unclean.
He begs Jesus, and his prayer is very interesting: “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” There’s no doubt in his words, he’s just saying, “Lord, I know if you want to, you can do this.” That’s a good prayer—we’d be wise to pray it, too. Verse 13:
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.”
Lepers had to stay away from people. If anyone came close, they had to warn them by shouting “unclean, unclean!” Who knows how long it had been since this man had been touched by another human being. No one would even look at him. He wasn’t allowed to see his family, or his friends. He wasn’t allowed to worship. He couldn’t go to the synagogue, he couldn’t go to the Temple. It was forbidden to have anything to do with a leper. If you touched someone with leprosy, then you were also unclean—and it was a complicated process to be made clean again.
Leprosy still exists. If it’s caught early, it’s treatable, but once it really digs in, there’s nothing that can be done for it—even today. It spreads from person to person pretty much the same way COVID does. Airborne droplets. There are still leper colonies. I know of a missionary who would minister to lepers—he would touch them when he prayed for them and usually they would just start weeping. From the simple power of human touch alone. We weren’t created to live in isolation from other people. If a newborn baby is never held and doesn’t experience human contact, it will die. If it has minimal contact, the person will suffer emotional damage throughout their life.
Human touch is important.
At the Hart house, we tend to lay on each other like kittens. We hug each other throughout the day. I can be sitting on the couch in an empty room—there’s twelve available seats—Kim and the kids will lay on top of me—like there’s nowhere else to sit. It’s not just with me. They want to sit close, they want a backrub. They want human contact. I recommend it, by the way. Even though I didn’t grow up this way. The only time me and my brothers had contact with each other is when we were throwing punches. The first time I remember hugging my mom is when I moved out to go to college. So, I’m living proof that it’s never too late to start hug therapy.
It was no small thing that Jesus touched the man but that’s not what healed him. Jesus spoke the words, “I will; be clean.” It’s His word that did it.
And you may have missed it but you just witnessed the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
In the Old Testament, everything was set up to protect sinful people from being destroyed by the holiness of God. The Tabernacle, the Temple, the sacrificial system, the Holy of Holies, all these elaborate protocols were put in place by God to protect His people from being obliterated by His raw glorious holy power.
God is light—brighter than we can possibly imagine—and we’re just little shadows on the earth. What happens to shadows when they’re exposed to light?
In the Old Testament, if an unclean person came into the presence of God, they would die. If they touched the Ark of the Covenant—the special location of the presence of God on the earth, they would die. If they messed with the worship liturgy? Dead. And if a person who had been made clean by the elaborate sacrificial system of the Tabernacle or Temple came in contact with an unclean person—boom! They were immediately made unclean and had to start all over again.
None of this is because God is a fussy jerk—just the opposite. God’s not a big meanie. The rules and rituals were put in place to protect unclean, sinful people from His raw unfiltered holiness.
But now the New Testament, the special location of the presence of God on earth is walking around, going from town to town, touching people, making the unclean clean by the power and authority of His word. When Jesus touches the unclean man, instead of killing him, it makes him clean.
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him.
A lifetime of slowly being eaten up with sickness—immediately gone. The leprosy left him. As if it was like a demon—it left him. Jesus doesn’t distinguish between physical and spiritual sickness. It’s all caused by sin. Sinful nature, sinful acts, consequences of sin, sin in the fallen world, sickness, demons, psychological problems, guilt, shame—Jesus doesn’t get caught up in our material versus spiritual categories of reality. Denying the spiritual realm and pretending the only things that matter are what we can see and touch. Pretending the physical world isn’t important, that our bodies are just shells for our souls, that the only things that matter to God are “spiritual” things. Gnostic nonsense versus material reductionism. As far as Jesus is concerned, there are no categories as far as Jesus is concerned. It’s all His creation. It’s all material. It’s all spiritual.
Jesus touches the unclean and makes it clean.
I had a professor in seminary who asked the class if Jesus ever broke God’s law. We all said, “no, of course not! Jesus never sinned.” He said, “what about touching the leper? He wasn’t supposed to do that—and He did. Kind of looks like Jesus sinned.”
I said, “well, the man wasn’t a leper anymore once Jesus touched him—so He didn’t actually touch a leper, did He.” I think he was satisfied with my answer. I guess it’s a matter of timing. Light isn’t affected by shadows.
The man was immediately made clean.
“Cleanliness is next to godliness.” People think that’s in the Bible—it’s not. It’s almost true, though. Cleanliness isn’t “next to godliness,” cleanliness is godliness. Holiness. Righteousness.
From now on, because of Jesus, coming in contact with God’s holiness—by grace through faith—will make people holy. The holiness of God in Christ has a Gospel effect as Jesus brings healing and salvation to the world.
This guy was just given a new life. He wouldn’t be an outcast anymore. He wouldn’t be shunned anymore. He could hold his family. He could embrace his friends. Everything a human life is supposed to be filled with. Everything he had been denied for so long.
But you know what else he could do? It seems to be the most important thing to Jesus. Verse 14:
And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
He could worship now. He could pray with other believers. He could make an offering. He could hear God’s Word. He could sing with the congregation. But first things first—there was still the obligation of God’s Law, things needed to be done in order. He still had to stay away from people, Jesus commands him to “tell no one.” Not before he goes to the priest, in the Temple in Jerusalem, and show them that he has been made clean. Prove it to them.
Jesus tells the man to conform to the Levitical code: Two live birds, cedarwood, scarlet yarn, hyssop. Dip one of the birds in the blood of the other one. Sprinkle it on the man and pronounce him clean. Set the live bird free. All those things from Leviticus 14. The law is very specific. The man has to be completely shaved—eyebrows and all. He’s to baptize himself in water—take a bath. He’s considered clean, but he still has to live outside the city away from people for seven more days. Then he has to shave again, wash again, and go see the priest again. This time he’s supposed to take two male lambs and a year-old female lamb—some grain and some oil. Again, God is very specific. Sacrifice the animals, paint the man with blood—guilt offering, sin offering, burnt offering. Then on the eighth day the man is finally declared clean. Eighth day, just like the resurrection, just like Christian worship.
The Old Testament Sacrificial System and Worship All Points To Jesus
All of that points to Jesus. All of that points to the cross. Every sacrifice that was ever made in the Tabernacle and Temple pointed to the cross. That whole system was a bunch of hot checks put in the bank waiting for Jesus to make His deposit. All that washing in the blood was waiting for the blood of the lamb of God who truly takes away the sin of the world. Once and for all. All that sprinkling with blood was replaced with baptism in water and the Holy Spirit. All those fellowship offerings and grain offerings and drink offerings and thanksgiving offerings—all part of the Old Testament worship commanded by God—it was all replaced and fulfilled with the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
Jesus didn’t come to do away with God’s Law. He came to fulfill it. To complete it. To make the deposit so all those Old Testament checks would clear.
This little story of the miraculous healing of a man full of leprosy is a solid teaching to both Jews and Gentiles about the fulfillment in Christ of the Old Testament, especially the aspects of purity, holiness, and sacrifice.
So our friend the former leper had a big job to do. He had to go tell the priest what happened to him. Prove that he had been made clean. He needed to carefully go through all the steps of Levitical protocols. Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross yet—He wasn’t going to make that deposit until Good Friday.
It was going to blow the priest’s mind. It’s fun to think about Jesus knowing exactly which priest the man would go see—knowing exactly how that was all going to play out, what this was going to do to the way that priest saw the world. I’m sure he asked the man how on earth he was cured of his leprosy. I’m sure it stirred up quite the scandal. This was Messiah-level news. I’m sure it got all the priests talking. Some were probably excited, but I’m sure some of them felt threatened. Luke uses this story of the leper to set up Jesus confronting the religious leaders and the Pharisees. We’ll get to that next week for sure. Verse 15:
But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
There’s no indication the man disobeyed Jesus and blabbed about the miracle but word got out anyway. More and more people started showing up to hear Him speak and to be healed. It had to be exhausting. My experience isn’t even the smallest fraction of what it was like for Jesus, of course, but Sunday’s the only day I need a nap in the afternoon. Jesus had to get away from the crowds and pray. He had to recharge.
The Sin Offering When the leper went to the priest at the Temple, one of the sacrifices that happened was for the sin offering. It had to be burned outside the camp—outside the city of Jerusalem. This was a testimony to the sacrifice that was yet to happen on Calvary. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world would be taken outside the city to be sacrificed in order to sanctify the people through His own blood.
This is what Christ has done for you. He met you on the road. The unclean. Full of sin. A shadow of a human being. This is what you need to say to Him, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
Here’s what Jesus says to you today: “I will. Be clean.”
AMEN