I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 8:1-4
Matthew
8:1 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A
man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing,
you can make me clean.”
3
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be
clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him,
“See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer
the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
-- this morning, we are continuing
in our sermon series on experiencing God -- on how we can experience God with
our senses as we walk through this world seeking His presence
-- too often in the church, we tend
to relegate our spiritual experiences with God to traditional spiritual
disciplines -- going to church -- reading the Bible -- praying -- but I think
this does such a disservice to God and discounts the many other means of grace
by which we experience His presence and His life daily
-- as Henri Nouwen put it, “To walk
in the presence of the Lord means to move forward in life in such a way that
all our desires, thoughts, and actions are constantly guided by him -- When we
walk in the Lord’s presence, everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us
of him”
-- that’s what this series is all
about -- the ways we can experience God’s presence during this time when we are
not able to gather in traditional church worship services -- and, hopefully,
this will open your lives to recognizing God’s presence even after life goes
back to a semblance of normality
-- so far in this series, we have looked
at the topics of sight -- of how God is a seeing God and how we might see God
in our world if we would but learn to look -- and of hearing -- of how God constantly
speaks, but how we need to listen with open ears to hear His still, small voice
in the midst of this world’s noise
-- this morning, we are going to be
talking about experiencing God through His touch -- and how we might minister
His presence to others in the same way
-- the fiction author Jim Butcher
pointed out that “there’s power in the touch of another person’s hand. -- The
need to be touched is something so primal, so fundamentally a part of our
existence as human beings that its true impact upon us can be difficult to put
into words -- From the time we are infants, we learn to associate the touch of
a human hand with safety, with comfort, with love”
-- this is something that Kim and I
have discussed during this time of coronavirus self-distancing and
self-isolation -- it used to be so normal to just go through your day and
randomly touch someone else -- a handshake -- a hug -- a kiss -- just laying
your hand on someone’s shoulder or their back -- little things that just let
someone know that you saw them -- you noticed them -- that you are there with
them
-- and that’s something that the
coronavirus has taken away -- we wear masks to protect ourselves and others,
but end up hiding our faces and our hearts -- and when we pass each other now,
we stay our mandated six feet apart -- longing to touch -- but never able to
just acknowledge the presence of someone in that way
-- Luke Combs just put out a timely
song, “Six Feet Apart,” where he talks about how this has affected us -- in the
chorus, he sings: “I miss my mom, I miss
my dad, I miss the road, I miss my band, [I miss] Givin' hugs and shakin' hands”
-- how sad would it be if this one
aspect of our humanity -- the ability to touch another person -- to shake
someone’s hand -- to give them a hug -- to hold them when they are hurting --is
something that we never are able to experience again because of this virus?
-- can you imagine it? -- to never
touch or be touched again?
II. Leprosy
-- well, in the Bible, there were
some who knew exactly what that was like -- people with the dreaded disease of
leprosy
-- many people in Jesus’ day
believed leprosy was a punishment because of sin in their lives -- they were
considered unclean -- physically and spiritually -- and were despised and feared
by the people of Israel
-- when someone became infected with
leprosy, they became the ultimate outcast -- they were shunned by their
community and cast out of society
-- they were forced to wear rags --
to let their hair grow long and unkempt -- and to wear a bell around their neck
to announce their presence -- when someone came near them or when they entered
a town where people were, they were to cover their mouth with a cloth and to
proclaim, “Unclean, unclean,” so the person would be able to see them and stay
away
-- they lived in communities with
other lepers outside of towns and villages -- and they stayed there until they
either got better or died -- this was the only way the people knew to contain
the spread of the contagious forms of leprosy.1
-- they weren’t allowed to come with
six feet of another person, including their family -- and they weren’t allowed
within 150 feet of anyone when the wind was blowing -- they lived their lives
separated from others -- seeing them, but never touching another human, except
for someone else with the same disease1
III. Scripture Lesson (Matthew 8:1-4)
-- that’s why the events that
occurred in this passage from Matthew 8 were so astounding and so unbelievable
to the people in Jesus’ day -- let’s look at this passage together now
-- look back at verse 1-2a
Matthew
8:1 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A
man with leprosy came and knelt before him…
-- this moment in Jesus’ life took
place just after He had delivered the Sermon on the Mount, when crowds gathered
around Jesus and He taught them the true meaning of the Law and the
commandments of God from the Old Testament
-- Jesus showed the crowd on that
day that obedience and relationship with God was something from within -- from
the heart -- rather than just outward expressions of religion, as the Pharisees
taught -- Jesus was trying to get them to see that the state of their heart was
more important than outward holiness, for God is more concerned about someone’s
heart than anything else
-- and when Jesus finished speaking
and came down from the mountain, large crowds of people continued to follow Him
-- listening to Him as He preached and as He spoke -- watching Him -- just
wanting to be with Him
-- now remember what I told you
about how lepers were treated in this day -- a leper would never have
approached a large crowd of people -- it just wasn’t done -- it just wasn’t
allowed -- lepers would have been kept away, for fear of contaminating a person
-- not only physically, but also spiritually -- if you touched someone with
leprosy, you were spiritually unclean
-- and that’s why the audacity of
the man with leprosy here in these verses is so remarkable -- we don’t know how
long he suffered from this condition -- we don’t know how many years it was
since he was cast out from society -- how many years it had been since he had
experienced the touch of another person
-- but something drove him to defy
societal norms that day -- hope
-- I think it’s interesting how the
NIV translates verse 2 -- most other translations say that “a leper came and
knelt before Jesus,” but the NIV changes this and says, “a man with leprosy
came and knelt before Him” -- and I think that’s important
-- while there were instances in the
Bible where God did send leprosy on someone because of their sin -- Miriam,
Moses’ sister, is one example -- I think it’s safe to say that in most cases,
leprosy and other afflictions came upon people simply because that’s what
happens in a fallen world -- people get sick -- people get injured -- people
suffer from the diseases and vagaries of life -- there is nothing in this
passage that indicates that this man’s condition was a result of sin in his
life
-- but leprosy did symbolize sin in
Jesus’ day and it was recognized as a condition of uncleanness in the sight of
God -- that’s why it’s important to note that the NIV translates this as “a man
with leprosy” and not “a leper” -- it denotes a difference in how God viewed
this man -- he was not his disease -- he had not become leprosy -- instead, he
was a man infected with leprosy
-- in the same way, we do not become
our sin -- instead, we are people who have sin in our lives -- there’s a
separation there -- that’s why we hear that God loves the sinner but hates the
sin -- this separation makes room for healing -- this separation allows God’s
touch to bring restoration to someone’s soul -- and that’s what we’re about to
see here
-- look back at the second part of
verse 2b-3
2b
“…and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be
clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.
-- I’m not sure we can fully
comprehend how this leper felt at this moment -- yes, he was healed, but it was
more than that
-- Jesus could have healed this man
with just a word -- we see Him do just that in the story of the ten lepers that
He heals -- He could have just said the word, and the man would have been made
whole
-- He could have prayed and called
out to the Father for healing, as we see Him do in other healing miracles -- as
He did when He raised Lazarus from the grave -- a public prayer -- a cry to the
Father -- and healing would have come
-- but Jesus did neither -- He did
something that was unthinkable -- even while this man was a leper -- even while
this man was covered with sores and mangled and rotted flesh -- Jesus touched
him -- He reached out and He touched him
-- how long had it been since this
man had been touched? -- when was the last time He had felt the touch of
another person’s hand on his head -- his shoulder -- his hand?
-- Jesus touched Him and then said,
“I am willing to heal you -- be clean”
-- Max Lucado wrote from the leper’s
point of view in his book, “Just Like Jesus,” -- “I will never forget the one
who dared to touch me. He could have healed me with a word. But he wanted to do
more than heal me. He wanted to honor me, to validate me, to christen me.
Imagine that . . . unworthy of the touch of a man, yet worthy of the touch of
God.”
-- verse 4
4
Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself
to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
-- after Jesus healed this man, he
told him to not tell anyone, but to go and show the priest and to fulfill the
requirements of the Law, which mandated he be examined by the priest and proclaimed
whole in the temple of Jerusalem
-- not tell anyone? -- why? -- how
could Jesus expect this man to be silent about the great miracle that had
happened?
-- we really don’t know why Jesus
said this -- we can speculate, of course -- and, I thought about this for a
while
-- remember the life the leper was
living -- outcast -- shunned -- avoided by everyone -- never able to be with
people -- never able to be around people
-- and now, he has to go from the
region of Galilee to Judea -- to Jerusalem -- in order to go to the temple and
see the priests -- this would be a long journey -- a long road to take --
walking alongside other people and meeting people traveling from Jerusalem back
to their homes
-- it would have given this man time
to adjust -- time to reflect -- time to grow
-- think about it -- in the past, if
he had tried to follow the crowd, they would have run in fear and cried out,
“unclean, unclean” -- but now, he’s just another face in the crowd -- another
traveler on the way to Jerusalem
-- when he passed people going the
other way, they wouldn’t turn their gaze or cross to the other side of the road
-- no, they might smile and wave or even brush his sleeve as they passed
-- his life had changed -- and it
takes time to learn to walk in newness of life -- he was no longer a leper --
he was no longer a man with leprosy -- he was healed -- he was whole -- he was
made new -- and he needed to learn to walk in this new life
-- it’s just like us -- when we
become a Christian and put our faith and trust in Jesus for the first time, we
are new creations -- we are no longer sinners -- we are no longer people with
sin -- we are healed -- clean -- whole -- forgiven
-- and it takes time for us to learn
how to walk and live in our new lives -- to live differently than we have in
the past -- to put aside our old habits and our old sins and to live with our
eyes focused on God
-- I think that’s part of why Jesus
told the man who used to have leprosy to not tell anyone
-- the other reason has to do with
the destination -- under the Law, he would not have been officially cleansed
until the priests verified the healing -- and, here’s the thing about leprosy
-- no one got better -- there was no cure -- there wasn’t a line of people
outside the temple who had just gotten better and were now waiting to be
declared clean -- no, it took a touch from God to be made whole and to be
healed of leprosy, just as it takes a touch from God to be healed of our sin
-- and so Jesus sent this man to
Jerusalem to the priests as a witness to them -- to show them that the Messiah
had come to touch hearts and lives and bring healing, forgiveness, and
restoration -- not only of diseases like leprosy -- but of the more insidious
disease of the heart within us all -- our sin nature
IV. CLOSING
-- touch -- it’s part of what makes
us human -- when someone touches us, it lets us know they see us -- they know
us -- they are reaching out in relationship to us -- it’s the same with God
-- God touched a man with leprosy
and set him free forever -- and God touches us daily to let us know that He
loves us and that He forgives us and that He wants to set us free forever so
that we might live with Him in eternity
-- I want to close this morning by
sharing with you the lyrics from the Gaither’s song, “He Touched Me:”
“Shackled by a heavy burden
'Neath a load of guilt and shame
Then the hand of Jesus touched me
And now I am no longer the same.
“He touched, oh, he touched me
And oh the joy that floods my soul!
Something happened, and now I know
He touched me, and made me whole.”
-- we may be living in a time where
we cannot touch or be touched by another because of this coronavirus -- but
there is One who can still touch us, wherever we are
-- God’s hand is reaching out for
you today -- He wants to touch you -- to touch your heart -- to touch your soul
-- to touch your spirit -- to healing and wholeness to your life
-- as we close in prayer, receive
His touch -- feel His hands on your head -- and hear the same words of healing
He spoke to the man with leprosy, “I am willing -- be clean”
-- let us pray
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1
“Why is leprosy talked about so much in the Bible?” https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-leprosy.html
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