Jehovah Rapha
This last year when I was in Africa I learned something. There is a conflict that exists between African and Asians. The Asian culture is one of honor and shame. The African culture is one of personal relationships. The conflict that exists between these two groups is a result of misunderstood cultural differences. If say, an African buys something at store from an Asian clerk the clerk will put the change on the counter and slide it over because they view money as being very dirty and they do not want to disrespect someone by putting something that is dirty in their hands. The Africans interpret this as the Asians saying that they are dirty because they wont make physical contact with them. So the act that was intended to show respect becomes an act of disrespect. Physical contact is an important part of our lives and feeling isolated or dirty because people won’t touch you is a painful thing.
One of the ways prisons punish their prisoners for bad behavior is they throw them in solitary confinement and deprive them of human contact. Needing to share in community with others is a part of being human. Look at Luke 5:12. After calling Peter, Andrew, James, and John from their business to be full time disciples Jesus continues traveling from town to town around the Sea of Galilee preaching the Gospel. He comes in contact with a man suffering from a terrible disease and what Jesus does is truly incredible.
Lk 5:12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy.
Leprosy is a nasty disease what was not uncommon during Jesus day.
Leprosy comes from the word lepo, meaning to peel off like scales, which is not something you want to be doing to your flesh. Leprosy was a painful and debilitating disease that begins with a swelling or eruption on the flesh. The hair on the sore will turn white and the rash starts to spread. Eventually it becomes open sores that cover your entire body. Sometimes it is accompanied by boils. It is so painful you would want to avoid bathing.
Over time leprosy can cause serious nerve damage so if you injured yourself, say you busted your toe on a large rock, you wouldn’t know it. At first that sounds nice because we don’t like pain, but pain is important. Pain is the body’s way of telling us something is wrong. When you break your ankle it hurts to weight on it as reminder that you need to take easy so your ankle can heal. Without those pain sensors you could break bones and never know it. As a result lepers would have appendages and limbs rotting away and falling off.
Leprosy is not a fatal condition. You could survive for twenty years as a leper and that may be the worst part of it. Leprosy wasn’t just painful, this disease would ruin your life. It carried with it a strong social stigma. Many people at this time believed that leprosy was how God cursed wicked people. So at the time they needed compassion the most what they got was judgment and condemnation.
Lepers were quarantined from the rest of society out of fear that their disease would spread to others, which to be fair was very possible. Any contact with a leper from physical touch to them sneezing on you could spread their disease. So when someone has leprosy you don’t want to be near them, even if you are family. Can you imagine having the misfortune of catching a painful disease but because it was this particular disease you would have to deal with it alone? No family, no friends, no contact with anyone. Leprosy is a disease of isolation that damages every part of a person, not just their body.
If you can imagine how someone with Aids might be treated by a group of people who didn’t understand their condition that might give a little idea of how a leper was treated. They were banished from normal society. They could not have meals with people, travel down city streets, go shopping, or engage in any way with other people. Lepers could not work, they had to beg for a living. They had to keep their beds low to the ground so that a strong wind would not carry their disease, they could not even go to the temple to worship God. Can you imagine you come home one day to see your spouse or your child has this red rash and you realize that they are going to be taken away from you and you will never get to see or hold them again.
Lepers are living dead. Leviticus instructs lepers to wear ragged clothing, leave their hair unkempt, and with the sores and decay of their flesh lepers would look a bit like zombies. They cannot have contact with anyone, they just beg for what they need and wait to die. They had to live alone, lepers were always alone. They cannot even take comfort in a leper colony with others who suffer with them, they had to be alone.
The worst part is it becomes who you are. Leprosy destroys your identity, if you are near anyone else you had to cry out “Unclean, unclean” and that became who you are. Not a name, not a person, not valuable, you were unclean. That was the extent of your contact with other human for the rest of your life. If you got leprosy your life was over, there was no hope for a cure, no chance the condition would just go away.
When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
Have you ever got a cut or even a bad sunburn on your knees where every time you move that part it hurts. This man has sores all over his body. Getting on his knees would be extremely painful. So he just throws himself on the ground in front of Jesus. This guy doesn’t come to Jesus and say: “If you heal me I will believe in you” “if you heal me I will follow you.” He is not trading with Jesus, he is worshiping Him.
What is truly amazing is that this is the beginning of Jesus ministry. There is no precedent, no reason he should even suspect that Jesus could heal his leprosy, but he does. He knows that Jesus has the power, he doesn’t ask if Jesus is able, he just asks if Jesus would be willing. This man is not offering faith for a miracle. He has faith, he is just asking for a miracle. He shows Jesus the proper respect for who He is: “Jesus I know that you are Lord, I worship you, I know that you have the power to heal me, I know you don’t have to, but I am asking that you would.” This leper is worshiping Jesus and acknowledging who Jesus is even if Jesus doesn’t heal him.
Why don’t we do that? Why do we so often try to barter with God? God give me this…and I will believe. Help me with thing and I will go to church every week. We do that sometimes don’t we? We know God wants our faith, so we try to negotiate with it. Not this guy.
Of course what he is doing is illegal. Lepers were required to stay at least six feet from other people at all times, if the wind was strong they were required to stay even further away. When he realizes that the only hope he will ever have is traveling around not too far from where he lives, this leper goes to Jesus and begs Jesus to heal him. He is desperate. He doesn’t just ask Jesus, he begs Him.
Lk 5:13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. Lk 5:14 Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” Lk 5:15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Lk 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Coming in contact with a leper would make anyone else unclean. Rabbi would have carried rocks in their pockets when traveling in case they passed a leper they could throw rocks at them to make sure they stayed away. Religious people are so worried about being clean that they forget about the people they hurt in the process.
Jesus moved with compassion reaches out and touches the man. Let me ask you this, how long do you think it has been since anyone had touched this man? It may have been years, or even decades. Everything he touches becomes unclean because he touched it. We wash our hands after we use the bathroom because when you are dirty anything you touch becomes dirty.
Why does Jesus touch him? He didn’t have to. Jesus healed the centurion’s servant from miles away. Why does Jesus make physical contact with a sick man? This man doesn’t just need to be healed, he needs to be loved. He needs to be reminded that he is a human being. That is what is so great about Jesus. He doesn’t just give us what we ask for, He gives us what we need. He touches the untouchable. No matter how dirty the world says you are you are never to dirty for Jesus. While society may reject, while people may hurt you, Jesus never will.
Jesus ministry is all about touching hurting, lost, broken, unclean people. As the church we get to be extension Jesus ministry. He doesn’t want it to stop, that is why He called disciples so when He left there would be people doing what He was doing. We get to reach out and to touch the poor, the hungry, the needy, the sick, the lost, and the hurting people of the world with the love of Jesus. Nothing in is more powerful then caring enough to reach out and touch someone with the love of God. That is what we are called to do.
The leper begs Jesus to heal him. Jesus says “I am willing” and the man is healed, instantly! Jesus doesn’t just heal this man, He restores him. Jesus gives this man the life his condition had stolen from him. Leprosy was viewed as divine punishment. What God shows us in this text is that punishment will be replaced by mercy for those who come to Him.
Then Jesus says don’t tell anyone. He goes and he tells everyone. Right? Wouldn’t you? If you saw sores covering your entire body healed in an instant because Jesus said so, wouldn’t you tell people about it? Jesus says tell no one this man tells everyone. Jesus rises from the dead says, tell everyone, we tell no one. Something is wrong with this picture.
One of the names of God in the Old Testament is Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals. Jesus heals this man because what He came to do. He came to heal the hurting, to fix the broken, and to restore that which was lost. Jesus touches this man because that is what Jesus does. Jesus takes that which is dirty and He makes it clean.
We are unclean in our sin, Jesus makes us clean. You don’t get to hold on to the disease any longer because Jesus takes it away. Stop saying, I’m guilty, I’m a sinner, I am a bad person, Jesus says you are clean so get over yourself and be clean. If you get dirty again come back to Jesus fall before Him like this leper does. He will touch you and He will make you clean again.
You have sin in your life, we all do. Jesus never asks us to be perfect. He just asks us to come to Him. Some of us are like the leper we’re dirty, sinful, and guilty. We have made mistakes and we need Jesus to make you clean. That is what is Jesus does. He forgives. For those of us who are living and struggling with sin we need to come to Jesus like the leper does, fall down before Him and ask for His forgiveness.
Some of us are not like the leper, but we should be. If you don’t need to come like the leper then go like the leper, go telling everyone what Jesus has done for you. Jesus has touched you, He has given you something no one else could, its time to tell someone about it. Jesus heals us, then He sends us out to be His agents of healing to the world. You know what greatest part of this healing was? Not the disease, it was the love. Jesus sends us out to love as He loved us, and through our love we can bring the news of His healing and His forgiveness to the world.
