Let the Unclean Come Near

By Grant Gaines

You can tell a lot about a person by the way they begin their careers. You get a chance to see what’s important to them and what priorities they will use to guide them in future decisions. With that being said, wouldn’t you agree that it would be a good idea to look at how Jesus began His ministry?

Luke 3:23 tells us that Christ’s ministry began with His baptism at the age of 30 which was then quickly followed by the greatest sermon of all time—the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). In this sermon, Jesus simply taught 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV) in a practical way for all of His followers to understand that“…The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” God wants a relationship rather than a religion.

It is after delivering this sermon that Matthew 8:1 (NIV) picks up saying, “When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed Him.” Unlike many of us as we leave church, this crowd was not smiling but solemn, not delighted but dejected, not joyful but jolted.

You see, sitting in the 21^st Century we view the Sermon on the Mount through the lens of the grace that is freely given to us through the death and resurrection of the Teacher of that very discourse. The people who followed Jesus down the mountain, however, did not have that same luxury. In the span of one teaching, Jesus raised the standards from a shallow outward obedience to a true inward submission to God’s Law which successfully made every one of His hearers a murderer (Matthew 5:21-26), an adulterer (Matthew 5:27-30), a liar (Matthew 5:33-37), a hater (Matthew 5:43-48), self-righteous (Matthew 6:1-8, 16-18), an idolater (Matthew 6:19-21), a half-hearted follower of God (Matthew 6:24), a worrier (Matthew 6:25-34), and a hypocritical judge (Matthew 7:1-5).

The people felt great as they ascended the mountain to hear this well renown Speaker teach, they felt unholy, unworthy, unclean, and understandably unfit to be anywhere near God. But it’s at that very moment—when the crowds’ hearts were melting with fear and sorrow—that the most incredible event happened. “A man with leprosy came and knelt before [Jesus] and said, ‘Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean’” (Matthew 8:2, NIV).

It’s important to understand that in the first century there was no cure for leprosy. Those who were unfortunate enough to contract the painful disease not only had to bear up under physical pain, they also had to undergo the public humiliation and devastation of being completely isolated. The Levitical Law from the Old Testament taught that anyone who had such a skin disease was to do the following—“Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ … They must live in isolation in their place outside the camp” (Leviticus 13:45-46, NLT).

Lepers were not even allowed to be within 50 yards of another human being! But here was the leper in Matthew 8, kneeling directly at Jesus’s feet, begging to be healed.

I wonder how many people in that crowd felt just as spiritually unclean and unworthy of the Savior’s attention as that leper must have felt as he desperately flung his ailing body before Christ. I wonder how many people in that crowd had felt just as isolated from a holy God as that leper felt from all of society after that sermon. And I wonder how many people reading this blog today feel just as unworthy of the Father’s love and forgiveness because of the sins you have committed that have left you unclean.

Like those in the crowd, we all have been angry at someone, thus making us murderers. We all have lusted, thus making us adulterers. We all have put someone or something before God, thus making us idolaters. And all of these sins have separated us from a holy God who cannot exist in the presence of sin (1 John 1:5) which leaves us feeling the insurmountable weight of the separation between us and our Creator.

But this is where the story in Matthew 8 gets interesting for both the leper and all of us who have ever felt as unclean or unworthy as this man. “Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ He said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy” (Matthew 8:3, NIV).

Against all public assumptions, against all Pharisaical laws, and against all common sense Jesus healed the leprous man. But you can’t miss the most important part of the story! Notice how Jesus heals the man—He touched him. Jesus touched the man who is unclean. Jesus touched the man who had no right to be that close to anyone, let alone God. And Jesus touched the man whom no one else would.

Don’t you know that Jesus longs to touch you today and take away whatever sin you have in your life? Whatever ungodliness, unholiness, or uncleanliness you are holding onto can be immediately cleansed if you would only bring it to the Father in prayer. Your church, your friends, and maybe even your family may hold you away at an arm’s distance as you are stumbling to regain your balance after falling into sin, but Jesus is standing right there, longing to embrace you.

The very God who had recently cured the lame with a word (John 5:1-15), cast out demons with a word (Mark 1:21-26), and raised the dead with a word (John 11), did not see if fit to merely stand at a distance and cure this unclean man with a word. He wanted to make it clear to every single person who was there and who would ever read this story—you—that no amount of junk in your life can repel Jesus’ love from you. No amount of sin, idolatry, adultery, hatred, doubt, rebellion, pride, fear, or failure can separate you from the love of Christ. “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39, NIV).

The greatest and yet most challenging sermon in the world was followed by one of the greatest displays of affection—Jesus touched the leper. Won’t you come before the Healer today and allow Him to cleanse you with His healing touch?

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