April 9

Leviticus 13 To my knowledge, I have never met a leper. Why does God seem to focus so much on leprosy? Was it that common among them? If He were to teach us some health regulations today, upon what would He focus? What contagious disease would He cause us to isolate? Flu? Measles? Whooping Cough? Chicken Pox? Pneumonia? Did they not have these diseases in those days? Surely they did! Why leprosy? Certainly in our country leprosy is uncommon. Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp. Remember, much of the law is symbolic to speak of spiritual truth. Much of it speaks of Jesus. Much of it speaks of sin, its consequences, its spread and its removal. I think that is why God picks on leprosy. Leprosy is a debilitating disease that attacks the nervous system. It decreases the body’s ability to sense pain. Consequently the afflicted person will frequently do very severe damage to himself, simply because he cannot feel pain. Sin is that way. It decreases our ability to feel spiritual pain. It decreases our ability to feel the sense of loss from being separated from God. Leprosy is contagious with continued close contact. For that reason the Lord instructed the leper to cover his mouth (a visible sign) and cry out, “Unclean!” (an audible sign). Then people could avoid close contact and contracting leprosy. Sin is like that. It is contagious with continued close contact. “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’” 1 Cor. 15:33. Unlike lepers, sinners do not cover their mouths and proclaim, “Unclean! Unclean!” As a matter of fact, sinners rush headlong trying to lure others to join them in their practice. Misery loves company. Unlike leprosy which infected a very small percentage of the population, sin infects us all. It has corrupted us all. We are like an unclean, filthy rag. The leper doomed the bearer to living alone outside the camp. Can you imagine not only contracting this insidious disease, but also having to bear it alone? It would be like Bob Merill’s lyrics from Magoo’s Christmas Carol, “Where is a voice to answer mine back? Where are two shoes to click to my clack? I'm all alone in the world!” Sin is like that. It isolates us from one another because we instinctively know that something is wrong with us, and if anyone really knew us, they wouldn’t like us. So we wear masks, which we think will make us attractive to others. The masks become layered increasing the loneliness. But how does this speak of the glory of the Lord Jesus? In the Old Testament only two people were healed of leprosy, Miriam and Naaman. Yet, Jesus repeatedly healed the leper and gave authority to his disciples to heal the leper. Why? He was compassionate for sure. He desired to heal the whole man, not just the spirit. But it was a symbol of the spirit infected with sin. Matthew, Mark and Luke each record the healing of specific leper. Each makes it a point to record that when Jesus healed the leper, He touched him. This is an act that no other observant Jew would have done. To touch a leper would have made them unclean. Indeed, some Rabbis even boasted of throwing rocks at lepers in order to drive them away. They did not want to become unclean. Not so with Jesus! He takes our unclean body, soul and spirit and embraces us. The filth flees from Him. We are made whole and clean. We can lay down our masks. He sees our filth and loves us anyway. If we come to Him, He removes to filth and tells us to sin no more. The mask is useless. He sees through it. Others may see it, but He sees through it. When we realize that, we can let the mask down and let others see because the one for whom it really counts has already seen me and embraced me. What does it matter what anyone else thinks? That is the glory of my Jesus. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today! --Pastor john