Unclean! 03/02/2022

Read Mark 1: 40-45

Here we have a description of the healing of a leper. I have personally never met anyone with leprosy nor have I ever heard of anyone in this country with this condition. So it is difficult for us to grasp the significance of this incident. There are only two records in the Gospel of lepers being healed (or cleansed), although the Old Testament has several references to leprosy. Most Bible dictionaries and encyclopaedias will tell us that the word used can describe a variety of skin conditions and this has the effect of devaluing the importance of this miracle. I want to suggest that this man did not just have a skin condition which was annoying or unsightly. He had leprosy. You can see his eagerness to be cured from this disease which affected him.

There are still parts of the world where leprosy exists and it is still a vicious, deadly condition. If we play down the disease, we lose much of the meaning of this miracle. Jesus intervened in the life of a man who was in a desperate condition. Leprosy affected not only the skin but it gradually impacted on the blood and the bones and all the flesh of its victims. It was a degenerative rotting condition which would result in loss of limbs or sight or hearing or other faculties. In the Old Testament, there are many laws to prevent the spread of this incurable disease among the Israelites. The leper was declared unclean and was excommunicated from his own household and his own village. He had to live in a leper colony outside the village. He had to make sure that people did not accidentally approach him. No one would go near him to help him or make his life more comfortable.

In the book of Numbers we have a description of what happened when Miriam offended God and openly maligned the character of her brother, Moses. She became leprous and was described as 'white as snow.' Here is what her brother, Aaron said when he asked Moses to intervene on behalf of their sister:

So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned! Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its mother’s womb!” [Numbers 12:11-12 NET]

It is clear that Aaron recognised the seriousness of Miriam's condition and he compared her to a stillborn child that was deformed.

To get to the cleansing of this leper. This leper was so eager to meet Jesus. He gets down on his knees and begs Jesus to help him. He tells Jesus that he has the power to heal him if he is willing to help him. The verses tell us that Jesus was moved with compassion at the sight of this man. He then does something which might not seem significant to us but which was very significant in those days. Jesus actually touched this poor leper - not many would think about doing that. They did not want to catch the disease for themselves. Jesus declared openly that he wanted to heal him. The healing was again instantaneous.

And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean [Mark 1:42 ESV].

This short description of the cleansing of the leper is a picture of what can happen to us when we have an encounter with Jesus Christ. We are not lepers - but we are sinners and sin is like leprosy in the sight of God. It is something loathsome and repulsive. But God loves us in our loathsome condition. More than that God's Son took the place of the sinner (described in language reminiscent of leprosy) and made our cleansing possible. He took our sins to the cross and carried them so that we could experience cleansing from sin. This comes about by faith in the Son of God - just in the same way as the leper trusted that Jesus could heal him.

In the well-known but difficult passage in Isaiah 53, God's Servant is described as someone who had a horrible illness which made people unwilling or unable to look at him.

Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted. [Isaiah 53:4 ESV]

Here is the same verse in the Jewish Orthodox Bible.

Surely he hath borne our sufferings, and nasah (carried) our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of G-d, and afflicted. [Yeshayah 53:4 - The Orthodox Jewish Bible]

This translation provides a footnote for the word 'stricken' which explains 'like a leper is stricken.' Notice that they omit a vowel in the word 'God' as Jews consider it too sacred a word to utter.

So we lose a lot of the significance of this passage if we downplay the significance of the condition of leprosy. The fact is that this verse in the Old Testament declares that Jesus took the leper's place on the cross. People were shocked and disgusted at his appearance - he had been brutally assaulted by both zealous and indignant officers of the high priest as well as by callous Roman soldiers so that his appearance was revolting. He was prepared to do all of this so that we could be cleansed from our incurable illness - not leprosy but sin.

Here is how Eugene Peterson in The Message describes the appearance of God's Son on the cross.

At first everyone was appalled.

He didn’t even look human—

a ruined face, disfigured past recognition. [Isaiah 52:14 MSG]

This is a wonderful truth that Jesus took the place of the sinner (leper) so that we could be cleansed and appear in God's sight completely cleansed - no trace of the defiling condition of sin (leprosy).

[Greek Island of Spinalonga - a former leper colony. Photo by Evangelos Mpikakis on Unsplash]