February 17, 2016 (Wednesday)
In our reading for today, we learn a lot about how to take care of the person with a skin disease. Some skin diseases were temporary and the person after a week or so could be pronounced “clean” and allowed to enter back into the community and worship. But for the person who had a serious or life-long affliction there would be no acceptance back into the community. They would have to stay outside the camp, they would have to announce their uncleanness if they passed by anyone. What an isolating life that would be. No human contact, no access to the tabernacle for worship, no spiritual guidance.
My daughter has suffered most of her life with eczema and I thought about how her life would have been so different if she had been born under Law, she would have been cut off from the community; no physical contact, no hugs, no holding, because that would make the person who came in contact with her unclean also.
This is why it is so significant that Jesus, when he healed the leper, first touches him (Matthew 8). Jesus didn’t need to touch this man to heal him, he can heal from a distance, as we know by reading just a little farther in Matthew 8 of the healing of the centurion’s servant. No this was a very significant moment for the leper and for us. He now also has access into the fellowship of believers. That is the more important healing. Physical healing is only temporary (as long as we live), but spiritual healing is eternal. I hope you understand the significance in all of this – to know that Jesus reaches out to us in our “uncleanness” to make us clean, to heal us, to forgive us of our sins.
Praising God today.
Pastor Kathy