Jesus Cleanses a Leper (Luke 5:12-17)
Luke does not tell us where this incident took place, apart from saying it occurred in a city of Galilee. Maybe he thought that there would be no point in mentioning it for his readers because most of them would have been Gentiles. Matthew and Mark record the incident, but neither mentions that it happened in an urban area. Luke’s reference is a reminder that Jesus can work anywhere.
When a person was a leper, he was in a dreadful and dismal state because at that time there was no cure for this disease. Moreover, his future was dark because the disease usually would spread over his body. The leper in this incident probably had been one for a while because he was ‘full of leprosy’. We can imagine the despair that would have marked his life. Perhaps we can also see Luke’s medical interest when he says that the man was ‘full of leprosy’.
In addition, because he was a leper, he was not allowed to enter the temple and participate in the worship of God. This prohibition by God may have been because leprosy was a contagious disease and we can understand why such a measure was necessary. It is likely that quite a time had passed since this leper had been able to participate in any of the rituals of the temple, including offering a sacrifice for his sins or participating in a fellowship offering.
There is no need to assume that this incident was the man’s conversion. After all, the text does not say that it was his conversion. The man could have been a believer for a long time. Yet we can apply the incident as a picture of conversion. At the same time we should remember that it can also be an example of a believer seeking help from the Lord.
In reality, this man had become an outcast. If he was married, he would not be in contact with his family. Whatever employment he had been involved in doing, he had ceased his work long before. If he had possessed a home, his former neighbours in that location would have forced him away. The man would have nothing and nobody to talk to, except fellow lepers.
One thing that we can say about the man is that he was in isolation. Lepers certainly knew what social isolation was. Leviticus 13:46 says about lepers: ‘He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.’ The only words he said regularly to other people was to shout out, ‘Unclean, Unclean’. When he said those words he was describing himself and saying that he was a danger to others.
The request of the leper (v. 12)
Luke says that when the leper saw Jesus he fell on his face. This may mean that he knelt before Jesus and put his face to the ground. His body language was an expression of reverence. Luke informs us that the man expressed his desperation – he begged Jesus for help.
His words reveal that he knew who Jesus was – he addressed him as Lord. He also recognised the authority of Jesus when he said that Jesus could either heal him or not heal him. And his words also reveal that he was aware of the ability of Jesus to heal him.
Earlier we mentioned that we can view this incident as an example of a distressed believer engaging in prayer or see it as a picture of the conversion of a sinner. Let’s think briefly about engaging in prayer. The first application is to ask ourselves if our body language is compatible with a sense of desperation. There are many things that should make us desperate in prayer. We want people to be converted, we want the church to be revived, we want the kingdom to expand. It is a mistake to assume that reverence and politeness are the same thing. Prayer may require tears and agitation if it is an expression of all that is within us.
The leper also recognised the sovereignty of Jesus. Prayer is never an instruction to God; it must always be a humble request. At the same time, we will recognise the ability of the Lord to give an answer to our prayers, even to the extent of being able to do far above all that we can ask or imagine, as Paul reminds us in Ephesians 3:20.
The request of the leper is also an illustration of how a sinner should approach Jesus in order to be converted. Such an individual must come humbly to him, recognising that he is the Lord. The desire for his mercy must be very strong and such a longing can affect us in a physical way. Longing for mercy is not merely an intellectual argument, it can be a very deep emotional response to the gospel offer.
How does such a person recognise the sovereignty of God? He looks at the promises that the Lord has made and uses them in his approach when asking for pardon and forgiveness. Those promises are the word of a King who always keeps them. So when a sinner asks for mercy, he can do so with the confidence that comes from taking seriously the divine promises. After all, each of the promises is an expression of God’s ability to fulfil them. The Bible is full of his great and precious promises, each of which contain references to the things he can provide. There are many encouraging promises in the Bible with regard to what the Lord will give to those who seek his favour through the gospel. If that is where any of us are at this moment, we can use those promises in prayer and ask the Lord to show mercy to us.
The response of Jesus (v. 13)
Usually, when someone heard or saw a leper, he would increase the distance between himself and the leper. We can see from Luke’s description that Jesus did the opposite. Instead of putting his hands behind his back, ‘Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.’ The word that is used for ‘touch’ does not mean a slight pat. Instead, it means to grip or to hold.
It was the case in the Jewish ritual for declaring that a leper had been cleansed that a priest would examine the individual in order to check if the sore was leprous or not. But that was not the reason why Jesus touched the man. It was also the case that if a person touched a leper, that person became ceremoniously unclean, rendered unfit to worship God until he had offered a sacrifice at the temple. Jesus did not regard that as problematic for him.
Why did Jesus touch the man? I suspect he did it out of sympathy, perhaps also giving a sign to him that his disease was not contagious as far as Jesus was concerned. Was Jesus concerned about what people would think about him touching the leper? After all, anyone that witnessed his action would think that Jesus had become ceremoniously unclean in the sight of the temple leaders and would need to offer a sacrifice for cleansing. Who worshipped in the temple usually? Sinners did because anytime they went there they had to offer a sacrifice for their sins. I am not aware of any reference which says that Jesus offered a sacrifice of any kind at the temple. His actions would tell anyone who witnessed the event that Jesus was very different. People who saw it could only make one of two conclusions: either he did not care about what God said about the rituals, but such a deduction would be wrong because shortly afterwards he told the man to obey those requirements. The other conclusion can only be that Jesus did not need what the sacrifices illustrated – forgiveness from God and restoration to God. As Calvin commented, ‘The stretching out of his hand was therefore an expression and token of infinite grace and goodness.’
Unlike the Jewish priest who had to take some time investigating if a leper had been truly cleansed (Lev. 15), Jesus just announced that he had the power to remove all signs of leprosy from the man. He did not just have the power to do it, he also had the power to do it immediately. As Matthew Henry said, ‘One word, one touch, from Christ, did the business.’ The leper had a personal experience of the authority that Jesus possessed when performing miracles. His earnest prayer had been heard, and the man was made new in a moment. This is a wonderful illustration of what happens when God regenerates a person. Usually when a clean person touched an unclean person, the clean person became unclean. It was the opposite with Jesus. When he touched an unclean leper, the leper became clean, immediately.
So the man received from Jesus what he requested. Amazing kindness was shown to him. He was now able to take his place once more in society. He could also travel with the crowds and listen quietly to Jesus and discover more about his incredible intentions. But Jesus did have something in mind that the man should do.
The requirement of Jesus (v. 14)
Maybe Jesus sensed that the man would be so excited about his cure that he would forget what God’s Word said he should do. Whether that was the case with the man, we cannot say, but we can see that Jesus wanted the man to honour the Word of God and do what is outlined in Leviticus 13 and 14 about the examination of a leper by a priest. If the leprosy was gone, the priest would announce it, and the cleansed leper would offer appropriate sacrifices.
The requirement was quite a demanding one. Jesus had healed the leper in Galilee, but the place where the priest would examine the man was in Jerusalem. So the healed leper would need to travel to Jerusalem. Once there he would be examined by the priest, who would pronounce him clean and offer sacrifices. Then the healed leper ‘shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but live outside his tent seven days. And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.’ On the following day, the cleansed leper ‘shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and one log of oil.’ He would take them to the priest who would use those items in a set of sacrifices. If the former leper was a poor man, he was allowed to offer sacrifices that would cost less.
As we listen to the instruction of Jesus to the man, we can see that the healed leper is being challenged as to whether or not his confession of Jesus as Lord was as comprehensive as it sounded. He was also asked to do something that he could only do once, and if he did not do it right away he would lose the opportunity of ever doing it.
Jesus also wanted the man to engage in this required activity as ‘a proof to them’. If the healed leper went to the temple, the authorities there would be forced to recognise two details about Jesus. The first was that Jesus had the power to heal lepers, which would be evidence that he was the Messiah. The second was that Jesus required of those he helped that they acknowledge the authority of the Word of God. We would assume that given the fact that the man had been healed by Jesus, he would gladly have obeyed Jesus.
What did the man do? Luke does not tell us, but Mark does in his description of the man’s response. He writes; ‘But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter’ (Mark 1:45). In effect, the man gave an account of his experience everywhere, but each time he did so, he was being disobedient to Jesus.
Calvin comments about the man’s response: ‘This example shows us, that those who allow themselves to be guided by inconsiderate zeal act improperly, because the more eager they are to please God, the greater progress do they make in rebellion to his commands.’
The result of the miracle (v. 15)
Luke mentions that many people heard about what Jesus was doing and they came to hear him and be healed. It sounds very good, and no doubt it was for those who Jesus helped. Mark, however, adds another consequence that came from the healed leper’s disobedience, which was ‘that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town’. The man’s action made it more difficult for needy people in towns to be helped by Jesus unless they went out to the countryside, which would have been difficult for some of them.
The resolve of Jesus
The final detail that Luke mentions about this period is that Jesus ‘would withdraw to desolate places and pray’. While many things could be said about this detail, an obvious application is that if the Son of God prayed about his activities, how much more should we!
What did Jesus pray about? Did he pray about the disobedient leper? We cannot say, but he would have had to pray about some of the consequences of the leper’s disobedience because those consequences were hindering his ministry in that area. It was good for the progress of the kingdom that Jesus was burdened to pray about it continually. And something similar still happens today, even though his place of intercession and means of intercession are very different.
Application
First, the activities of Jesus are wonderful. What Jesus did for this man would encourage him for the rest of his life. Every time he looked at his hands or his feet he would see the evidence of the power of Jesus. Even when he used utensils to eat his food, the fact that he could bend his fingers would remind him of the day he had asked Jesus for help. Nothing in his subsequent life would deny the amazing wonder that his life had been changed by Jesus irrevocably.
Second, the evidence of the presence of faith is that one goes to Jesus. The leper could have wasted his time talking about asking Jesus to help him. If he has asked others what they thought, some may have encouraged him to proceed whereas others may have not. But their opinions were irrelevant until he actually went and asked Jesus to help him. Having a discussion about faith is not the same as exercising faith. Faith has direct, personal dealings with Jesus.
Third, obedience is more important than doing what we think is suitable. The man was very enthusiastic in his response to his cure and it is possible that many people were impressed by what he said about the power of Christ experienced in his life. Yet all he was doing was failing to obey a clear instruction of Jesus. What mattered was not what the crowds thought, but what Jesus thought. In the Old Testament, we are told that obedience is better than sacrifice.
Fourth, we should not the danger of missing one-time opportunities. This man would never have the opportunity of doing his required action at the right time. It was gone forever. No matter how much discipleship he showed afterwards, he would always have this regret, even if his actions were forgiven by the One who healed him. Is that not often the case with us? We are given opportunities in providence to use for Christ, but sometimes we fail, and those opportunities are gone.