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He Touched Me!

From Matthew 8:1-3

By Guy K. Henry 

www.guyhenry.com

I hadn’t paid much attention to the sore spot on my left thumb. It had been there for a while. I figured that the hard work I did in the fields kept the sore from healing. Besides, I only had time to worry about the important things, and my thumb wasn’t on the list.

One evening I was eating supper with my family. I had worked hard that day, and everything tasted wonderful. I was eating well.

“Honey,” I said to my wife, “The carrots, I believe that they are the best carrots I’ve ever tasted! Would you please pass me the bowl?”

“Cyrus, I fixed them the same way I always do.” She said as she lifted the dish.

I stretched out my hand to grab the bowl.

Suddenly, my wife screamed and dropped the carrots onto the floor. I quickly looked behind me to see what had scared my wife. I expected to see a robber, or a pack of angry dogs, but instead, all was quiet. I turned back to her. Her face was still expressing fear.

“The carrots dear,” I moaned, “I really wanted some more of those wonderful carrots.” I looked at the beautiful carrots and wondered how difficult it would be to wipe the sand off of them.

Then my wife spoke. “Your hands. Look at your hands!”

Leave it to her to over react. Then, for the first time in a few weeks, I looked at my own hands. There was something different.

I slowly brought my hands closer. I studied the patchwork of sores that now covered them. “I hadn’t noticed that before…”

My wife was now crying, “Cyrus, that looks like leprosy.”

That made me angry. “It can’t be! It’s a rash. It’s just a rash, and to prove it, I’ll show it to the priest in the morning.”

The temple priest was he expert when it came to these things. My wife’s expression eased a little. Then she closed her eyes, probably to pray. She opened them, and said, “You’d better go now.”

She left the room. Now I was aware of two sets of eyes fixed upon me. My children, three and four years old, hadn’t a clue what the word ‘leprosy’ meant. They were silent as their eyes followed me pacing the room.

I stopped and took notice of their smooth, unblemished hands. A new chord of fear struck my heart as I imagined my children crying while leprosy attacked their own skin. “I’ll be right back,” I said as I started for the door, “go and see about your mother.”

I grabbed my cloak, not for warmth, but so that I’d have a place to hide my hands. It was strange how I hadn’t paid any notice to my hands for weeks, and how now all I could think about was my hands.

I walked down the street towards the priest’s home. “It can’t possibly be leprosy,” I reasoned to myself. Fear started to pound my heart as I started to grasp how my life would change if this rash were indeed leprosy.

If the priest declared that it was leprosy, I’d have to leave my family behind. So contagious is leprosy that if I were to stay with them I’d certainly cause them to break out with the disease. What if I had already given it to them?!

“Oh, please don’t be leprosy!” I said aloud. Thankfully, the street was empty, and no one heard my unguarded outburst.

I started to realize that if it were leprosy, I’d no longer be able to work my fields again. No sane person would ever buy crops from a known leper. What would my family do for money?

“It just can’t be leprosy!” I thought to myself.

I’d loose my friends. I’d be banned from the temple. If a healthy person approached me, I’d be obligated to shout, “UNCLEAN, UNCLEAN, UNCLEAN!” to warn them off. I am a respected man, that would be humiliating!

“Lord, Please don’t let it be leprosy,” I prayed as I came to stand at the priest’s front door.

I took my hand out of my cloak and started to knock on the door. My knuckles barely grazed the door as a blanket of fear fell over me. I stood in the cold night air, fearful that my life was about to change horribly. I shook, not from cold, but because I stood at the edge of ruin.

From around the corner, a dog started to bark at me. I thought of running away, but the door opened.

“Can I help you?” asked the surprised priest.

“I, ahh, umm,…” words escaped me.

The experienced priest tried to help me. “Do you have something to show me?”

I nodded.

“Let me see,” he calmly said.

I slowly drew my hands out from the safety of my cloak.

The priest looked for a full minute, never touching them. “Stay here,” he tersely said.

I stood in the priest’s yard, ready to cry. In am moment he returned with a lamp.

“Let me get a good look,” he said.

He bent and stooped and crooned in all directions to examine my hands. He was very careful not to touch them.

“I’m sorry Cyrus,” he said. I was surprised that he knew my name. “You have leprosy.”

I fell to the ground and wept while he told me what the law required me to do.

“Get up,” he directed, loud enough to be heard above my sobs.

He led me out of the city. Whenever we would meet some one, he would loudly exclaim, “UNCLEAN, UNCLEAN!” and point to me.

A while out from the city he stopped. “Continue to those hills” he said as he pointed to the horizon, “and make your home there. I believe you’ll find a few other lepers living there.” At first that repulsed me, until I realized that I was now one of them.

As I walked sadly away he warned me, “If you encounter anyone, it is your duty to announce, “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!”

I grunted an answer, and continued to walk towards the hills.

I walked through the night. As the sun started to light the sky I was startled by a loud, distant voice. “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!”

Shaken from a daze, and remembering the priest’s warning I responded with, “Unclean, Unclean!” Suddenly, the man started to run towards me. I realized that he too was a leper.

He greeted me. “Hey! My name is Zeddediah! You can call me Zed.”

I stumbled for words. Neither of us shook hands, and we knew why.

Zed turned out to be a great friend. I’m not sure if I’d have made it without his help. He showed me to some caved, which provided shelter. He knew which plants could be eaten. Most of all, Zed was a friendly voice, without which I’d have starved from loneliness.

There were other lepers scattered on the mountain. Most had become hermits, and had no desire to know me. Over the course of two years I learned to live off of the land. The leprosy was spreading quickly and I was quickly losing my eyesight.

Normally, not much traffic passed through our valley. One day there was a difference. Zed and I had counted six families as we hid in the shrubbery on the mountain. “There must be something going on!” Zed exclaimed, having never seen anything like this.

By noon the next day we had counted thirteen more families. We were trying to reason out what their mission was when we heard a voice behind us.

“Excuse me, but I am lost,” said a small boy on crutches.

Taken by surprise, we leapt to our feet and dutifully cried out, “Unclean! Unclean!”

The little boy was scared, and started to cry. “I’m lost!” he sobbed.

Without getting closer, Zed and I pointed to a family that was crossing the valley. “Just follow them,” Zed said.

I called out to him, “Boy! What is going on?”

“It’s Jesus!” he said now smiling. “I’m going to meet him and be healed!” With that he turned and hobbled down the hillside.

I had heard about Jesus. There were some unbelievable stories going around about the things He said and did.

“Zed,” I asked, “Why don’t we go to this Jesus and see if He will heal us?”

Zed’s face turned sour. “Why would you go to him?” he sneered. “He’s not come for us. Have you forgotten that we are lepers?”

“But Zed,” I tried to explain.

“As soon as he sees you coming, he and his followers will run for their lives, if they don’t stone you first, “ Zed predicted.

“Zed, I believe that Jesus can heal me,” I said, “and I am going to him.”

With that I left Zed for the long trek back to the city. This was the same city that had thrown me out two years ago. It was the same city I had avoided to keep from infecting my family with leprosy. It was the same city, except that now Jesus was there. I just knew He was able to heal me, even when no one else could.

I moved quickly, and caught sight of the city just as the sky started to turn orange in the morning. Just outside of the city walls was a great crowd of people. “That’s where Jesus is!” I said aloud as I started running.

As I passed people I warned them with an out of breath “Unclean! Unclean!” When I came to the edge of the crowd, there was a panic. People ran in all directions crying, “A leper! A leper!”

This cleared a path for me and I easily moved through the mob. Before too long I came to stand before Jesus. He was not running. I fell at his feet and cried, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean!”

I knew in my heart that I had come to the right person. As I pressed my diseased face into the ground, I felt the great power in this man. What He did next, stole my breath. Jesus reached out, and laid his hand on my head. He touched me! Everybody knows that no one ever touches a leper! Yet, his hand now rested firmly on my head.

From the start I knew that Jesus would give me one of two possible answers. He might say, “Get away from me you hideous monster!” He didn’t say that. Instead he said these soothing, healing words, “I will, be thou clean!”

Instantly, I felt a change occurring in my hands, face, and eyes. The sores were healed! Indeed, my skin looked better than it had since my childhood!

Shortly I found myself standing before the priest’s front door. I felt very different than the last time I stood there. My insides fluttered with joy. This time I couldn’t wait to show myself to the priest.

“Cyrus!” he exclaimed, “What are you doing here!”

“Look! Look!” I screamed, showing him my arms, “I am clean!!!! I am cured!!!”

He looked me over very carefully. After a while he declared, “Cyrus, I don’t understand it. You are clean!”

“I know that!” I joyfully shouted. “Once I was a hopeless case, but now because of Jesus, I am made clean!”

Why did Jesus heal the leper?

Was it Jesus’ compassionate heart?

Was it the tremendous power He held in His hands?

Was it an expression of His love?

Certainly! But there was more!

When Jesus saw the leper, he saw deeper into him than anyone else had. Jesus’ gaze penetrated past his diseased skin and fell upon his heart, his inner being. Jesus saw three things in the leper, and when He did, He unleashed his healing power on him.

Jesus saw faith. The leper believed that Jesus was able to heal him.

Then Jesus saw trust. The leper placed all his trust in Jesus.

Finally, Jesus heard the leper make a request. That did it! The gates of God’s mercy, grace, and blessing cranked open and flooded this otherwise hopeless leper. He was now healed and clean!

Whether we know it, at one time we were more hopeless than the leper! Because we defied the law set down by the creator of everything, our un-cleanness far exceeded that of any leper. Because of our sin, we are in desperate need of Jesus and His cleansing hand.

Acts 16:31 tells us, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” When we recognize our serious problem, and the fact that we are hopeless to repair it, we are ready to come to Jesus. Like the leper, we need faith. We need to have faith that Jesus is who He says He is. We need to have faith that acknowledges that because of His death on the cross, He is able to make us clean from sin.

Then, after faith, we must place our trust in Jesus. The leper had faith in Jesus, even while he was afar. When he threw himself at Jesus’ feet and risked the little he had left, then he had trust in Jesus.

After that, he made a request of Jesus. He asked that Jesus make him clean. It seems like those were the words Jesus was waiting to hear.  In the same way, Jesus waits for us to ask Him to cleanse us from our sin.

Notice Jesus’ wonderful answer. “I will, be thou clean.” Right then, healing and cleaning were let loose.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t answer like this? :

“Yuck! Get away from me!”

No, He didn’t say that to the leper. Neither will He answer us like that when we come to Him.

Jesus didn’t tell the leper, “Great start, and now here is a list of things I want you to do first. When you’re done, come back, and we’ll talk about your problem.”

That would have been a miserable answer. Instead, Jesus’ healing was immediate. As soon as the leper muttered the words, the healing was done.

Has sin fractured your relationship with God? Is it standing between you and Him? Have you noticed that good works don’t seem to fix the problem? If you’ve tried being religious, has that failed you too? At some time in each of our lives, we need to come to Jesus like the leper. We need faith. We need trust. We need to request that He make us clean.

Matthew 8:1-3

(1)  When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

(2)  And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

(3)  And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

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