Moses, who came down from Mount Sinai, gave a law that was rigorous in its demands that insisted on the separation of those with leprosy from the people, and for obvious reasons. It wasn't a failure of compassion on his part. All that the law could do to stem corruption was to isolate it and push it away from public life. It mitigated the risk of contagion but could not offer a cure.
When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
Jesus was like a new Moses, but one who could actually treat the root causes of things for which Moses could only address the symptoms. His words had power, not just in a legal sense, but even over the workings of nature. But it was clear that no one had authority over him. His power was untamed and unpredictable. He was Lord, in the same sense as the Lord God himself, and therefore worthy of homage. One could not automatically assume he would do something miraculous in any given case. But his compassion for those who were like sheep without a shepherd was obvious. There was good reason for the leper to hope that he would want to heal him. After all, the Lord God would desire to see creation functioning according to his original intention, not marred by sin, sickness, and death. Whether he dealt with it immediately or eventually he certainly found it intolerable to let a disease like leprosy have the last word.
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“I will do it. Be made clean.”
Jesus by no means needed to touch the leper to heal him. In other instances he healed from a distance at the power of his word. But in order for the leper to truly be healed of everything entailed by his disease this touch of Jesus was necessary. Otherwise, his body might have regained integrity but his heart would still have been wounded, not fully able to be reintegrated into the life of the community. The touch of Jesus healed his sense of himself as one defined by his illness. It had previously seemed to be an insurmountable barrier between himself and others. But Jesus overcame it and set him on a path to return to the worshiping community
Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,
but go show yourself to the priest,
and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”
In addition to this historical healing of a leper we can also learn from the event as a metaphor for sin and forgiveness. What Moses could not do because of the hardness of the people's hearts Jesus would accomplish by giving us new hearts, renewed by the Holy Spirit. He would not just address the external manifestations of sin with rules but would actually heal the problem from its root in the center of our beings. More and more we would cease to choose or even desire sinful things. But perhaps greater still, we can come to learn by his healing touch that we are lovable, something that our sinfulness causes us to doubt and disbelieve. Who would love one so twisted and fallen as we? Jesus proves that he does by his willingness to touch us. It is on this basis that we have the emotional and spiritual resources to participate in the life of the community. It isn't about us, so much as what he has done within us.
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
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