Jesus vs. Leprosy (Matthew 8:1-4)
Jesus vs. Leprosy
Matthew 8:1-4
We are now entering a new section in Matthew’s gospel.
Matthew opened the gospel with the Lineage of the King.
• We saw His earthly lineage. (1:1-17)
• We then saw His heavenly lineage. (1:18-2:23)
Following that we saw the herald of the king (3:1-12)
And then the King appeared.
We saw the coronation of the King (3:13-17)
Following that we saw the testing of the King. (4:1-11)
• Jesus went to the wilderness to be tested by the devil.
Then we saw the purpose of the King. (4:12-17)
• He is light in the midst of darkness
• He is hope to the hopeless
We then saw the King’s men (4:18-22)
And then the king began His ministry (4:23-25)
Matthew 4:23-25 “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Large crowds followed Him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.”
Now I know it has been several months since we studied that passage, but in the scheme of studying the book, that is still were we are.
We took a few months and saw the message of the King (5-7)
But you know that this likely took an afternoon.
The point is the King has just begun to make Himself known
He did so through amazing demonstrations of healing,
And the crowd is mesmerized by Him.
And that is why, even after the sermon,
You still see quite a frenzy regarding Him.
(1) “When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him.”
The crowds are amazed at this man.
He heals everything.
He casts out demons.
He speaks with authority.
It is no wonder that “large crowds followed Him”
And so we are back now to following Matthew
As he systematically introduces the king.
And after revealing to us all those previous things about the king,
We now come to Matthew’s next point.
That is the Power of the King.
And Matthew reveals this in chapters 8 & 9 of his gospel.
I’ve often quoted to you that passage in John’s gospel:
John 21:25 “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”
And that reminds us that none of these guys
Were giving a historical document on Jesus.
There is much that He did that has never been written down.
And that means that what is written down
Was written down to make a theological point.
And that is what we have here.
Matthew is systematically showing you the power of Jesus.
These chapters contain many miracles, and they show us Jesus’ power.
• We see His power over sickness.
• We see His power over nature.
• We see His power over demons.
• We see His power over sin.
• We see His power over death.
They are all pictures of His authority,
And Matthew shows them to solidify in your mind
That Jesus really is the Messiah of God.
(8:17)
No one could do these things if God was not with Him.
And the first miracle Matthew uses is the one we study this morning
As we see Jesus vs. Leprosy.
There are 4 main points I want you to see.
#1 A CONTAMINATED MAN
Matthew 8:2a
“And a leper came to Him”
First and foremost I just want you to understand
What Jesus is actually up against.
I know sometimes we read His miracles and get so familiar with them
That they sort of lose their luster.
First of all let me just tell you about leprosy.
Leprosy is a chronic illness that has never been fully understood.
And in Jesus day it was highly contagious.
You could spread it with your breath,
You could spread it by touching common objects.
And it has really only been with medical advances
That we have really understood what leprosy does.
It appears to rot the flesh.
What it essentially did was numb the physical sense of pain.
And to many that seems like a great disease (one without pain)
But what that meant was that it pushed the body
Into a sort of self-mutilating condition.
Physical pain is a tremendous warning
That keeps you from doing something truly destructive,
And if that warning is removed,
You can do serious damage to your body before you even realize it.
Coupled with that, there seemed to have been a certain decaying factor
That went along with it.
One man wrote of leprosy:
“The disease which we today call leprosy generally begins with pain in certain areas of the body. Numbness follows. Soon the skin in such spots loses its original color. It gets to be thick, glossy, and scaly…As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. The skin, especially around the eyes and ears, begins to bunch, with deep furrows between the swellings, so that the face of the afflicted individual begins to resemble that of a lion. Fingers drop off or are absorbed; toes are affected similarly. Eyebrows and eyelashes drop out. By this time one can see the person in this pitiable condition is a leper. By a touch of the finger one can also feel it. One can even smell it, for the leper emits a very unpleasant odor. Moreover, in view of the fact that the disease-producing agent frequently also attacks the larynx, the leper’s voice acquires a grating quality. His throat becomes hoarse, and you can now not only see, feel, and smell the leper, but you can hear his rasping voice. And if you stay with him for some time, you can even imagine a peculiar taste in your mouth, probably due to the odor.”
(MacArthur commentary, page 7)
And so with leprosy what you actually have is a disease
That numbs the body to its own natural warning system,
And thus the body self destroys.
It is a particularly cruel disease.
That in and of itself would be enough to pity this man who came to Jesus.
But aside from the disease you need to understand how it was viewed.
Being sick was one thing.
Dealing with pain was one thing.
You could be sick and still get sympathy from others.
You could be cripple and still get sympathy from others.
But if you had leprosy there was no such sympathy.
Those with leprosy were viewed as those stricken by God.
And that with good reason
Remember when Miriam challenged Moses?
She was made leprous.
Remember when Gehazi became greedy for Naaman’s money?
God made him a leper.
Remember when Uzziah insisted upon offering the sacrifice?
God made him a leper.
And so leprosy was often viewed as a supernatural punishment
Or consequence upon a person.
It was a rotting disease that you brought on yourself.
And if that is why if you had leprosy, you weren’t considered sick,
You were considered UNCLEAN.
Leviticus 13:45-46 “As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ “He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
Lepers were not treated with sympathy, lepers were treated as outcasts,
And this was a command from God.
No doubt in once sense to stop the spread,
But it also seemed it had to do with judgment from God.
And so lepers received no mercy.
• One Rabbi spoke of throwing rocks at lepers to keep them away.
• Another said, “I would not buy an egg off a street that a leper had walked down.”
Lepers were viewed as a disgusting, rotten, menace to society.
And so not only was your body destroying itself,
You were also seen to have brought this on yourself,
And were banished from all fellowship from your fellow man.
That is leprosy and this man was contaminated with it.
A Contaminated Man
#2 A CONFIDENT MAN
Matthew 8:2b
“And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Now what we immediately notice is the confidence of this man.
And you see that confidence in two areas.
1) In His Approach
“a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him”
Now please remember that this was strictly forbidden.
Numbers 5:2-4 “Command the sons of Israel that they send away from the camp every leper and everyone having a discharge and everyone who is unclean because of a dead person. “You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.” The sons of Israel did so and sent them outside the camp; just as the LORD had spoken to Moses, thus the sons of Israel did.”
This man wasn’t supposed to approach people.
He was supposed to yell, “Unclean! Unclean!” to everyone near him.
And apparently he could expect people to throw rocks if he got too close.
And yet, this man was confident that he could approach Jesus.
Obviously He was confident in the merciful compassion of Jesus.
He certainly had heard of all His healings,
And knew Jesus to be a compassionate person.
He was not afraid to approach Him.
He was confident that if he did, Jesus would listen.
That does not mean the man walked arrogantly up to Him.
“came to Him and bowed down before Him”
The word there for “bowed down” is PROSKUNEO
It literally means “to prostate oneself”
And you have seen it before
Matthew 2:2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
That word is commonly translated “worship”
This man didn’t come in arrogance or even boldness.
Nor did He come in greed.
This man came first and foremost to worship the King.
He came and worshiped Jesus,
And he was confident Jesus would accept him.
So we see his confident approach
2) In His Statement
“and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Now please notice here the way this man spoke to Jesus.
So many today treat Jesus like a servant.
Declaring His name to remove illnesses
And even seeking to blackmail Him with promises that are claimed.
This man did not come boss Jesus, He called Jesus “Lord”
And furthermore he did not even request anything of Him.
He said, “If you are willing, You can make me clean.”
This man submitted himself to the will of the sovereign king.
He had no doubt that Jesus could heal him.
The only issue was whether or not it was His will to do so.
And that is truly a submissive attitude.
• We don’t come demanding anything from God.
• We don’t come before God as though we are worthy or deserving of anything.
• We come to God in humility casting ourselves upon His sovereign will and His tremendous mercy.
That is what this man did.
And when he did, he was confident
That Jesus would listen and that Jesus could heal him.
A Contaminated Man A Confident Man
#3 A CLEANSED MAN
Matthew 8:3
It is obvious that this man’s decision to come see Jesus was a wise one.
Jesus came through.
And please notice how.
“Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him”
And this is absolutely amazing!
Even today, leprosy exists.
It is called Hanson’s Disease.
But today 90% of the world is immune to it.
Furthermore the other 10% can be treated (not cured, but treated)
Yet even today no doctor alive would do what Jesus just did.
(They would certainly wear their latex gloves)
Jesus took a man that people wouldn’t have come within 10 feet of
And actually touched him.
And then He said, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
“And immediately the leprosy was cleansed.”
Now imagine that sight!
• Here was a man with a raspy voice.
• Here was a man with a definite stench.
• Here was a man possibly missing fingers or toes.
• Here was a man with no eyebrows.
• Here was a man with a wrinkled face like a lion.
• Here was a man with open wounds.
And instantly, his body was restored.
• Missing fingers reappeared.
• Missing eyebrows grew into place.
• A raspy voice became clear.
• A wrinkled face smoothed into health.
• Open wounds closed up.
And they all did it instantly.
This was an actual bonified miracle.
John MacArthur wrote, “When Jesus healed, He did so with a word or a touch, without gimmicks, formulas, or fanfare. He healed instantaneously, with no drawn out period of waiting or of gradual restoration. He healed totally, not partially, no matter how serious the disease or deformity. He healed everyone who came to Him and even some who never saw Him. He healed organic as well as functional afflictions. Most dramatically and powerfully of all, He even raised the dead.” (pg. 4)
This was a miracle.
Matthew wants you to see without a shadow of a doubt
That this is the work of God.
You may remember when Naaman the leper wanted to go to Israel to be healed by Elisha. The King of Aram sent Naaman to the Israelite king to be healed.
2 Kings 5:7 “When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? But consider now, and see how he is seeking a quarrel against me.”
Everyone knew that healing leprosy was only the work of God.
And that is why Matthew showed you that Jesus healed it.
John 5:36 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
Matthew wanted you to see that Jesus is indeed the Messiah.
Matthew wanted you to see that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.
And that is made clear as we see this contaminated man made clean.
A Contaminated Man A Confident Man A Cleansed Man
#4 A COMMISSIONED MAN
Matthew 4:4
Now this is an interesting statement.
Jesus just worked a great miracle to cleanse this man
And yet told him not to tell anyone.
“but go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Jesus told him not to tell anyone,
But that does not mean that Jesus didn’t want them to know.
Jesus wanted this man to testify.
But he wanted his testimony to be obedience, not word of mouth.
Don’t just go tell everyone, you go obey God.
(Isn’t that what we just learned in the Sermon on the Mount)
And by the way, if you go obey God, people will know.
The sad thing is this man did not obey, and it caused difficulty for Jesus.
Mark 1:40-45 “And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”
Jesus knew what He was doing, but the man didn’t.
And by disobeying Jesus, he actually hindered Jesus’ ministry.
And so we see that even though he was cleansed,
Obedience was still vitally important to how he lived.
Now, in case you haven’t already picked up on it,
This miracle is obviously about more than just leprosy.
(all of His miracles were)
Jesus didn’t just come to heal, His ultimate goal was to save from sin.
And quite frankly there was no disease in Scripture
That was more comparable to sin, than leprosy.
Leprosy was a disease that would numb your body until your body ended up destroying itself.
• Sin is a disease that will numb your conscience until your soul ends up destroying itself.
Leprosy was a disease thought to be brought on oneself because of choices they made in life.
• Sin is a disease that is also brought on oneself because of choices that are made.
Leprosy separates man from man.
• Sin separates man from God.
In fact, if you want to see how closely related sin is to leprosy,
Just listen to what Paul told the Ephesians:
Ephesians 4:17-19 “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”
Leprosy is an accurate illustration of sin.
And like this man, we are all contaminated.
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
We are all contaminated.
Yet, despite our contamination and rotting away,
We can have confidence that Jesus will accept us.
If we come to Him, we know that He will listen.
And if we come in humility and submission, believing that He can save, Scripture says He will do it.
Just as Jesus touched this man, so He will touch us.
And He is free to do it, for He Himself is uncontaminated by sin.
He will touch us and instantly make us new.
He will touch us and instantly make us clean.
He will touch us and instantly remove the marks of sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Salvation is that kind of a miracle.
• No different than Lazarus one minute being dead, and then alive.
• No different than this man one minute being leprous, and then clean.
• So a sinner can one minute be a sinner, and the very next a saint.
Jesus saves the same way He heals.
I read you MacArthur’s quote about how Jesus healed.
You could easily substitute the word “healed” with the word “saves”
“When Jesus saves, He does so with a word or a touch, without gimmicks, formulas, or fanfare. He saves instantaneously, with no drawn out period of waiting or of gradual restoration. He saves totally, not partially, no matter how serious the sin or wickedness. He saves everyone who comes to Him and even some who have never seen Him with their eyes. He saves from habitual as well as incidental sins. Most dramatically and powerfully of all, He even raises the spiritually dead.”
That is the true miracle.
And just as that man’s wrinkled face was instantly made new,
So is the sinner’s heart instantly transformed.
• It is not self-help.
• It is not a new moral code.
• It cannot be purchased at a drugstore.
• It cannot be learned at a local church.
• It cannot be attained through years of spiritual therapy.
The salvation of Jesus can only be instantaneously received
By a touch from the Master’s hand.
When you come to Him humbly, submissively, and yet confidently in faith, Jesus will bestow this same miracle on you.
The Contaminated are still Cleansed.
And the cleansed are still commissioned.
Not primarily to go and tell everyone they are now saved,
But to go and show everyone they are saved by their obedient life.
He wanted this man to go show himself to the priest as a testimony, and he has a plan for you as well.
That plan is that you be baptized.
• If you have yielded your life to Christ…
• If you have come to Him for spiritual healing…
• Then He asking you to now follow in obedience.
You be baptized as a testimony of your changed life.
Jesus isn’t looking for a whole bunch of people
Who say they are Christians but who refuse to obey Him.
He wants that person who, because of his transformed life,
Will now simply do what he is told and obey.
I know we just finished the Sermon on the Mount,
And it was full of conviction.
And it is quite possible that some of you during that time
Cried out to Jesus and received that same spiritual healing.
• No you didn’t walk the aisle,
• But you did bow before Jesus,
• And you know you were healed because the old wrinkles are gone, and the fingers have grown back.
It is obvious that He has changed you.
Now you need to step out and obey Him by being baptized.
Otherwise you are very likely just getting in His way,
And hindering Him from what He wants to do.
So this morning, if you come as a spiritual leper, then know that Jesus can make you clean.
And if you come as a cleansed leper, then know that obedience is what Jesus wants most from you.
And let your life be forever a testimony
That Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God.
