Matthew 8:3

SIN AND ITS CLEANSING

‘And Jesus put forth His hand and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.’

Matthew 8:3

These words, spoken to a leper, were the very last words that any one, save He Who spake them, would have dreamed of saying. Most men, if they had spoken at all, would have bidden him keep his distance. But the words on the lips of Jesus were words of real authority, and a mysterious virtue went forth simultaneously with them from the Speaker, and made the leper whole—‘Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.’

I. A great example to be followed.—The words of Jesus not only express the tenderest pity for the sufferer, but likewise His abhorrence of the disease which caused his suffering. The mind of Christ is to be the mind of His followers. If it was His mind to wage war upon disease, it is to be the mind of His followers too.

II. Deep spiritual truths which concern every one.—Leprosy was God’s own picture of the soul’s disease which He calls by the name of sin. When then Jesus said, ‘Be thou clean,’ and by His Divine power made the leper clean, it is to us a most blessed revelation of how the cleansing of the soul can be brought about. Now, by the cleansing of the soul we mean—

(a) The removal of the guilt that attaches to every human soul by reason of sin. There is no human power that can release the soul from that guilt. We are meant to learn the stupendous lesson that the Son of God was manifested, and that He lived and died that death upon the cross on purpose that He might say to the leprous soul, ‘Be thou clean.’ And He does say it. He said it again and again on earth; He has said it over and over again through the ages, by the ministry of His Church. That cleansing is conditional upon—

(b) The cleansing of repentance. Repentance means the actual forsaking of sin, and nothing less. Repentance is impossible to a man or woman left to themselves. Jesus was exalted that He might give repentance, and He is ready to give it to the soul that seeks for it, and to say, ‘Be thou clean.’

(c) This cleansing of repentance is the one sure guarantee of the cleansing of pardon. How do you know that God has forgiven you your sins? The voice of Christ still says to us, ‘Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee’; but He says it upon the one condition which can never be left out of sight, that thou art ready, and willing, and anxious to forsake thy sins; when thy penitence is sincere, and when thou hast placed the sacrifice of thy penitence at the foot of the cross, then the voice comes forth, ‘Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.’

Dean P. F. Eliot.

Illustration

‘Leprosy appears to be a mysterious disease, the cause of which doctors do not know. It is not peculiar to one nation—Norwegians, Italians, Spaniards, Hindoos suffer from it, as well as Syrians.… One curious fact is that townsmen do not suffer from it, though the lepers live close to the towns.… The dreadful plague does not become manifest before the age of twelve, nor later than forty-five. The patients suffer pain at first, and, in later stages, much distress; then physical strength and animal life dies out, and they are, in their own words, “like oxen,” without feeling or intellectual power, scarcely conscious of the outer world; their voice becomes changed to a feeble whine, husky and querulous; their joints and features waste away, and swelling and black discoloration ensue. The flesh decays, until the appearance of an advanced case is ghastly in the extreme; and a raw wound may be burnt with an iron in their bodies, producing only a slightly pleasing sensation. They die finally of leprosy. The lepers at Jerusalem live in huts near the S.W. corner of the town, inside the wall, and marry lepers, and the disease, which reappears in their children, thus becomes hereditary.’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE LEPER AND THE SAVIOUR

I. The leper.—This man, without a precedent to guide him, was perfectly confident about the competence of Jesus to heal his disease. This is a remarkable fact. It is more remarkable still when we remember that to cure leprosy was rightly regarded as the prerogative of God alone; and so, under the circumstances, the use of the expression ‘Lord’ probably points to a perception, on the part of him who used it, of the Divine character and authority of the Prophet of Galilee.

II. The Saviour.—Our Lord was not at all displeased at the leper’s intrusion into His presence. Unquestionably, it was a liberty; more than this, it was a violation of order. Jesus took in the whole situation at a glance, and the exceptional bodily misery of the man, and his anxiety on account of sin and his sense of personal demerit disposed the heart of the Lord to compassion. He ‘put forth His hand and touched him.’ It was, of course, quite unnecessary for Jesus to do this. The mere utterance of a word would have been enough. And besides, it startled the crowd to see the Prophet of Galilee incurring the risk of ceremonial pollution. Here we see the Saviour’s desire to set before His followers the true nature and method of redemptive work.

III. The touch of Christ.—Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost; and, in order to achieve His purpose, hesitated not to touch the open sores of humanity, by extending the blessings of His loving companionship to the publican and the sinner, to the harlot and the drunkard, to the lowest and most degraded of mankind—if, by such means, He might hope to deliver them. The story of the leper shows us that there is no degradation so profound that Christ cannot lift us up out of it; no guilt of so deep a dye that it cannot be washed out in the precious blood of the Atonement; no pollution so foul, or so ingrained in the soul, that it cannot be counteracted and cast out by the Almighty Spirit of God.

—Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.

Illustration

‘A sailor, who met with a serious accident, was carried to a London hospital. The poor mother hurried to the building to see her son. She stole softly to his bedside, and gazed at her unconscious boy. She dare not speak, but gently laying her hand on his fevered brow she let it rest there a moment, and then noiselessly crept from the room. The watchful nurse heard the comatose sleeper murmur the words, “ Her touch!” and, rousing himself, he added, “Surely my mother has been here; I knew her touch!” Ah! there was an electric thrill of sympathy in that touch, which told its own tale to the dying man. So the touch of Christ is unlike any other touch.’