Be Clean

Recently I was studying the story of Jesus healing the leper in Matthew 8.  Here was a man who had been pushed to the edges of society both relationally and geographically.  For the duration of his disease he had been removed from his home and forced to live among the garbage at the city dump.  Additionally he was ordered to swing a bell and exclaim, “Unclean, unclean!”, whenever he was near others.  His status in society had fallen to the point where others were given the right to beat him with sticks if they felt he had come too close.  On the “ladder of life” he had fallen off the bottom rung.

What struck me was the crowd of people that the man had to wade through in order to approach Jesus.  How much abuse did he endure that day as the crowds from the Sermon on the Mount flowed around him.  How many whacks with a cane or stick?  How many times was he yelled at and spit upon?  He had to have felt overwhelmed and lost in that crowd of people.

Thank God though, that Jesus is especially gifted at finding those things that are lost.  In the midst of the clamoring and shouting around him, Jesus heard the small specific cry of one lost man, “If you are willing Jesus, you can make me clean.”  Wow.  Wow that the man had such powerful faith to persevere through his journey to Jesus.  And wow that Jesus didn’t let him remain lost in the crowd.

Maybe recently you have felt like the man with leprosy.  Pushed to the edge and lost in the crowd.  Take heart--Jesus hears you and he says to each of us, “I am willing, be clean.”