“Make me clean” (Luke 5:12-16)
Let me begin with a question. Do you think King David was a leper? Rabbis thought that David was a leper. Do you think that is true? Well, we will get to that a little later. But we begin with Jesus healing a leper. Luke 5:12-16.
A Messianic Miracle [0:46]
There was a belief that before the true Messiah announced that he was the Messiah, he would first prove it by doing Messianic works. Messianic works means miracles and other things. (Gospel of Luke, Expositors Commentary, Luke 7:18-20).
Jesus began by performing miracles. After a long time and a lot of miracles, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do men say that I am?”
“Some think you are Elijah. Some think you are Jeremiah. Some think you are one of the other prophets.”
But Peter has finally come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. (Matt. 16:16) Jesus did not announce that he was the Messiah. He demonstrated it by the miracles which he performed. He did the Messianic works. And after time, some people came to understand Jesus is the Christ.
John sent disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Coming One––Jesus said look at the miracles: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, lepers are made clean. (Luke 7:22, reordered) These were Messianic miracles. The Messiah has arrived. The kingdom has come.
Make Me Clean. [2:33]
So we come to Jesus making a leper clean.
Jesus was in some town somewhere in Galilee. He has just delivered the Sermon on the Mount and large crowds are following him. (Matt. 8:1) They have followed him to a town. In the town was a leper who was covered with leprosy.
He really should not even be in the town because he is a leper. He really should not come close to Jesus and this crowd. But he is there. It is what it is. The lower part of his face should be covered. His clothes ragged and his hair uncombed. Crying out “Unclean! Unclean!”
But when he sees Jesus, he falls at his feet and begs Jesus to make him clean! Lord you can make me clean if you are willing. His concern was not just to be healed of the disease. His concern was to be made ceremonially clean. So he could be restored to society and restored to the worship in the temple. He did not say, “If you are willing you can heal me.” He said, “If you are willing you can make me clean.”
And Jesus said, “I am willing! Be clean!” And the leprosy immediately left him.
Jesus was willing, Jesus was able, and the leper was clean. The kingdom of heaven has come.
A Testimony to the Priests [4:40]
This will be a testimony to the priest and to the people. Jesus sends him to the priest. Offer the sacrifices commanded by Moses. It will be a testimony to them! So off he goes.
Lepers were in this continual cycle of having to go and be examined by the priest. Over and over.
And he was always examined by the same priest. This priest had examined this leper before. Many times, because he was full of leprosy. When was the last time he was examined? We don’t know. For all we know it could have been that very day!
“Hello, I am back. Examine me again.”
The priest is shocked. This man was covered in leprosy. And now the leprosy is gone. It is all gone. There is nothing left. Lepers got better over time. It was a very gradual process. But this man who was covered with leprosy has healed very quickly.
“This is amazing. How is it possible?”
“Well, Jesus of Nazareth made me clean!”
This becomes a testimony about Jesus to the priest. As Jesus continues his ministry lepers will continue to come to priests to be examined. These were local priests living all across Galilee. Priests living everywhere, close to the people.
The Ten Lepers [6:51]
Later Jesus will heal ten lepers. (Luke 17:11-19) One was a despised Samaritan. Jesus told them to go show yourself to the priest. Along the way they were cleansed. So now ten men go to priests. Ten men lepers have been healed. Ten lepers tell the priests about what Jesus has done.
We do not know how many lepers Jesus healed. We know about these eleven. But probably many more. When Jesus sent out the seventy to go into the villages and heal the sick––did they heal lepers? (Luke 10:9) Surely they did. They returned rejoicing that even the demons submitted to us in your name. (10:17) All of these lepers would report to their priest to be examined. Priests in every village would see that the impossible had happened in the name of Jesus.
Prophets heal Lepers. [8:14]
Physicians can not heal leprosy.
Only a prophet can heal leprosy. (2 Kings 5:8)
As hard as raising the dead. (2 Kings 5:7)
Moses healed Miriam.
Elisha healed Naaman.
Reports are coming in from priests throughout Galilee that lepers are being healed.
All the priests say the same thing: Jesus of Nazareth.
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
I guess it can.
Healing lepers is a Messianic sign.
The Messiah has arrived.
The kingdom has come.
Jesus Forgives Sins [9:06]
This is all good news for a lot of sick people. They have been made clean. But the uncleanliness before the Lord was only symbolic. It is not really skin disease that is an offence to the holiness of God. The skin disease was a symbol of sin. Separation from the temple was a symbol of sin separating sinful men from the Lord. So what does it really mean when Jesus heals symbolic sinners from the symbolic guilt of sin and restores them to the symbolic dwelling place of God?
The message is this: Jesus has the authority to forgive sins. Jesus can forgive sins and restore men and women to fellowship with the holy God!
Do you see the connection? Lepers were a symbol of you and me. We stood separated from the Lord because of our sin. But when Jesus made us clean we were brought back into fellowship with God.
David the Leper [10:33]
Do you know the Old Testament story about the leper king? Some rabbis have taught that David was a leper. I don’t believe it for a moment. But I will tell you why I think they believed it, based upon Psalm 51.
David wrote the 51st Psalm after he had committed egregious sin. You know the story. He saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof. Her husband was Uriah. While Uriah was off fighting David’s wars, David was living an easy life in his palace and sleeping with Uriah’s wife. That is egregious sin.
And as happens, Bathsheba became pregnant by David. David tried to cover it all up, but finally had Uriah put in a place of great danger in a battle. His hope was that Uriah would be killed––and he was! That is two egregious sins: adultery and murder.
Well, the prophet Nathan came to David and told him in a parable that he had done a wicked thing. You are like a rich man who stole a poor man’s only lamb. (2 Sam. 12:1-4)
David is a guilty man. He was crushed in his spirit and he wrote Psalm 51.
Have mercy on me, O God. (1)
Blot out my transgressions. (1)
Wash away all my iniquity. (2)
Cleanse me from my sin. (2)
I have done what is evil. (4)
Do not cast me from your presence. (11)
Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. (11)
That is the language of a guilty man: transgressions, iniquity, sin, evil.
The language of a man who fears being separated from the Lord: do not cast me from your presence.
The leper who came to Jesus asked Jesus to make him clean.
David pleads: cleans me from my sin.
One of the ten lepers called out to Jesus, “Master have mercy on us.” (Luke 17:13)
David begins: “Have mercy on me, O God!”
The lepers were symbols of what David is experiencing. Symbols of men who have sinned and been separated from God. Symbols of men who need mercy and reconciliation.
For the lepers it was symbolic. For David it was real.
The lepers were not really guilty of sin. But David is guilty of sin.
The lepers were not really separated from God. But for David it is real.
Cleanse Me with Hyssop [14:33]
David sees the parallel. In verse seven David makes this direct connection with the lepers.
David connects with lepers in verse 7. Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be clean.
Do you know when hyssop was used? Hyssop is a plant that has the tiniest leaves you can ever imagine. You know that a seed is very, very small. Well, the leaves on hyssop are kind of the same way. Very tiny.
And when the priest pronounced a leper to be clean he went through a sacrifice which involved two birds. One bird was killed and its blood was drained out into a pot. Then the living bird was baptized in the mixture of blood and water.
Seven times the priest would dip the hyssop in the blood. And seven times he would take the hyssop and sprinkle the leper (Lev. 14:3-7). And on the eight day the leper would go to the temple and wash in a special place in the temple (Lev. 14:9). And he was finally clean. Reconciled to God. He could joyously go into the temple and worship with the other men.
Well listen again to David. Cleanse me with hyssop. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Restore me to the joy of my salvation.
It is not hard to see how the rabbis could think that David was a skin-diseased leper. But David was not a leper. David was a sinful man who needed mercy and reconciliation.
At the beginning of all of this I said that if you think Jesus healing lepers is only about healing a disease, you are missing the meaning of the miracles. The message is Jesus reconciles sinners to God.
Every leper was a living, breathing sermon about judgment against sin. And every leper whom Jesus healed was a living, breathing sermon about the mercy of forgiveness and reconciliation. And that is good news.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. (NIV, Ps. 51:7)
