“Unclean! Unclean!” rang through the crowd. People looked around to see where the voice was calling from, so they could be sure to move away. Here comes the man, stricken with leprosy. A bubble of space surrounds him as he walks through the crowd toward Jesus. Because if someone unclean was touched the clean becomes unclean.
Photo Source: www.creationswap.com by Natanis Davidsen
Imagine a life where you could never be touched by another person, where you were always isolated and were forced to live outside of society. Imagine the isolation. Imagine the shame. Imagine the longing to become clean and to be touched by another person, to kiss your wife or to hug your child.
“Unclean! Unclean” he cried out as the crowd surrounding Jesus parted before him. He heard that this teacher from Nazareth was going around the country giving sight to the blind, making the lame to walk, casting out demons from those that were possessed. Maybe just maybe he can heal me, he thought.
Jesus heard him crying out, “Unclean!” And in those words Jesus heard the suffering and the loneliness and the shame for who he was seeping up from the depths of his heart. The leper bowed down before Jesus and whispered, “If you are willing you can make me clean.” And Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand as a murmur ran through the crowd as the unthinkable was about to happen. A righteous man was reaching out to touch a leper!
But instead of the uncleanness transferring to Jesus, unclean became clean when Jesus touched it, and the man was made whole.
Jesus is more powerful than any problem, and issues, any disease, any sin. When His righteousness comes in contact with our unrighteousness, just like that leper, we are the ones who are transformed. And just like that leper we can now live our lives without shame. We can be made clean.