Dr Paul Brand, a medical missionary in India, placed an arm around his young patient’s shoulder. In halting Tamil, he explained that the progress of the leprosy could be stopped. He expected a smile, but the man started sobbing. Dr Brand asked his translator whether the man had misunderstood his explanation. After questioning the young man in Tamil, the translator revealed the reason for the tears – after so many years, someone had touched him.** 

Jesus encounters a man ‘covered with leprosy’ (v 12), a disease that not only ravaged his body but made the man one of society’s ‘untouchables’. Leprosy sufferers had to leave their families and isolate themselves from the community. They faced loneliness, unemployment, poverty, and their ‘uncleanness’ even excluded them from worship. If they touched or were touched by someone, the other person also became unclean. The law required that the person with leprosy shout, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ But the unspoken cry of his heart was surely, ‘Unloved! Unloved!’ 

Jesus grants the man’s desperate plea to be made ‘clean’ (v 12b). ‘Immediately the leprosy left him’ (v 13b), a testimony to Jesus’ great power. But even more poignant is the Lord’s not-so-simple act of reaching out to touch him (v 13a). This touch – that would render Jesus ‘unclean’ under the law – foreshadowed the cross, where his ‘love ran red’ so that our sins would be ‘washed white’.

**Story paraphrased from Paul Brand and Philip Yancey, The Gift of Pain, Zondervan, 1997.

I praise you today, Lord, for you are the God who ‘sets the lonely in families, [and] … leads out the prisoners with singing.’¹

Luke recounts the story of the healing of a man with leprosy, who has suffered extreme exclusion and marginalisation because of his illness. The word for leprosy points to various skin diseases which were greatly feared. I once visited a group of leprosy sufferers in Kolkata and saw people in such an advanced stage they could not feel rats gnawing at their fingers and toes while they slept in piles of rubbish. Consigned to these places, their social exclusion was heartbreaking.

This man is so isolated that he has nobody to help him and must approach Jesus alone. He does so ‘with his face to the ground’ (v 12), emphasising the shame and social rejection he has experienced. Jesus ‘reached out his hand and touched the man’ (v 13). This surprising touch is incredibly restorative after so much avoidance and fear. Jesus’ dramatic ‘Be clean!’ (v 13) relates to all the levels of defilement and ostracism he has experienced. Jesus’ cleansing restores him to full participation in society.

God’s healing is never just physical. It can cleanse and restore whatever wounds we have suffered, whether relational, spiritual, emotional, mental, psychological or whatever else. Jesus understands that we are complex, holistic, interconnected people. He offers us the comprehensive remedy for whatever ails us. The Greek word for ‘save’ (sozo) captures all this; for it can mean being saved, healed, redeemed, cleansed, set free, delivered, rescued and made whole. Biblical salvation is not simply about restoring our relationship with God, but has implications for every aspect of our lives. Jesus is radically reordering society through the coming of the kingdom. This challenges exclusion and marginalisation in our day as well.

Be still. Where is God bringing healing into your life? Where do you need to ask for his restoring love? Ask him to help you bring this to others.

¹ Ps 68:6