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I am using the YouVersion 49 Week Bible Challenge for these devotions. Today’s readings are Luke 5; Leviticus 14; Psalm 150; Isaiah 43. In today’s readings, do you notice a promise to trust, a command to obey, a truth to embrace, a warning to heed, or an encouragement to rest in? What do you learn about God, about yourself, or about the world? Is there one verse or thought that stands out to you today? Talk to God about it.
Luke 5:12-16
While Jesus was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 13 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. 14 And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Jesus heals the leprous man on this occasion by touching him. This is a remarkable fact apart from the healing. In Jesus’ day, if you touched a leprous person, you became unclean and would have to be excluded from religious and social life. On this occasion the reverse happens. Jesus’ touch cleanses the leper.
We might easily overlook or underestimate the significance of this moment. But reading Leviticus 14 today reminded me just how elaborate the process was for addressing leprosy under the Law. I found myself smiling at the curious details—how the priests, in their consecration for this cleansing work, had to apply blood and oil to the right earlobe, right thumb, and even the right big toe. It’s a vivid reminder of how serious and sacred this whole process was.
The issues they faced were not only personal to the person who had leprosy, but to his family, and even his house. There’s a whole chapter or two that outlines the means by which the priests were to deal with the disease.
Leprosy is a serious disease – medically-speaking. Philip Yancey and Paul Brandt wrote a book titled, Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants. The vivid descriptions of the suffering of persons with leprosy are arresting. Brandt describes Leprosy as “a painless hell.” I won’t traumatize you with some of the dreadful descriptions they offer. The suffering of those who have this disease is nearly unfathomable.
Jesus changes all that for this man. By Jesus’ touch he is healed. He is to go tell the priest and make an offering to prove that he has been cleansed. No toes, earlobes, or thumbs are mentioned. But the way Jesus confronts the Pharisees in other places, describing their tithing mint and cumin and describing their long prayer tassels and large philactories, I’m sure there were priests in the Temple at Jerusalem who did these sorts of things.
All this was being replaced by Jesus’ ministry. He is ushering in a new way by means of his life and teachings. That new covenant will be inaugurated by Jesus’ suffering and death. Even more far-reaching and profoundly prophetic, this act on Jesus’ part hints at the full restoration of our bodies in the life of the world to come. It shows how true God’s word in Isaiah is: “You are precious and honored in my sight, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4). It gives us reason to heed the urging of Psalm 150: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!”
David Bahn - Reflections 
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