February 5, 2020 - The context of chapter 8 in the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus Christ has finished his Sermon on the Mount. He now comes down the mountain and he is not alone. We are told that great crowds followed him down from the mountain. Then behold! A leper comes to Jesus and kneels before him. His words that follow are not one of command. That is, he is not demanding that Christ heals him. He is not asking Christ what he himself must do to be made clean. What works must he do in order to be healed? No, his words show something else. He says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
The leper recognized that he was unclean. He was cast out of temple and society because of his leprosy. It has been said that whenever lepers back then traveled in the streets they had to shout the words, “unclean!” That was for the rest of the community to clear the streets. Keeping away from the leper in fear of becoming infected and unclean themselves. Imagine the scene then of the Leper making his was through the crowd. The crowd makes a wide birth to not have any contact. They might have been telling others just to make sure everyone knew that this person was unclean.
He made his way to Christ and submits to the will of the Lord. What happens next? Verse 3 reads, “And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” What are we to take from this? Leprosy is a biblical illustration of sin. We can therefore say that when we read this passage we can see that we can come to Christ, confess our sins, and be met with the power of Christ who says that he wills and that you are forgiven.
Wynter is an Elder at Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church. Find out more at MariposaChurch.org or email him at wynter@mariposachurch.org. Visit Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church on Facebook.
Pastor’s Corner is a column from Pastor Wynter Sturtevant III of the Mariposa Reformed Baptist Church.
The Church has moved locations, services are now held at the Bootjack Stompers Hall (located at 4662 Morman Bar Crossing) across from the Mariposa County Fairgrounds.
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