Matthew 8:2-3 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
I admit that this is usually a passage that I would just read on by as if nothing was big to be seen here, after all, it goes immediately from this little bit into the centurions’ faith- a huge deal. But something spoke to me this morning. I suppose it’s because we’ve been talking often about the love of God and you know that commandments all run around the same two things. Love God and love man. Love your enemies. Love your brother. Love God most of all. I was admitting to my sisters, it’s hard for me to admit my wrongs, and that’s the sad truth, but I was mentioning to them that I don’t want to be prejudiced or bitter towards any group of people, any people, anyone. I want to show the love of God to everyone. God so loved me, how can I not love others in hopes that they’ll be drawn to Christ?! I don’t want to be the stumbling block. I don’t want to be the rock of offense that keeps people from coming to Christ.
Something touched me here. Lepers are unclean, they are contagious as far as I know. So I recall years ago learning that they’d stand from afar and that was how they were able to communicate with the outside world. They could not come and be amongst the people and yet Jesus didn’t recoil when He saw this man. He didn’t turn him down as disgusting and beyond hope. He didn’t make him feel as though only perfect, whole people were allowed into the Kingdom of God.
The most special part about this to me today was that He touched him. I can only imagine the sensation in anyone’s hand on the skin of a leper… shunned for society. Jesus Himself was the one that touched him! I can imagine that this is something that stood with him forever!.
I pray to have the love of God, I pray to show this kind of love to others!
My.Mina.Blurbs 