What would you never dare to touch?

For Israel, nothing was more untouchable than a leper.

Leprosy was considered a living death.

Incurable.

Horrifying.

And since, under the Old Covenant, sin brought disease, lepers were religiously suspect—a symbol of sin, wretchedness, and judgment. If you were a leper, you must have deserved it!

Lepers had to live outside of society, their faces covered, calling out, “Unclean! Unclean!” to anyone who came near them. They were not allowed near the land of the living.

About 900 years before Jesus, a great Syrian general named Naaman suffered from leprosy. He had fought against the Israelites and captured a young Israelite girl during a raid, who became part of his household. Nevertheless, this unnamed slave girl spoke a word of hope and compassion to him. She knew someone who might cure him:

“If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy” (2 Kings 5:3).

She was speaking of Elisha.

Suddenly, Naaman had a spark of hope. When he arrived at the prophet’s home, Elisha didn’t even come out to meet him. Instead, he sent a messenger with the instructions:

“Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed” (2 Kings 5:10).

Naaman eventually obeyed Elisha’s odd instructions and came up from the Jordan with skin like a child. What an incredible miracle!

But notice—Elisha never touched Naaman. He never even came to the door or spoke to the general directly. He even communicated through a messenger. Yes, Elisha healed him—but kept his distance to avoid contamination.

Now consider what Jesus did.

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy (Matthew 8:1-3).

Jesus had just finished giving the Sermon on the Mount, and the minute He descended the mountain, a leper came to Him for healing. The Lord did not walk away, tell the man to leave, or ignore him. We read that Jesus reached out His hand and touched him.

He didn’t have to do that. He didn’t have to see the man, let alone touch him, to heal Him. Jesus could have cured the leper from a safe distance, just as Elisha had. What Jesus did was intentional. He did the one thing that no one in their right mind—let alone their legally scrupulous mind—would ever do, i.e., touch the untouchable leper.

By touching the leper, Jesus took the whole burden of the man’s disease upon Himself. The contamination was transferred. Jesus became unclean!

But then came a stunning reversal—the kind only the Gospel makes possible. The unclean didn’t contaminate the clean; the clean transformed the unclean. Jesus wasn’t overwhelmed by the leper’s uncleanness. With a simple command, “Be clean!” Jesus healed the man and drew him back into the land of the living.

Here’s the beautiful contrast: Under the law, touching a leper spreads the uncleanliness; but under the Gospel, Jesus’ touch makes the leper clean.

This is a picture of our substitutionary redemption.

Christ takes your uncleanness and gives His purity. He still does that today—for you:

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Maybe you carry guilt that won’t wash off, shame you can’t shake, and you feel like you’re outside the camp. Here’s the good news. You’re exactly who Jesus touches. If you’re not clean today, don’t stay outside the camp. Jesus is willing. Jesus is able. Let Him touch you, wash your sins away, and wrap you in righteousness. Believe it and rejoice!

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Send your questions or comments to shawn@freegrace.in.

Read his latest book, The Myth of Tithing and the Joy of Grace Giving by getting it from us or from Amazon.