TOUCHING THE UNTOUCHABLE
Opening Prayer
Lord, be in our hearts and minds and help us to see You as Matthew saw You, the Son of God and the culmination of all prophecy.
Read MATTHEW 8:1–13
When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
The Faith of the Centurion
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Would you be able to do a favor for a member of an outcast group or for a member of an occupying force in your own country?
This first set of miracles shows Jesus using his power for the marginalized. No affliction was more personally degrading and socially isolating than leprosy. People with leprosy felt punished by God. Even the Law sentenced them to a living death—to wear ragged clothes, cover their mouths, cry “unclean” and live alone (Lev. 13:45,46). They were ceremonially unclean (Lev. 13:11). Anyone who touched them sinned, becoming unclean, and was required to offer a sacrifice to be clean again (Lev. 5:3–6). Torn between willingness to heal the man and reluctance to create fame, Jesus “reaches out his hand and touches the man” (3). Jesus breaks the Law—but does he sin? In a remote Aboriginal community, I met an elderly woman terribly disfigured with leprosy. She spoke of the “old mission days,” affectionately naming the “really Christian missionaries,” the ones willing to shake her deformed hand.
Matthew then introduces an officer of the occupying Roman army. Occupation was a fact of life, and the Romans were Gentiles, unclean worshippers of pagan gods. To deal with them was to become unclean (cf. Acts 10:28). That Jesus uses his healing power to help a Gentile is a crucial lesson for Matthew’s community of Jewish and Gentile Christians. We can debate what Jesus calls faith (10), but it must include humility. There is no military swagger here. The officer, not too proud to approach an itinerant Jewish preacher, confesses he is “not worthy” (8, AV) to receive a personal visit—a euphemism for uncleanness—and asks only for a word of authority.
We must learn the lesson of Jesus’ healing miracles, working always for the good of those marginalized by disease, disability or ethnicity. We are to accept those whom society excludes and act compassionately toward people whose beliefs do not match our own—even when we ourselves also need healing.
Apply
Reflect for a moment on two social opposites—a leper and a centurion—who were both in dire need of divine help. Isn’t everybody in between similarly needful?
Closing prayer
“Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind, / sight, riches, healing of the mind, / yea, all I need, in thee to find, / O Lamb of God, I come!” (Charlotte Elliott, 1789–1871).
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