Unclean

Matthew 8:2-3 "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 cured of his leprosy."
This man with open wounds from leprosy sits on the side of the street while a little boy with curly hair stairs and points his fingers. Just then, his mother shoos the child's hand to his side and correcting him that it is not polite to point. Her act makes the leprous man feel even more isolated. No one has acknowledged his existence in months. Now in this one moment when a young life recognizes his own forgotten one, it is robbed of him. He tries to weep but there are no tears left. Life has robbed him of everything. Like a thief in the night, he was banished from society, from his family, from his job, from the house of worship, and from God. Caught between the land of the living and the land of the dead, he was a citizen of neither. He was truly an outcast.


He doesn't remember the sound of his own laughter. He doesn't remember what it is like to dream. He has forgotten what it was like to sit at a table and break bread. The scent of his wife's perfume has long vanished from his nostrils. He doesn't remember what it felt like to run his fingers through his children's hair. It seems like another life. It was another life. His own childhood dreams crashed, his heart trodden. Once a man known for his voice of healing and truth and was now a man who lacked joy, lacked faith, and lacked hope.


As was customary in the day, when a person contracted leprosy, it was thought of as a direct result of sin.

What had this man done to be cursed with leprosy a disease that neither kills nor heals? What great sin did this man commit to deserve such a horrific fate since it was believed to be divine punishment by God?

The rumors around town were horrifying. Did he steal from the tabernacle? Did he cheat on his oath by worshipping another idol? Did he have relations with a prostitute or an animal or another man?

But the sin didn't really matter for the look of distrust in his wife's eyes was unbearable. The look of disdain on his children's faces pierced his heart deeper than any sword. The shame, self hatred, and despair were far worse than any physical affliction.

He prayed for death every minute of every hour of every day, and still it had not come. It seemed to that death had forgotten him let alone God.

Broken in body and in spirit, this is the man that Jesus touches. This is the man that Jesus reaches out towards to touch not only the parts of his skin that are well, but the very parts that were disfigured. He touches the man's wounds and says "Be healed."


My friend, each one of us has a wound. Not a pretty wound that you could easily stick a bandage over. But a festering boil that eats away at our very existence. There is a leprous spot in each one of our hearts that makes us feel unclean.

We hide it away from others knowing they will shun us if we expose it. UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN! We fear them saying. So we hide out of sight, believing in a lie. The more we try to hide it though, the bigger it becomes. It is the nature of the wound for it is a life wound.
Life wounds only get bigger if they go untouched. And the savior's touch is the only thing that can absolve it.

Take some comfort in knowing that life wounds us all.
If we are living we are wounded.

Even healers have wounds. The Healer had wounds.

Jesus certainly had wounds. The cross was a wound, but instead of running away from the cross he ran towards it. Was it painful? Did he feel like God shunned him? Was he fearful and anxious?
Yes. But he went forward, spurred on by love. This is what he meant when he said Love casts out fear. It doesn't absolve facing trials, hurts, beatings, and open wounds. It absorbs them.

Even after Jesus was resurrected he had wounds. Thomas looked at this man claiming to be Christ. He could see that this man's hands were scarred, that his side was still split open from where a spear had pierced through the tan flesh.

Thomas placed his fingers in those wounds. He touched this man's feet where nails had been. He touched his hands that bruised. He placed his finger in this man's side and all the while Jesus didn't shy away. He revealed his wounds, and Thomas was able to identify him as Christ because he did so.

The resurrected body our Savior still had visible wounds. Christ says by his wounds we are healed. Without those wounds there is no hope. Those wounds became wounds of Grace.

Likewise our wounds can become wounds of Grace. Our wounds can become sources of hope. We too can join with Christ in revealing our hands, our feet, and our side for another to see Christ within us.
But we must learn the things of Christ. We must be willing to ascend to our own cross and sacrifice our pride. We must be willing to descend into our own emotional hell to discover where our hearts went astray. We must be willing to pick up our cross in order to follow him. We must, like the leper, reach out are crippled hand and offer to Christ and ask "Lord, if you are willing?"
The question my brothers, are we?