According to Bible scholars, the gospel of Matthew is the most Jewish of the gospels in its emphasis on certain things and its style. The gospel begins with a genealogy tracing the lineage of Jesus from Abraham through David to the earthly parents of Jesus establishing Jesus as a member of the tribe of Judah from which Messiah would come. Matthew is the one to tell us of the visit of the Magi and the eventual death of innocent Jewish boys in Bethlehem at the hands of Herod. He tells us how Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness fasting and praying in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets and about his showdown with Satan at the end of the forty days. In Matthew, Jesus calls his disciples to “come and follow” him in the tradition of the Rabbis and his “Sermon on the Mount” is, in many ways, a commentary on the interpretation of Old Testament law by the Pharisees. In Chapter 4, Matthew tells us in general terms of the healing ministry of Jesus but gives his first specific healing story in Chapter 8 – the healing of a leper.
Leprosy was not only medically significant but socially and spiritually significant as well in Jewish faith and culture. Full-blown leprosy was an infectious disease so that the individual who was affected was marked as “unclean.” He was to be socially isolated so that no one could touch him and he was not allowed to enter into the temple to worship. In some cases, it was a death sentence as the disease progressed. To many Jews, leprosy was seen as punishment for sin – either the sins of the parents or of the individual who had it. That view probably stemmed from God’s punishment on Miriam in Numbers 12 when she began to rebel against Moses’ leadership. In that moment God struck her with leprosy and then healed her later at Moses’ request. David also pronounced a curse on Joab’s house for murdering an innocent man (2 Samuel 3) that included the curse of leprosy.
In the first century, those with leprosy were considered unclean, sinful, loathsome, and under a death sentence from God. They were isolated and had to walk the streets crying “unclean” so that others would stay away from them. Any truly religious person would stay far away from a leper because to contact the leper made that person unclean as well so that they could not come into the presence of God in the temple.
In the midst of that cultural environment, an unnamed leper came and kneeled before Jesus asking to be healed. In that moment, Jesus was very counter-cultural. He actually touched the man which was forbidden by law. Not only did he touch the man but healed him completely. I like what Bill Johnson says about that kind of healing. He says that the Old Testament displays the power of sin because if you touched a leper you were made unclean. The New Testament displays the power of Christ’s righteousness because when he touched a leper he was not made unclean but rather the leper was healed. The righteousness of Christ overcomes both sin and disease in these gospel accounts and in New Testament theology. Looking ahead to the New Covenant, David said, “ Praise the Lord, O my soul and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” (Ps.103:3).
I believe this leper was the first detailed account of healing in Matthew’s gospel because it was so significant for the Jews. Lepers were written off as a lost cause, untouchable, and incurable. Many thought that their disease was a judgment from God and so felt little pity for the lepers. And yet Jesus reversed all of that in a moment with a touch and a word. In that moment the love and the grace of God totally cleansed the man with the implication that he was also totally forgiven.
In the very next chapter of Matthew, Jesus healed a paralytic but began by saying, “Take heart son, your sins are forgiven” (Mt.9:2). The Pharisees objected to the notion that Jesus could grant forgiveness since only God in heaven could do so. To their objection, Jesus replied, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home” (Mt.9:5-7).
The theology runs something like this. Disease afflicts man because of sin – sometimes his own sin but more often because of Adam’s sin that makes every man subject to death and disease. If a man is healed it is because the power of sin has been overcome by the cross of Christ. Healing is manifest evidence of God’s grace and Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice through which God forgives all of our sins and heals all of our diseases. Miraculous healing, then, is evidence of God’s grace and the power of the cross to deliver men from sin. Without such demonstrations, the truth of the gospel is not manifested as God intends. Miraculous healing does not always create faith but it always demonstrates the power of the cross and the love of God for sinful men which opens the door for faith.
Healing and other miraculous moves of the Spirit are not ends in themselves but demonstrations of even greater realities – the love and grace of God and the all sufficiency of the blood of Christ. If God is good all the time; if the cross has broken the power of the enemy in my life; and if the blood of the Lamb open the doors of heaven to me now and later – then sign me up.
Those truths are manifested over time in the life of every believer but are manifested in the moment that the gospel is preached or shared when the power of heaven is released through the gifts of the Spirit. Because of that we should earnestly desire spiritual gifts and pursue them as the will of God for his church today. When we begin to touch the lepers of our day – AIDS victims, drug addicts, late-stage cancer victims, children with birth defects, etc. with the compassion and power of heaven, then we will present Jesus in all his glory to the world and the world will come to him. Be blessed today. Ask for miracles and expect them. It is God’s will.
