Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

"And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. 

When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, 'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.' And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.'” ( Matthew 7:28 - 8:4 ) 

The context of this passage is that Jesus has just finished teaching his famous Sermon on the Mount. Jesus had astonished the crowd with his words and authority, with his claim to fulfill the law, and now he is descending the mountain to heal his people. 

Beginning with a leper. 

I've found as I study the Scriptures carefully that no biblical text is randomly placed, but all of God's Word fits together and is arranged by the Holy Spirit in a cohesive rhythm and flow, one passage building on the other, all of it testifying to and interpreting the other. However, I've also learned with the many passages I find to be puzzling to just read the text and let it be. Don't read my theology into it. Before I employ critical thinking skills, let the tension stand. I've also found this exercise takes a bit more discipline than I've been used to, but it results in correcting my errors and my pride. 

Why a leper? 

Lepers were outcasts. They lived apart from the rest of society because they were deemed unclean, and anyone who touched them would be ceremonially unclean. Leprosy was usually a death sentence. There was not treatment available for the disease, and it was as if a person slowly rotted away from all of the uncleanliness in a sort of living death. It was horrific. 

It's interesting that the word "healing" is not used in this passage; however, the Greek word "katharizo" is used three times - meaning "1.) to make clean, cleanse, a.) from physical stains and dirt, b.) in a moral sense, to free from defilement of sin and faults, to purify from wickedness, to free from guilt of sin, to purify, to consecrate by cleansing or purifying." 

The definition that best fits the passage contextually is "the moral sense" because Jesus had just demonstratively shown in his Sermon on the Mount exactly what the law requires. And it's crushing, to say the least.  

The leper is a beautiful picture of our salvation story because all of us are the leper. We are all unclean, guilty, shameful, and sinful before a thrice holy God. We are not sinful because we sinned - we are sinful because we were all born that way from Adam's sin, our federal head or representative of the human race, now passed down to everyone. ( Romans 5:12-21, Psalm 51:5 ) 

That's the human condition. If we look around at the world, it is easy to see how the biblical narrative makes sense of the narrative of our own lives and answers the hard questions of this existence. We are born a sinful people. ( Romans 3:11-18, Psalm 14:1-3, Psalm 51:5, Psalm 53:1-3 ) 

And no amount of hand washing or bathing or good works can take away the filth. We are rotting away. ( Isaiah 64:6, Ephesians 2:1-5 ) 

This has been forever ago, but it reminds me of when I was in high school English Literature class and we read Shakespeare's Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is tormented with guilt after persuading her husband Macbeth, the Scottish general, to murder King Duncan to fulfill the witches's prophecy of Macbeth becoming king. Even though Lady Macbeth has no actual blood on her hands, she still sees it there. She sees the spot. She's driven mad because no matter what she does, no matter how hard she scrubs, she can't get rid of the bloody sin, the guilt, "that damned spot." 

"What must I do to be saved?" ( Acts 16:30 ) 

Listen to Ezra's prayer: "O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens." ( Ezra 9:6 ) 

And Daniel's: "O LORD, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules." ( Daniel 9:4-5 ) 

Now David's: "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." ( Psalm 51:3-4 ) 

The preaching of John the Baptist: "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." ( Matthew 3:8 ) 

A parable of Jesus: "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." ( Luke 18:9-14 ) 

It really isn't complicated - in our uncleanliness and living death, come to Jesus. Knell before him in a humble posture and heart of repentance, and Jesus will touch us. When Jesus touches us he doesn't become unclean, instead, we the unclean are made clean. Jesus fulfilled the law for us. Our righteousness, anything we think we can do to save ourselves, is as filthy rags, but his righteous life in fulfilling the law perfectly, imputed to us makes us clean.  ( Isaiah 64:6, Matthew 5:20 ) 

That's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The story of this leper coming to Jesus after his initial teaching of what life in the kingdom of God stringently requires isn't about physical healing; it's much deeper than that. It's more urgent than that. Everyone healed physically in this life will still eventually die. Bodies can be healed as they travel the wide road to destruction. 

So we need something greater than an outside removal of dirt to wash away our iniquity, for the deeper cleansing of the human soul. 

There's nothing we can do. We are incapable of saving ourselves from God, and so he has sent his own Son to save us. He has upheld his end of the bargain as well as ours. We should be the ones condemned to death, but God has provided the sacrifice himself to save us from his own holy wrath. ( Genesis 22:13, John 3:16 )

The cleansing of our sins has brought forth our eternal healing.  

This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." This is Jesus's first statement in Sermon on the Mount. 

"The poor in spirit are those who recognize they are in need of God's help. The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who confess their spiritual bankruptcy." ( ESV Bible commentary ) 

The kingdom of heaven belongs to the unclean who come humbly to Jesus to make them clean. 

That's the Good News.

💜

Archive photo of Nicky with her sweet litter.