Leprosy rendered a person unclean and untouchable. During ancient times those with this disease were excluded from society due to their contagious and incurable condition. Perhaps this man at one time had a family, a wife and children, but he had not experienced the warmth of their embrace since his diagnosis of this terrible disease. When Jesus encountered this man, He not only healed him; He touched him.
Jesus' ministry is one of loving the unlovable and reaching out to those many would deem unreachable. All of us have people in our lives whose physical, emotional, and spiritual issues repulse us. We would rather not be around them. We have decided that they are hopeless cases. Yet, Jesus reached out to the hopeless cases. As we allow Him to live through us today, we must do the same.
Who do you know that needs a touch from Jesus? We are His hands and His feet. He is still touching the untouchable... through us.
In Jesus' time lepers were physically unclean, but they were also considered to be spiritually unclean and could not participate in prayers or make sacrifices in the temple. Because lepers could not participate in worship, most people believed that the disease was a punishment for earlier sins. Not being able to worship God was the worst punishment people could imagine. Once Jesus cured a leper, he would restore both his physical, as well as his spiritual life.
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