“Be made clean”

Read Luke 5:12-16

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Healing is more than a restoration to physical health, as this story and the next one show – it’s also about reconciliation between people, and between people and God (5:17-26). Leprosy refers to various skin diseases and lepers were strictly quarantined to protect other people from infection (Lev.13:45-46). So they were not only sick but had lost their family, friends, homes and livelihoods too.

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By his ready response, Jesus showed his compassion (Mk.1:41). It’s particularly significant that “he reached out his hand and touched the man” (13), for by doing so he made himself unclean in the eyes of the Jews. (Lev.5:3 “If he touches human uncleanness... he will be guilty”). For Jesus, love was always more important than religious rules (Mt.9:13; 12:7).

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By touching him, Jesus restored him to contact with people. This was why Jesus also sent him to a priest who would verify his healing and lift his uncleanness (14; Lev.14:1-7). It was a necessary exception to the command to tell no one, so that the man could be reconciled to society and the healing thus made complete. Once again, the news couldn’t be contained, so “Jesus withdrew... and prayed” (16; Mk.1:35).