He Can Deal

Reading in Matthew 8:1-3 today, about Jesus healing a man with leprosy:

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.

The footnotes in my Bible (the ESV Study Bible--lots of good info/background) pointed out that Jesus touched the leper to heal him, and touched him without becoming unclean. It's easy for us to miss that point today, but there were scads of laws about people with skin diseases, and people with leprosy were not allowed to touch anyone, not even their family. Jesus did what no one else could do--touch uncleanness and make it pure.

Most of us have never met or seen anyone with leprosy. However, most of us do deal with our own brand of uncleanness, especially in the area of relationships. Lots of us struggle with being needy, clingy, jealous, guarded, controlling, or naive; all symptoms of our sin which frequently damage our relationships. Jesus is the only one who can deal with those "diseases" without becoming unclean--without being hurt, without hurting back, and without rejecting us. If we bring those feelings to Him, He can handle them without it hurting our relationship. He wants us to come to Him with those areas of our life, like the leper came, and ask for healing.

Realistically, our healing usually doesn't come as instantaneously as the leper's did--one of the results of living in between salvation and Jesus' return. But, little by little, God will help us change and help our relationships to become cleaner and cleaner.