GRACE WINSSample

After the extended teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:2–7:27), Jesus comes down the mountain and large crowds follow. We jump to a fast-moving section of Matthew’s Gospel, which is characterized by the many healings and other miracle stories Jesus performed. This first miracle is of a man suffering with a skin disease called leprosy. Because no one knew how it could be cured, its effects were so horrible and highly contagious that the only treatment was quarantine. 

Lepers were not allowed to live in towns or villages but had to remain outside the town centers. This is similar to the condition all humanity has spiritually. We might say we have “leprosy of the spirit.” Sin is a disease that eats away at the image of God in our lives, just like leprosy eats away at human flesh (it’s a skin-eating bacteria). Humanity was called to reflect the very image of God, but sin has eaten away at the flesh of our true identity. Like this man, our disconnection from God leads us to a disconnection from the people around us.  

Although we may not be physically quarantined, emotionally and relationally we do quarantine one another. Our inability to love like God loves us causes hurt and disease in our relationships, and we do not know the cure to this spiritual leprosy we all face. Humanity—every generation through the ages—has searched for the cure to our spiritual disease, but to no avail. We are left with a spiritually-isolated humanity, scrambling for some sort of relief. We numb the pain but can’t cure our dis-ease. Something is not right inside. We see it in our relationships. We cover it up with our false identities. We wear masks to hide the ugliness of our condition, hoping we will be accepted but find ourselves broken even more because the person which people might accept is not our true self.  

You can see the fear in the lepers request: he asks for healing, but he is not sure if Jesus really would want to heal him. No one had ever wanted to help this man. No one. 

He likely heard of the compassion and radical grace of Jesus by hearsay, as the crowd came down the mountain after hearing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But the man is uneasy, just like we are with God—like him, we are not quite sure if God really wants to heal us. We have heard it from preachers, parents or friends, but there may be still a fear: does Jesus truly want us healed? 

Jesus doesn’t hesitate. He replies clearly and passionately: “Of course!” Jesus wanted nothing more than this man to be healed—and that’s just why He came. Jesus is God, and He reveals the image of God to us, so we can see what we were always meant to look like. 

Jesus was the first human to not wear a mask, to be accepted as He really is; and He is the first human not to require others to wear a mask in order to be accepted. The man was healed. His flesh was restored—he no longer had gaping holes in his identity. 

May we, like this leper, have the courage to cry out for healing from the sin that eats away at us. May we receive a grace that heals and restores the image of God in our lives. And may the fruit of it be seen in the way we now come together as a new humanity—no longer a quarantined humanity but a gathered community of love. May we show the same grace that was shown to us, even when we encounter spiritual leprosy in others. Grace heals. Grace wins.

- Josh Kelsey