Post by Mark on Nov 11, 2009 5:16:39 GMT -8
Three people are helped by Messiah in the first part of Matthew chapter, grouped together in a way which may not be necessarily chronological but to present a contrast. In Matthew 8:1, Messiah is approached by a leper. While leprosy could have been a number of medical conditions, it was assumed to be contagious. A leper was forbidden by law to have any direct or physical contact with anyone except the priest, and then only in hope that the leprosy was cured.
The second person to be blessed by Messiah was the Centurion’s servant, sick with palsy. Whether the condition was clinical palsy or lockjaw or some other form of paralysis, we can’t know for sure; but such a condition isn’t spread by human contact.
The third person healed by Messiah is Peter’s mother-in-law. She was feverish to the point that she was utterly incapacitated. While there can be a number of causes for this condition, it would be easy to assume that casual contact would place Messiah Yeshua at some risk.
So we have a definite contrast that is completely opposite of how we would be inclined to behave- the two people who could adversely affect Messiah Yeshua simply by being near Him, He reached out and touched- and not just touched (like with one finger). The Greek word used means literally, "to take hold of". Messiah was not inhibited or turned away by their condition or the possibility of how it might affect Him. They asked for help and He reached out to them.
He didn’t need to touch the leper in order for the man to be made well. There are other times He had spoken His will into being. Lazarus was dead (you don’t get much sicker than that) and all Messiah had to do was call him out. I think there’s something more to this story than just to acknowledge that Messiah had (and has) the power to heal. I think there is something in the example that demonstrates for us to follow.
There are occasions to minister that we often are inclined to pass by because there are risks involved that our world, our culture and our society would demand that we avoid. For anyone to reach out and put his arms around a leper would have been absolutely unheard of- this man may had never felt the warmth of another’s touch for years.
More often than we would like to admit, the right and godly response to the people around us seem wrong and unreasonable in the cultural context that we interpret them in. Had Messiah been in 21st Century America, would have He responded any differently to the man hunched and broken with Gonorrhea or the woman burning with fever from Hepatitis C. Sure, we don’t necessarily have within us the miraculous ability to heal. It is possible that we place ourselves at more significant health risk. Yet, how many times do we look the other way and do not consider the need simply because our culture demands that we not.
