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Jesus Cleanses a Leper (Lk. 5:12-16)

'Now there was a man full of leprosy in one of the towns where he was; and when he saw Jesus, he fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, “I do will it. Be made clean.” And the leprosy left him immediately. Then he ordered him not to tell anyone, but “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The report about him spread all the more, and great crowds assembled to listen to him and to be cured of their ailments, but he would withdraw to deserted places to pray (Lk. 5:12-16).'

'Order the Israelites to expel from camp everyone with a scaly infection, and everyone suffering from a discharge, and everyone who has become unclean by contact with a corpse. Male and female alike, you shall expel them. You shall expel them from the camp so that they do not defile their camp, where I dwell in their midst (Num. 5:2-3).’ Any Israelite who had a skin infection was not clean or holy and was made an outcast and forbidden to worship in the Temple (Lev. 13).  The man in this passage had a skin disease but many of the skin diseases in OT times were referred to as leprosy.  Jesus touched the unclean man thereby making himself also unclean and ritually impure.  The man was made clean as Jesus willed and was restored to holiness, but Jesus told him to go and show himself to the Temple priest and follow the prescriptions of the Law to be declared ritually clean so he could again enter the Temple.  The process for purification of a leper is given in Lev. 14.  Jesus was faithful to the Law; “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill (Mt. 5:17).”

Almighty God, your Son told us to, “Cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”  We are made impure in your eyes by our sins and need Your cleansing power to bring us back into a right relationship with You.  Help us we pray to follow your teaching in all that we do so that our sacrificial offerings will be acceptable to You as a fragrant aroma in atonement for our sins.  This we pray through Christ our Lord.  Amen!

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References:

Raymond E. Brown, Joseph A. Fitzmyer, & Roland E. Murphy, (Eds.). (1990, 1968). The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentis Hall, Inc.

Jose M. Casciaro, Santiago Ausin, Gonzalo Aranda, Claudio Basevi, Vincente Balaguer, Francisco Varo, James Gavigan, Brian McCarthy & Thomas McGovern (Eds.). (2017). The Navarre Bible - New Testament. Dublin 8, Ireland: Four Courts Press.

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