18. The Leper, the Touch, and the Sequence

The Christian Statement

In the first century, leprosy was not merely a disease. It was a social and religious category. The leper was required to cry out "unclean, unclean" when approaching populated areas, to live outside the community, and to maintain distance from the ritually clean. Physical contact with a leper made the person touching them ritually unclean.

The leper who approached Jesus in Matthew 8:2-3 said: "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." He is not asking whether Jesus has the power. He is asking whether Jesus is willing. Whether a holy man will choose to be made unclean for his sake.

Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him. Before He healed him. He touched him first. And then said: "I am willing. Be clean."

The touch was not necessary for the healing. Jesus healed at a distance on other occasions. The touch was necessary for the person. The leper had not been touched by a clean person in however long his illness had lasted. The touch was the restoration of human contact. It was the declaration, in the language of physical presence, that this person was worth touching. Before the healing. Before the word.

The church that is willing to be made unclean - to enter the spaces where the people who have been declared unclean by society and religion live, to sit with them, to touch their lives before any announcement of healing is made - is the church that follows this pattern. The church that maintains its ritual purity by keeping its distance from the leper is the Pharisee watching Jesus eat with Zacchaeus. It keeps its purity intact. And it produces nothing.

✝ What Jesus Did: Touch first. The touch declares: you are worth contact. You are not too contaminated for my presence. The healing follows the touch. The word follows the presence. Presence is the apologetic. Before any argument.