Matthew 8:1-4 (ESV)
When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. [2] And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." [3] And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. [4] And Jesus said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
“Show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” A proof of what? That Jesus is God, that this man walking around is the Son of God, the Messiah all that is proven by the fact that he just healed a man with leprosy. At least that should have been enough proof. Leprosy was not a disease people expected to be cured of in these days. I don’t think it is even today. This just didn’t happen in Jesus day. But it did with Jesus, and we tend to look at his miracles as the proofs. But that wasn’t the proof Jesus was speaking about. The proof Jesus was speaking about is the gift Moses commanded.
Jesus hereby proves that he comes to fulfill the law rather than abolish it. He is not in conflict with Mosaic law, but in accord with it. He fulfills it on our behalf.
Today this is problematic for us. Sometimes we like to think Jesus just got rid of the law. This people call antinomianism, anti-law. A Christian can never be that. God’s law is good and holy. It has its purposes in this world and in the life of the Christian. On the other side of the horse is the people who do not see at all what it means that Jesus fulfilled the law, and therefore that he forgives. They confuse Jesus with Moses and make him a new law giver. They do not trust in his gospel, but rely on their own ability to fulfill God’s law.
Forgiveness, it is a strange thing. It does not get rid of the law. It does not abolish the law. But it disarms the law. If there were no law, there would be nothing to forgive. Then there would be no need for Christ to have died on the cross etc. But the law is still there, and by it we are guilty. Jesus forgives and takes away the guilt as he takes this leper’s disease. He removes the guilt that we can live, and even strive to live in accordance with the law, because with the love of Christ we fulfill the law.
2 comments:
I'm no doctor, but from what I understand, leprosy, which is today called Hanson's Disease, is treatable with antibiotics. The leprosy that is mentioned in the Bible may or may not be exclusively Hanson's Disease, but could also refer to other skin infections (at least according tot he footnotes in my Schofield NIV). Just some trivia for the day.
Not a doctor either. Seems there aren't as many lepers walking around these days though. So I'm figuring that at least a lot of it has become more or less curable. I'll leave it at, I don't know.
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