When you buy an iPhone, you can’t wait to start using it. But before you can, you have to follow a setup process, which involves a few choices. You also have to agree to Apple’s terms and conditions of use. The terms and conditions are a lengthy list but does anyone actually read them before proceeding to the next step. Show of hands please. No one is bothered with that; they just want to start using their iPhone!
But there are a few people who take your agreement very seriously, the owners of Apple and their lawyers of course.
That is the way it is with our life on earth too. God is the owner of life, and he proclaimed the laws for living and his terms and conditions should also be taken seriously. But the general public, don’t pay any attention, they rush to start using what God has provided and don’t bother with the details of the agreement.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:17-18
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
When it comes to our own personal health and safety or of someone we love, then we do take the law seriously. If someone is breaking the law and it affects us, we naturally want to see the full weight of the law come down on the offender.
The passage we are going to study today is from Luke 5:12-16 concerning a man with leprosy. Leprosy is a very serious condition that disfigures and rots the body. Leprosy is primarily transmitted through droplets from the nose and mouth of an untreated individual, specifically during prolonged, close contact. So, it is contagious under those circumstances.
Leprosy completely ostracises someone from their family and community. In Jesus day, the situation was even worse. The law of Leviticus 14 was interpreted to mean that leprosy is a curse from God and so not only was the person isolated socially but also gave a feeling of complete spiritual isolation, even damnation. Can anyone think of any health conditions which isolate people from Church life today. We actually saw this from some Churches during the COVID years, but this is not the only example.
Before we read from Luke, I thought we should read Leviticus 14 concerning the laws around leprosy. I hope you don’t mind as it is a lengthy detailed passage, it’s to give you an idea of what is required under God’s law so you would appreciate how much freedom we have today. If you were a religious person back then before the Cross, the way you may have thought about someone in your family or community with leprosy could easily lack grace.
Leviticus 14:1-4
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest. And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper, then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop.
Notice there are two distinct parts - the healing and the cleansing. The healing is physical. The cleansing is to do with restoration to man and God; it is both social and spiritual.
Leviticus 14:5-13
Notice the sprinkling of the water had to be done 7 times. Later in the Bible, the prophet Elisha told Naaman the Syrian to go and bath in the Jordan 7 times to be cleansed of his leprosy. Naaman was not happy about it but was finally as persuaded and obeyed and was healed.
More importantly to us today, 1 John 5:6 tells us
“This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
Just as water and blood cleansed the leper from leprosy, so Jesus’s blood and water at the Cross cleanses us from sin.
Leviticus 14:5-13
“And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil. Then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. Then he shall kill the lamb in the place where he kills the sin offering and the burnt offering, in a holy place; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy.
Thanks to the Cross, we can now easily understand that leprosy represents sin, and Jesus is the Lamb of God whose offering for our sins is most holy.
Leviticus 14:14-18
The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. And the priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. Then the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. And of the rest of the oil in his hand, the priest shall put some on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord.
The oil represents the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse and sanctify us from sin. For a lot of us that will take a lifetime, but we do expect to see growing freedom from sin in every true Christian as a sign of the Holy Spirit and the fact that the person is a new creation in Christ.
Leviticus 14:19-24
“Then the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. Afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean. “But if he is poor and cannot afford it, then he shall take one male lamb as a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, a log of oil, and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford: one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering. He shall bring them to the priest on the eighth day for his cleansing, to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, before the Lord. And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord.
Galatians 3:26-29 tells us
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Isn’t that Good News? We have all been made clean in Christ. His sacrifice is for all both rich and poor.
Leviticus 14:25-29
Then he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. And the priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand. Then the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord. And the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass offering. The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before the Lord.
Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us
“In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
We can easily understand that the oil who is the Holy Spirit who marks and seals us for salvation the moment we trust in Jesus. Jesus gives freely our healing and cleansing from sin when we ask.
Leviticus 14:30-32
And he shall offer one of the turtledoves or young pigeons, such as he can afford— such as he is able to afford, the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering, with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before the Lord. This is the law for one who had a leprous sore, who cannot afford the usual cleansing.”
Notice again how the Lord makes provision for both rich and poor, the Grace of God is available to all through Jesus.
Leviticus 14:33-38
And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: “When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give you as a possession, and I put the leprous plague in a house in the land of your possession, and he who owns the house comes and tells the priest, saying, ‘It seems to me that there is some plague in the house,’ then the priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes into it to examine the plague, that all that is in the house may not be made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to examine the house. And he shall examine the plague; and indeed if the plague is on the walls of the house with ingrained streaks, greenish or reddish, which appear to be deep in the wall, then the priest shall go out of the house, to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days.
There is no escaping the wages of sin., the judgement of Death has been pronounced by God.
Leviticus 14:39-42
And the priest shall come again on the seventh day and look; and indeed if the plague has spread on the walls of the house, then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which is the plague, and they shall cast them into an unclean place outside the city. And he shall cause the house to be scraped inside, all around, and the dust that they scrape off they shall pour out in an unclean place outside the city. Then they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other mortar and plaster the house.
Jesus didn’t die on the Cross to plaster over the cracks of our sin. He does a complete rebuild with new stones and new plaster.
Leviticus 14:43-47
“Now if the plague comes back and breaks out in the house, after he has taken away the stones, after he has scraped the house, and after it is plastered, then the priest shall come and look; and indeed if the plague has spread in the house, it is an active leprosy in the house. It is unclean. And he shall break down the house, its stones, its timber, and all the plaster of the house, and he shall carry them outside the city to an unclean place. Moreover he who goes into the house at all while it is shut up shall be unclean until evening. And he who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes, and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
Jesus gave a stern warning about evil coming back into a person’s life. Matthew 12:43-45 says
“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”
Leviticus 14:48-53
“But if the priest comes in and examines it, and indeed the plague has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. And he shall take, to cleanse the house, two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. Then he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water; and he shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and the running water and the living bird, with the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet. Then he shall let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field, and make atonement for the house, and it shall be clean.
I would add one other thought here regarding the sprinkling of the house with water 7 times. Jesus told Peter to forgive his brother 70 x 7 and 1 John 1:9 says
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
So the Lord is very gracious to the repentant heart. Sometimes a sin does return to a house in the next generation and so the cleansing needs to be repeated but the Lord will always forgive and cleanse the repentant sinner.
Leviticus 14:54-57
“This is the law for any leprous sore and scale, for the leprosy of a garment and of a house, for a swelling and a scab and a bright spot, to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy.”
Aren’t you glad we live in the age after the Cross. Did you follow all of that. I bet you would never have read the terms and conditions for leprosy. Because you think, that would never happen to me! I just want to get on with life. Until the day you caught leprosy. Then the terms and conditions come into full affect. It would cost you your hair as you had to shave it off, your finances or something else you could exchange to pay the price of the offering, and your house if you owned one. Has this really changed for people living today who have developed a serious health condition. No, there are businesses out there who cash in big time on people’s health conditions.
And what if you weren’t healed. What would that say about you spiritually? Catching leprosy was virtually a death sentence from society because very few get better. So, from this law of leprosy, a very harsh judgmental view had developed in Jesus’s day which was out of step with the love and mercy of the Lord.
Luke 5:12-13
And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
Notice that the man asked Jesus to be cleansed (rather than just healed). Jesus both healed him and cleansed him.
The Leviticus law was to say that a trespass and sin and burnt offering needed to be made by a priest so that God would cleanse the leper. The priest would make the offering but only God can ultimately grant the cleansing. Therefore this leper is appealing to God and Jesus cleansed him of his leprosy. Jesus is both man and God. He made the trespass and sin and burnt offering on the Cross and we are cleansed of our leprosy caused by our sin, which cuts us off from both man and God. Isn’t that true. When someone sins, they lose so much, even everything. Some end up alone, or destitute or even very ill. Because the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life and by his stripes we are healed, praise God for his love and mercy.
Luke 5:14-16
And He charged him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded.” However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
There was no real need for the man to go to the priest to make an offering because the man was already healed and cleansed. But Jesus told him to do that as a testimony to them so that the man could be restored to his Community as well as to God and so that they would understand who Jesus really is.
If we only receive the healing and not the cleansing, we only receive half the miracle. There is power in our testimony. It is part of the whole healing and cleansing.
Because the Lord is the owner of life and he can heal and cleanse you from sin today!
