It is possible that leprosy, as pictured in the Gospels and seen in Jesus’ ministry of healing, is presented in something of an allegorical way. Many commentators and Bible teachers seem to think so. The “unclean-ness” of leprosy is a picture of sin; the social shunning portrays the way sin disrupts relationships; the banning from regular religious practices typifies sins power to separate those afflicted from God. But leprosy is a physical affliction, and it’s intriguing to see how it is addressed in Scripture.
In the book of Leviticus, chapters 13 and 14, there are 116 verses that address leprosy. Rules are given Israel for diagnosing leprosy; instructions are given for separating the leprous from normal life; details are given for the sacrifices to be offered if the leper experiences some unexpected healing. What is missing is any help or guidelines or instructions for curing leprosy.
If leprosy pictures sin, the instructions in Leviticus are then also helpful pictures. Those 116 lines of rules help us understand what “law” can do. Law, taken as a whole, can define sin for us, point out the extent and seriousnessof it, and speak to the appropriate sacrifices to be offered when sin has been dealt with. What law or rules cannot do is heal us of our sin sickness.
Law cannot save or heal or deliver; it can only draw the line, tell us when the line has been crossed, and define the consequences for crossing the line. 116 lines of rules and no cure. Clear law and yet no lasting or real solution to the problem in view.
Paul, the apostle, says as much in his letters to the Galatians and to the Romans. Law–not just the Old Testament Law but all rule-based approaches to living right before God–fall short.
“For by works of law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16); that is, no keeping of the rules will usher in wholeness before God. “If righteousness comes through law, then Christ died in vain (Galatians 2:21); that is, if right standing before God is available through keeping rules, then Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross was a hollow and useless endeavor.
The really amazing and glorious and happy truth is that Jesus heals lepers. And Jesus rescues sinners. And Jesus delivers those who are trapped by disease of soul.
Like what he said to the leper who approached him in Mark 1. Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand, touched the leper, and said, “I am willing for you to be clean. Be clean!”
It is what Jesus says to all the soul-sick, rule-keeping, sin-bound afflicted people who come to him. He is moved with compassion; he both feels and felt the burden we carry. He stretches out his hands; stretching his hands out on the cross in death and stretching them out even now to reach into our lives. He touches those who come; with his love he touches their hearts and with his Spirit he touches their souls. And he says, “I am willing for you to be clean. It is why I came, why I died. Be clean.”
116 lines of rules and no cure. And in one life-giving moment in time, Jesus reaches past the rules and into lives and brings the cure our souls need.
