Clean

Church family:
Imagine living with a condition that made you an outcast. You couldn't go home to your family. You couldn't worship with the community. You couldn't walk through town without announcing your condition: “Unclean! Unclean!” You lived outside the camp, separated from the people you loved. That was the reality for the man Matthew introduces in chapter 8. “And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him” (Matt. 8:2)
Can you imagine the courage it took to come near Jesus as an outcast leper? This man had spent his life being told to stay away or face severe consequences. Yet something about Jesus made him believe that he could come near. He knelt before Jesus and said, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” What a beautiful confession of faith. He didn't question Jesus' ability. He only wondered about His willingness.
In response, “Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him.” Jesus could have healed him with a word. He could have remained at a distance. Instead, Jesus reached across the barrier of the Levitical Law and touched the man everyone else had learned to avoid, and something remarkable happened. The leper did not make Jesus unclean; Jesus made the leper clean.
That is the glory of the Messiah. The holiness of Jesus is greater than the uncleanness confronting Him. The physical, social and spiritual brokenness coming toward Jesus does not overwhelm Him. His cleansing power overwhelms the brokenness. Matthew says, “And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
Jesus didn't merely improve the man's skin condition. He restored him completely. He sent him to the priest so that he could be publicly declared clean and return to the community from which he had been separated. And that is why this story speaks so deeply to us.
We may not have leprosy, but we know what it is to carry what we wish others could not see: the shame of sin, the regret of failure, hidden wounds, and the messes in life we have made. Sometimes we think that if people really knew us, they would pull away. And we may even fear that God would do the same.
But Matthew shows us Jesus. Jesus is not repelled by the person who comes to Him in desperate faith. He does not say, “Clean yourself up and then come.” He reaches out to us in our uncleanness.
The gospel is not that we somehow become clean enough for Jesus. The gospel is that Jesus is perfectly clean enough to make us clean. The One who touched the leper would one day go to the cross and bear the uncleanness of His people. He would take our sin upon Himself so that those who trust Him could receive His righteousness.
So, come to Christ with your sin. Come with your shame. Come with the things you cannot fix. The question is not, “Am I clean enough to come to Jesus?” Of course we’re not.
The question is, “Is Jesus able to make me clean?” And Matthew's answer is unmistakable:
Yes; His holiness is greater than your uncleanness, and His cleansing power is greater than your sin.
See you Sunday, cleansed. Steve