Matthew 8:1-3 (ESV)
[1] 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.
For three chapters Jesus has been talking about a holiness that begins
internally. Since one cannot change their own heart, he is talking about a
holiness that not on exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, but a holiness
that is impossible. So how is it achieved? By the power of God. It is
significant that as Jesus came down from the mountain where he talked about holiness,
cleanliness in the sight of God, he was approached by an unclean leper. The
leper’s cry is, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Hearing Jesus’s teaching
on holiness, that should be our cry as well. “If you will, you can make us
clean.” The leper recognized his uncleanness. The Scribes and Pharisees,
insisting that they were clean (holy), failed to see their need for true holiness.
The leper recognized that cleanliness could only come by the power of the King.
The Scribes and Pharisees believed that holiness was achievable by their own
effort. How often our own pride, and our blindness to our own uncleanness keeps
us from trusting Jesus, yet he is the only source of true cleanliness, true
holiness. May we be more like the leper and less a Scribe or Pharisee.
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