Reid over at Faith Gambler asked this seemingly simple question: “Why did Jesus heal lepers?”

I believe that Christs healing of lepers constitutes one of the most beautiful images of Gods mercy. One has to keep in mind the stigma that leprosy carried with it. Biblically someone with leprosy was seen as being unclean.

“Leprosy as a type of sin. –”Being the worst form of disease, leprosy was fixed upon by God to be the especial type of sin, and the injunctions regarding it had reference to its typical character.” It was (1) hereditary; (2) contagious; (3) ever tending to increase; (4) incurable except by the power of God; (5) a shame and disgrace; (6) rendering one alone in the world; (7) deforming, unclean; (8) “separating the soul from God, producing spiritual death; unfitting it forever for heaven and the company of they holy, and insuring its eternal banishment, as polluted and abominable.” (9) Another point is referred to by Thompson (in “The Land and the Book”): “Some, as they look on infancy, reject with horror the thought that sin exists within. But so might any one say who looked upon the beautiful babe in the arms of a leprous mother. But time brings forth the fearful malady. New-born babes of leprous parents are often as pretty and as healthy in appearance as any; but by and by its presence and workings become visible in some of the signs described in the thirteenth chapter of Leviticus.”
From: Bible-History.com

One can only imagine the abject horror that such a personal and social stigma would place upon a person. To not only have society view one as being such a great sinner that God has cursed one with an outward physical manifestation, but to also believe it of oneself would push one to the brink of ultimate despair. I believe that it is in light of this world view that we must see the miraculous healing work of Jesus the Christ. It was not so much the physical restoration of the person, as it was the mental and spiritual restoration that constituted the true miracle.

When I came to Christ, I physically saw my sinful nature in the same way that another person would look with horror and revulsion upon a leper. I emotionally cringed with the concept of how God viewed me as a sinner. Christ’s saving grace and atonement for my sin was no less a miracle than his curing of lepers, allowing the blind to see or raising of the dead. Each one of these miracles is analogous to the saving grace that everyone of us needs.

May the peace, mercy and grace of our Lord be manifest within you.

Rong