Steven A. Bush - August 24, 2014

Jesus Heals Lepers

Jesus Heals Lepers

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John document 37 miracles performed by Jesus and Luke records 20 of those.  John tells us there were far more than these.  Though the term translated leprosy encompasses any number of skin related diseases, we know that Hanson's disease was chief among them and in Jesus' day there was no medical cure.  Leprosy was a horrible affliction that forced the infected to separate from their families, exempting them from the privileges of worship, work, and community life.  Luke the physician tells the amazing story of how the Great Physician healed 10 lepers on a single occasion.  He also reports that one of the lepers, realizing he had been cured, immediately returns to Jesus, falls on his face before Him, and gives praise to God.  Luke also notes that this man was a Samaritan.  Humility co-mingled with gratitude seems to always get God's attention, even from lepers, Samaritans, and anyone else deemed an outcast.  Sin, of course, rendered all of us as outcasts.  Transgressions and iniquities are our leprosy causing us to be unclean before God.   But Jesus Himself became our Remedy.  Isaiah 53:3-5 says it all: "He was despised and rejected by mankind, a Man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed."

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