Leviticus 13:45, commentary and pictures

The law required the person judged by the priests to have leprosy to make his condition publicly known by torn garments, uncovered head, covered lip, and the mournful cry of uncleanness to warn others to keep away. This was because the disease was dreaded as loathsome, contagious, decaying and incurable, and its sentence was a living death that cut the sufferer off from home, society and congregation to live apart in isolation. Jesus did not shrink back from such outcasts in fear of defilement but drew near, laid his hand upon them, and by his willing word at once changed their decaying flesh to healthy flesh like that of a child. He honored the law by sending the cleansed to the priest with the offering Moses commanded as a testimony that his work was not opposed to the law. The verse thus supplies the language for the sinner coming to God in humble confession, loathing self, ending all proud boasting, and acknowledging that no cleanness of one's own exists apart from Jesus Christ.

The Law's Requirement

Leprosy in Israel was the most fearful and loathsome disease of the East, dreaded for its contagious character and its horrible, decaying effect upon its victim, so that great precautions were taken to keep it from spreading. Physicians of note examined cases thoroughly and searched their books, only to admit their skill was baffled because the disease was fatal and incurable. When human skill had thus failed, it became the duty of the priest to examine the suspected person, and if he judged it to be the worst form of leprosy the verdict pronounced him unclean.

A healed leper could not simply return, but was required by the law of Moses to go to the priests, who must thoroughly examine him before accepting any cleansing offering. Only after that examination could he be proclaimed to the people as entirely free from the infectious disease, in sound health, and able again to unite with family and friends without endangering them. Those showing signs of the disease were examined in this way, and those pronounced leprous faced separation, exile from home and society, and open publication of their uncleanness.

The one pronounced unclean had to publish his own calamity by rending his garment, leaving his head bare, and putting a covering upon his upper lip. With these visible marks he was to sound the alarm with the mournful cry, Unclean, unclean, warning all to flee from his polluted, decaying body and contaminating presence. The law required him to keep apart from towns and villages and to give this warning so people would not come upon him unexpectedly, and the signal was heard with fear and abhorrence.

That sentence was a living death, cutting him off from family, from home, from the privileges of society, and from the congregation of Israel. He was doomed to live apart in isolation, debarred from entering any city, town, or village, and left to associate only with others likewise afflicted, bearing the curse of his malady away from friends and kindred with no affectionate hands to soothe his pain. The verdict fell even upon a man of high distinction and lofty position, exiling him from his home so that those who had courted his favor fled from him with horror, and it forced husbands, wives, and children to hear the sentence pronounced upon one another.

Under the law of Moses he who touched a leper became himself unclean, so that approach risked contagion. For this reason lepers were to be avoided in terror, kept from approaching others, and kept at a distance.

Jesus and the Lepers

The isolation barred lepers from entering any city or village, and many lived under that ban in the region of Christ's ministry, yet news of Jesus working among the people as the great Healer and Physician reached even them in their separation and gave hope that coming into His presence could bring relief, though reaching Him seemed impossible because His chief work lay among the populace where they could not go.

In desperate search for healing the leper forgot the restrictions that kept him apart and the fear his frightening appearance caused in others, focusing only on Jesus. The law required him to live apart and warn others because approach risked contagion, so he came crying Unclean from a distance with decaying hands stretched toward the Healer. At Capernaum after the Sabbath sunset, when the sick flocked to Jesus, lepers came with them crying Unclean, unclean from the distance while stretching their decaying hands toward Him, and when the leper recognized Jesus he stopped the warning to plead to be made clean, and Jesus healed everyone who applied to Him by a word from His lips or a touch of His hand, restoring them to health and happiness. The cry was a public warning heard as he approached Jesus.

As he approached, the people fell back in terror and even the disciples wanted to prevent contact, because by the law of Moses he who touched a leper became himself unclean. Jesus did not shrink back or refuse touch but drew near with calm fearlessness and laid His hand upon the supplicant. His hands never refused to touch the loathsome leper with healing, and His lips answered the petition for relief with willingness commanding cleanness.

At that life-giving answer the dying body of corruption was at once changed to healthy flesh with sensitive nerves and firm muscle, the rough scaly surface gone and replaced by a soft glow like the skin of a healthy child. The priestly diagnosis had brought exile from home and society, and the disease's advance had made the sufferer a fearful, decaying spectacle, and this change reversed it. With His hands folded silently upon His breast in death and His lips silent in the tomb, the afflicted would be left helpless, mourning and dying for want of that healing touch.

The law required that a person with leprosy be examined by the priests and by their decision declared unclean and banished from family and friends, and that a healed leper return to the priests for thorough examination before any cleansing offering could be accepted, so they could proclaim to the people that he was entirely free from the infectious disease, in sound health, and could again unite with family and friends without endangering them. Jesus honored this law by commanding the cleansed leper to show himself to the priest and offer for his cleansing those things Moses commanded, for a testimony to the priests that His teaching was not opposed to the law of Moses. Those who had once been required to lift the pathetic warning cry in their uncleanness and had been restored to health by His divine power later joined the mournful lament for Him on the way to the cross, and while He appeared not to hear the rude jest and mockery of the mob He heard their sympathetic cry and turned to them in pity to tell them to weep for themselves and their children in view of coming judgment on Jerusalem.

Confession of Personal Uncleanness

The leper's cry of uncleanness provides the very language for coming before God in humble confession. To take up that cry is to loathe self, to confess personal uncleanness, and to clothe self in sackcloth and ashes. It means dying to self and humbling the proud heart, so that proud boasting in self comes to an end. In that humbled place the heart recognizes its own weakness and its need of help from heaven. It acknowledges that there is no cleanness of one's own, because the only cleanness possible is in Jesus Christ.

Jesus receives even the mistaken prayer of such a sinner. When what is asked is not what should have been asked and is not according to God's will, He corrects the mistake. He translates the prayer into what should have been asked, into the very things that are needed and best, and offers it thus to God.