LEPROSY-CLEANSING

Leprosy-Cleansing

Lev. 13-14

Luke 17:17: Matt. 8:1-2

Leprosy is revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures as the ultimate symbol of moral malady. The whole ceremonial law emphasized this fact. Because of its nature, of its insidious beginnings, of its slow processes, of its destructive power, and the ultimate ruin wrought by it, it became a powerful symbol of moral depravity.

Luke 17:17 17 Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine--where are they?  

          Nowhere in the NT or the OT are lepers healed, but are cleansed. In the ministry of Jesus there was perpetual relationship between the physical and the spiritual; every physical miracle of healing or cleansing was an outward sign of the spiritual marvel that He was able to work in the souls of man. Cf. Matt. 11:4-5; 8:2-3

          This was not the result of faith due to the fact that only the Samaritan came back to worship and give thanks. The rest were Jews. Only one of the ten.

In Matt 8 we see the Christian enterprise pictured where incarnate purity and pollution meet and as the result of the contact is cleansing.