OUR FATHER SENT HIS SON TO RESTORE US FROM EXCLUSION

The Lord Jesus, having completed the teaching series on the hillside, descended into crowds of people who were following Him.

Mathew chapter 8 verse 1 - 4 captures a moment when from among the many people, a man with the skin disease of leprosy approached Jesus and worshipped Him;

1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

This passage starts with a man with leprosy worshipping Jesus and in doing so said that if it was Jesus' will, the disease could be removed from him.

Jesus touched the man with His hand saying that He was indeed willing and commanded that the man be cleansed of leprosy and the man was cured immeadiately.

The Lord then commanded the man to maintain secrecy over the how he got healed but to go present himself to the priests in order to be examined and ceremonially cleansed which was part of the elaborate procedure of being restored from quarantine back to regular life as prescribed in the book of Leviticus chapter 14.

The Lord also told him to take a gift to the priests as a sacrifice in accordance with the law of Moses concerning the ceremonial cleansing from leprosy. The sacrifices required are described in Leviticus chapter 14 verses 10 - 11 with a modified prescrition for those who were poor a s could not afford in verses 21 - 22.

10 “On the eighth day they must bring two male lambs and one ewe lamb a year old, each without defect, along with three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil. 

11 The priest who pronounces them clean shall present both the one to be cleansed and their offerings before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

The man's healing and submission to the ceremonial cleansing rituals along with the gift of his sacrifice was to be a testimony to the priests that the healing power of God was now active in land and that people who were excluded from their lives in the family of Israel were now being restored.

Amen.

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