Jesus - Seeking the Cure, Finding the Christ

 

Jesus

If we only learn one thing from Naaman’s story it’s that our need is far greater than men’s ability to fix.

If our greatest need is food, we just need to work harder in agriculture and farming. If our greatest need is education and knowledge, then off to school we go. If it’s an earthly enemy, we only need advanced tactics and weapons. If it’s money, we just need the right career, or investment strategy, or rich friend. But there are certain needs on this earth that have long been incurable apart from God, and one that will remain so.

Leprosy and Sin

Leprosy was incurable until the 1940s. In the Old Testament you can count healed lepers on two fingers, and those were the very specific and clearly supernatural cases of Miriam and Naaman.

Leprosy is the perfect symbol for sin, it doesn’t kill immediately, it is not even the cause of death, it just helps you to descend deeper and deeper into pain and despair. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). When sin is fully grown it brings forth death (James 1:15). The steps of temptation lead down to death and hell (Proverbs 5:5).

Not only will leprosy eventually lead to your demise, it is also highly contagious. It estranges you from people, and if and when you share it with your loved ones it will curse them as well. The author of Hebrews warns, “See to it…that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled…” (Hebrews 12:15). God “will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7). Sin has defiled everything and everyone. Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned (Romans 5:12).

Leprosy is a vivid illustration of our spiritual need. Consider yourself before you knew Christ. If you’re reading this and don’t know Christ, especially pay attention to this next paragraph.

While your body may have looked intact, what did your soul look like? Truth be told, your heart and mine was and is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; compared to my heart a leper could win a beauty pageant. Can you think of anyone you hurt deeply? My life before Christ was littered with people I tore down and/or buttressed in their idolatry. I remember one girl in high school specifically I bullied to the point of tears. I can think of many other people that I encouraged to sin. I can think of friends who died far too young and I wonder why I didn’t care enough to reach out. The swath of destruction in my path before meeting the Lord Jesus Christ is horrendous and I proved the proverb, “in their paths are ruin and misery” (Romans 3:16, Isaiah 59:7).

Like leprosy, sin also destroys relationships. Jesus promised, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). A leper, if he cares about his friends, is going to keep a vast distance from them to safeguard them. No more handshakes, no hugs, no pats on the back, no more handholding.

Because of the impurity of the heart, the sinner becomes a peacebreaker. Because of the impurity of the skin, the leper loses human connection. And the ultimate relationship that suffers is with God. Jesus also said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). This is mirroring the language from Psalm 24, as well as other verses, and it reminds us that heaven is holy, pure, undefiled, unstained, and perfect.

Imagine for a moment that the angels guarding the way to the tree of life were to let a leper through the gates. What would happen to heaven? Within days, if not moments, it wouldn’t be heaven any longer, it would be just like earth. No, it would be worse because of the distance it had fallen. Remember Penelope Judd from Shai Linne’s song? The angel bars the way when she approaches the door,

A huge angel answered, looked her up and down,
She knew something was wrong because he had a big frown,
‘Can I help you ma’am?’ ‘Yes, I’m here for the party!
I have invitation!’ He said, ‘I’m so sorry!
There’s no way that I can let you through these doors,
the King won’t let anyone dirty up His floors.’

How would you feel if you destroyed heaven? How would you feel if you were a leper and you knew that your carelessness had led to someone else contracting the disease? How much worse would you feel if you knew your example or inaction had led someone to hell for eternity?

Pain and Conviction

“Feel” might not be the right word, beloved, because what Hansen’s disease does is attack your nervous system. Often the damage you see done to a leper’s body is self-imposed, they cut themselves and don’t realize it, so no bandage was applied. They picked up a blazing hot pot from an oven with bare hands. They scratched their nose too hard and too often. They didn’t feel anything, but the damage was done. Dr. Paul Brand, world renowned leprosy physician said, “I cannot think of a better gift I could give my leprosy patients than pain.”

One of the great gifts God has given us is the gift of shame: of “feeling” and understanding that we are guilty and in need of forgiveness. Naaman had sought a cure for his skin condition, but in so doing he found what he really needed: a cure for his soul condition. Naaman’s leprosy ended up being the greatest thing that ever happened to him–eclipsed only by when his leprosy was healed and he met the living God. Jesus sent his promised Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7–11).

What a joy when the Spirit shows us our need, because Jesus tells us, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). John Newton put it this way,

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed.

Apart from God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, do you see the despair that a leper would feel? Hopeless, alone, shameful, destitute, forsaken by God and afflicted: irredeemable.

Hope and Healing from Heaven

But then the God of heaven chose to send his only begotten Son into the world. He prepared a body for him to wear–nothing majestic or noteworthy–and Jesus dwelt among us and faced our infirmities and understood our suffering.

And he touched lepers. He touched lepers regularly and on purpose. The bacteria that causes leprosy doesn’t care if you touch a leper on accident or on purpose, it is highly contagious and just cares about that opportunity for transfer.

Haggai backed the priests into a conundrum by asking if a holy garment could make food clean that was carried in it. The answer is obviously not. But what if that garment has been on or touched a dead body and food is carried in it? Then the food is obviously defiled (see Haggai 2:10–14). I wouldn’t want to eat it, and obviously neither would you, and God certainly wouldn’t accept it as holy. Men can defile everything, but they cannot make anything holy or acceptable.

But Jesus is about to turn that principle upside down, proving that he’s not just a good man, he is the holy God. When Moses approached the burning bush, God’s presence had made even the dirt holy (Exodus 3:4–5). When Isaiah’s unclean lips were touched by a coal from God’s altar, his lips were sanctified (Isaiah 6:6–7). And in the New Creation every cooking vessel will be just as holy as if it were set-apart solely for temple use (Zechariah 14:21).

Jesus remains holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26), despite touching lepers regularly and on purpose. When a woman with an incurable bleeding disorder touched him, he was not diminished though something magnificent happened, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” His holiness and his power were infinite, and his ability to heal, redeem, and restore were likewise. The woman was healed in body and soul and Jesus was not defiled in the least (Luke 8:43–48).

Jesus did not have to touch people to heal them, he could say the word and they would be restored, made whole, and cleansed. A military commander had recognized this when he saw the authority in Jesus but was sure he was not worthy for Jesus to enter his house, so he asked Jesus to heal his servant from a distance, which Jesus promptly did (Matthew 8:5–13). J. C. Ryle summarized this story with, “Christ’s Word is as good as His presence.”

If Jesus didn’t have to be in close proximity to lepers, and he certainly didn’t have to touch them, then why did he? Couldn’t he have just said the word from his throne in heaven? Remember, no one touched lepers, they had felt no embrace nor no human warmth because their condition had cut them off from human interaction.

Even when they had the understanding as the military commander from above, and knew Jesus just need to say a word, he still touched them (Matthew 8:2–4). There were strict guidelines for what a leper was supposed to do after cleansing, found in Leviticus 14:2–32, but it had lain dormant and unused for thirteen-hundred years. If anyone needed proof that Jesus was the Messiah, this should have been it, that healing for leprosy had arrived. The healing of lepers was sent as a sign to John the Baptist as evidence that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah (Matthew 11:5). There is no evidence that this passage had ever been obeyed by any leper or priest prior to Jesus beginning his ministry.

The Healing of Body and Soul

If leprosy, the incurable disease, was being cured, what else could be cured? Cancer, HIV/AIDS, dementia, diabetes, rabies; certainly, all of these and more could be healed by Jesus. This is a light thing in the sight of the Lord.

There is one tragic twist we must consider, illustrated when, near the end of his worldly ministry, Jesus approached ten lepers in a village near Samaria and they begged him to heal them. After he healed them, they went off rejoicing, but only one returned to worship him (Luke 17:11–19).

Remember, Naaman sought the cure and found the Christ. It is more than possible to receive the cure and miss the Christ, as evidenced by these nine lepers. We’ve previously considered medical doctor D. Martin Lloyd-Jones who left medicine because he wanted to see people truly saved and transformed, and not merely healed to go back to a life of sin. The miracle of modern medicine is healing bodies left and right while doing nothing for the soul. HIV was a death sentence just thirty years ago, but now with the right treatment it’s just a major inconvenience. What a shame that the body can be healed and the soul left untouched.

So how do we get to the point of healing soul and body? It’s not in taking care of people’s worldly needs, though there is certainly a place for charity. Naaman needed nothing of material value, and if he did need something, he would not have asked the Israelites. God is in the practice of using all things for good to see his saints saved, he’s not willing that even a single one of them should perish, but that they would all come to repentance. God is using all things? All things. Even leprosy? Even leprosy. Remember,

Naaman was as great as the world could make him, and yet the basest slave in Syria would not change skins with him. ~ Matthew Henry

The Great Exchange

I don’t often argue with Matthew Henry, but I have to make an exception: someone did switch places with Naaman.

Paul tells us, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21) and “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…” (Galatians 3:13).

Peter tells us, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). And Isaiah drives the point home,

Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned–every one–to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all. ~ Isaiah 53:4–6

Jesus loved Naaman in this way, that he went to a Roman cross to be abandoned by God and men, to face the full consequences of sin and to pay the wages of sin, so that we can receive eternal life in him (Romans 6:23). Surely the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came to give life and life abundantly (John 10:10). Horatius Bonar illustrates the great exchange this way,

Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, I stake my whole eternity.

For reasons that I cannot comprehend, God loved Naaman and chose to save him despite his sins and idolatry. I find it equally perplexing that only Naaman was healed of leprosy in the days of Elisha. God’s hand was not shortened, but like Gehazi they would not seek the cure or the God who heals.

Zechariah promised a day of mourning was coming and that “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1). That day happened two thousand years ago, and that fountain is still open and cleansing today. Jesus doesn’t just cleanse the outside, he washes us in our inward parts, he makes our hearts new, he transforms our souls, he makes us new creations. He works in his greatest enemies, he worked in the Syrians, he worked in the Assyrians, he worked in the Babylonians, and chiefest of all, he works in you and I.

A leper was hopeless, but you can be a leper and know God intimately and have an expectation of eternal healing. A sinner is more hopeless, they are without God in the world and have no hope of redemption in themselves. Take a moment to consider the worst, most debased, most hopeless, most irredeemable sinner you know…maybe they’re looking at you in the mirror, and know that God is able to cleanse them, even them, from sin.

Now there are some incurable diseases, but sin is not one of them! ~ S. M. Lockridge

Washed in the Blood

Three days later Jesus defeated death, proving he had laid down his life so that he could take it back up again and open the gates of heaven to people who heretofore had been banned from entry.

In heaven there will be one man with scars, and it won’t be Naaman or Paul or Isaiah, it will be the one we call the “Lamb who was slain.” You’ll be able to see the nail pierced hands that are healing nations, the bruised heal that crushed the serpent’s head, the scar where his broken heart was revealed, and his head where the Lord of all was crowned with scorn. You’ll also be able to see his navel which proves he was and is fully God and fully man.

For the rest of us, who have a multitude of scars on earth, we must realize that it’s not just leprosy that’s banned from heaven: scabs, scars, deformities, all of these will keep a person out of heaven. If you think you haven’t been afflicted by the fall, just consider your bellybutton which proves you need a Saviour. Even if you somehow kept yourself entirely from sin, the effect of the curse of sin would be enough to bar you from the presence of God:

He shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the Lord who sanctifies them. ~ Leviticus 21:23

Heaven, the ultimate sanctuary of God, is closed to you. Even though Jesus has opened heaven’s gates, we have this continuing guarantee, “its gates will never be shut by day–and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false” (Revelation 21:25–27)…But, if you’ll come to Jesus, you can partake in a wonderful promise, just one more reason to love the Lord Christ,

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. ~ Ephesians 5:25–27

If your hope of sanctification is in a law, it is useless,

For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. ~ Hebrews 7:18–19

There is one hope that saves, Christ in us, the hope of glory.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the veil, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf. ~ Hebrews 6:19–20

If you’re in a place where you can sing, then sing William Cowper’s magnificent hymn, There is a Fountain Filled With Blood (if not, just read),

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.