While Jesus was in one of the towns, he came upon a man who was a
mass of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he prostrated himself before him and
begged, "If you want to Lord, you can make me clean."
Jesus stretched out his hand, placed it on the leper, saying, "Certainly I want to.
Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and Jesus warned him not to tell
anybody, but to go and show himself to the priest and to make the offerings for
his recovery which Moses prescribed, as evidence to the authorities.
Yet the news about him spread all the more, and enormous crowds collected to
hear Jesus and to be healed of their complaints.
But he slipped quietly away to deserted places for prayer.
(Luke 5: 12-16)
My dear friend, I want to discuss with you the passage, which you yesterday were
thinking of.
Jesus, as on many occasions, cured a sick man, plagued by a disease, which was incurable
in that time. And then he ordered him not to tell anybody. However, this man, in his
extreme happiness, could not be silent, and so Jesus' fame spread everywhere. Nothing
bad in that, you are thinking. But the problem was that whenever Jesus presented himself
publicly, crowds of people, who wanted to be cured from their diseases, immediately
surrounded him. This is natural and very comprehensible, but it is also comprehensible
that the Master, under such circumstances, often could not deliver his message, people
did not come to listen to it, but to get their healing. And it is also natural that on some
occasions the Master almost had to escape: “He slipped quietly away to deserted places
for prayer."
The healing of sick people did not form part of the Master's mission. He did it whenever it
was possible for him to do so, but that least he wanted was to be renowned as a traveling
miracle maker, as unfortunately some Bible scholars are concluding presently.
However, the healing of diseases, especially of the so-called "leprosy", entailed other
consequences. Leprosy, which the Bible speaks of, is not exactly what nowadays is
understood under leprosy. Today it is known that it is a slow and destructive disease,
damaging superficial nerves, and hence, the skin and blood vessels, leading in extreme
cases to horrible deformities. The "leprosy" of the Bible was defined in the Hebrew
Scriptures, especially in the Book of Leviticus. But this crude and not very appropriate
description led to the inclusion of other, not very dangerous and not contagious diseases
into the term of leprosy, bringing disastrous consequences to the poor people, who
suffered from them.
Firstly, lepers were not permitted to live in the cities, at least not in walled places. When
people came near lepers, they had to cry out: “Unclean! Unclean!,” to avoid infection.
They had to wear torn clothes, and cover their beard and mouth. They never received
greetings, because greeting meant not just a quick squeeze of hands, but a hug. They lived
like pariahs, rejected by society.
But worst of all, the Jews believed that leprosy was a punishment by God. The leper,
therefore, was a sinner of the worst category. And the lepers themselves believed this,
because they had been educated so. You can readily imagine the psychological damage
this brought upon them.
[H.R.: See 2 Chronicles 26:20:
And Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him (Uzziah), and,
behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence;
yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the LORD had smitten him.]
You know that true leprosy does not heal spontaneously. But as I have said, there were
many cases considered lepers, who suffered from other illnesses, for example from
psoriasis. And some of these cases were really healed. I just want to state here that the
leper described above really suffered from true leprosy. But the healing, as in the case of
Jesus' miracle, or in spontaneous cases, was not enough to permit those poor people to
return unto the society. A complicated process was necessary for declaring them "clean."
Among other, a priest had to examine the diseased person. If you wish so, you may
reproduce here the whole procedure required by the Mosaic Law.
[H.R.: The Book of Leviticus, 14: 19-32, reads:
And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to
be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering:
And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar:
and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
And if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb for a
trespass offering to be waved, to make an atonement for him, and one tenth deal of
fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil;
And two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one
shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest, unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the LORD.
And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the
priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD:
And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of
the blood of the trespass offering, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that
is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of
his right foot:
And the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand:
And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left
hand seven times before the LORD:
And the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of
him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great
toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering:
And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him
that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the LORD.
And he shall offer the one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he
can get; even such as he is able to get, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a
burnt offering, with the meat offering: and the priest shall make an atonement for
him that is to be cleansed before the LORD.
This is the law of him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to
get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.]
Very well, but what did the cure of a leper mean? Leprosy, as we have seen, was
considered a punishment by God because of the poor sick people’s sins. Then, if God
removed the illness, He also removed the sins, that is to say, He forgave them. In that
context, you may understand the several occasions, when the Master mentioned the
forgiveness of sin in connection with healings in the New Testament. And when Jesus, in a
message for Mr. Padgett, explained that he had said: “That thou may know that the son of
man through the power of God can forgive sin, I say unto you, ‘take up thy bed and
walk’”, it is clear that he wanted to demonstrate that healings were only the visible signs
of the power, which the Heavenly Father had conferred upon him.
Those many healings would eventually stir up concern among the Temple priesthood,
because although it is true that Jesus did not say that he forgave sins, it is also true that,
according to popular belief, leprosy was a symptom of sin, a punishment inflicted by the
Lord, and therefore, Jesus had so much influence over the Lord, or such an excellent
relationship to Him, that God Himself listened to him, removing the punishment — and
therefore, forgiving sins — whenever Jesus asked Him to do so.
Tragically, the Temple priests did not have that capacity, which alerted them of the danger
of people wondering eventually, why the supposed representatives of God in the Temple
did not succeed with what this simple Galilean preacher carried out easily. Then, there
would be only two answers: Jesus was really the Messiah with extraordinary powers
granted by God, or that they missed that spirituality, which this Galilean did possess,
casting heavy doubts upon the nature of their priesthood.
Later on, we will see the tactics that the Jewish clergyman would use to discredit the
Master, with scarce success, by the way.
To finish this message, I wanted to add some information on one of the Master's big
friends:
I have already related that Jesus, when he visited Jerusalem, frequently spent the night in
Bethany, that is, in the house of his friend Lazarus. However, in the same village, there
lived another friend of the Master, whom the Bible calls “Simon the Leper.” There are
comments explaining that Jesus had cured Simon, although the Bible does not say
anything on the respect.
In fact, the Aramaic word "garba" means" leper", and "garaba" means jar maker or jar
merchant. And this was Simon’s profession, he had never suffered from leprosy. In
addition, this is why the alabaster box is mentioned in the anointing scene in his house.
Neither in Aramaic nor in Hebrew vowels are written, so this confusion is understandable.
Very well, now we really have come to the end of our message, and there is nothing left
but to say goodbye.
I am your Celestial friend and brother,
Judas of Kerioth
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