“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”

In today’s gospel brothers and sisters in Christ we meet the man full of leprosy. In those days leprosy was considered incurable and a judgement of God. The old Testament has a lot to say about lepers. In Leviticus chapter 13 God tells Moses and Aaron that “the leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry, “unclean, unclean”. He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp”.

Uncleanliness was a preoccupation amongst all Jews under the law. Indeed, there are 613 commands recognised as applying to the Jews in the old Testament. Their everyday life revolved around ritual purity. It was this purity that determined whether they could participate in their religion or not. Thus, there were laws controlling every activity of daily life. Jesus himself will later refer to the hypocrisy of the Pharisee’s who focus upon the law rather than spirit. Or, as our Christ put it, concern themselves about the rim of the cup rather than what is in the cup.

So for this leper to have gone to the city where “clean ” people dwelt he must have been very confident in the ability of our Lord to help him overcome what was, to the leper, a death sentence. It is little wonder that the leper was prepared to risk all to come into the city so he could have a chance of being healed. Remember, this healing is at the beginning of Christ’s ministry as reported by Luke, so the leper must have had great faith to pin all his hopes upon Christ.

Notice that the leper does not demand to be made well. It is “Lord, if you will” not “Lord, you must”. The leper does not expect that his petition will be answered, even though he has risked everything. And, what does he do? As soon as he sees Jesus he falls on his face and begs him to make him clean if Christ wanted to. The leper does not say, look I have risked everything and you must do this for me. He does not assert himself as if he is entitled to healing, he does not make Christ as an equal face-to-face but he meets Christ in full prostration. He meets Christ in all humility. Although he has everything to lose, he begs the Lord, if it is his wish, to make him clean.

Which of us risk all without expecting a rich reward in return? Which of us could empty ourselves of all pride and beg a stranger to take pity and help? Reflect upon this: it takes great courage to empty yourself of all pride and self-centeredness and to take on the cloak of servant in all humility and accept every disgrace that comes your way. And, which of us if approached by a stranger in all their decay, would overcome the natural revulsion and instead of yelling “unclean, unclean” would stop and help? If you think that question is an easy one to answer then I challenge you to go into the inner-city in the early morning to meet the homeless, the mentally unbalanced, the forgotten, the dirty, the squalid, the drunk, the offensive and the obscene – look through those problems and instead of crying out “unclean, unclean” do something to help.