UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!
I was recently in the doctor’s office. I try hard to avoid that place. Not because I do not like the doctor. Mine is actually wonderful. It is more because I do not like being sick.
Going to the doctor feels like surrendering to sickness.
I had actually been sick for about a month, but had stubbornly refused to go to the doctor.
When you can take being sick no longer, you go to the one who can make you better.
I walked in and got myself all checked in.
While I was doing so, the woman at the desk politely said, “We are seeing you today because of a fever and persistent cough, correct?”
When I responded that that was indeed the case, she said, “You will need to wear this mask. Pinch it on your nose and pull it down under your chin.” Full coverage, you know?
This was new.
What is this mask?
More importantly, you mean I have to wear this mask in the waiting room with all these other people who are also sick but not wearing masks!?
I get that the fact that we are all at the doctor’s office means that we all know that we are all sick, but now we are announcing to the room that I am really sick. So sick that everyone should keep their distance or something.
I would guess that in the time I was in the waiting room, there were somewhere in the range of 25-30 other people there. It should come as no shock that I had a solid bubble of space to myself. No one beside, next to, in front of, or behind me. Hello, my name is Tim and the I am the sick one.
I sent my wife the following picture with caption: “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!”
Important note: I do not hold this against my doctor’s office. I get it. I ended up being diagnosed with pneumonia. Trust me, not even my wife wanted to be all that nearby. The doctor’s office is just doing their part to keep people healthy. Plus, it gave me some good reminders for reflection.
The Bible talks about a group of people that used to have to literally announce their uncleanliness. They were those who had leprosy. It was a law that dated back to the days of Moses. You can read about it in Leviticus 13:45. Those with leprosy were to walk around with their clothes torn, their hair untidy, their mouth covered, and had to yell, “UNCLEAN!” to anyone who may be approaching.
Suddenly the mask at the doctor’s office does not seem so bad.
One day Jesus had an interaction with a man with leprosy.
The story is recorded in both Matthew 8 and Luke 5
As was the case in most of Jesus’ interactions, it did not go as those involved or those watching would have expected.
The man with leprosy may have been obeying the other parts of the law (we are not told), but instead of yelling out, “UNCLEAN!” he walks right up to Jesus and falls at His feet. The words out of the man’s mouth?
“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
No talk of uncleanliness.
This man is talking about being clean. Being made clean.
As if that was not shocking enough, Jesus then did the unthinkable. He reached out and touched the man. To touch a person with leprosy was to almost certainly put yourself in a position to contract the disease. It almost certainly put you on a path to unkempt hair, torn clothes, a covered mouth, and shouts of, “UNCLEAN!”
Jesus touches Him anyway.
As He did so, He said, “I am willing. Be made clean.”
Then Jesus told the man to go and present himself to the priest and to make the necessary gift as was commanded by Moses so he could be deemed clean of his illness. Those steps were important. They meant that the man was not only physically healed, but now would also have the ability to walk forward in life and society in his new-found health.
A leper no more.
No more yelling, “UNCLEAN!”
No more walking around with messy hair and torn clothes.
No more covered mouth.
One interaction with Jesus and a now a new daily reality.
Clean instead of unclean.
The story is nice enough, but take a minute to really imagine it from the perspective of the leper.
We refer to him as “the leper” still.
But he was something different now.
Defined not by his dirtiness, but by his cleanness.
A cleanness given to him by Jesus.
I walked out of the doctor’s office about an hour later without the mask. In fact, I threw it away in a hallway trashcan with a bit of a chuckle, then walked through the lobby toward the exit with my head held high. I thought about that former leper as I did so. Imagine the feeling when those torn clothes were removed, when he straightened his hair, when he walked down the street and said, “Hello,” through an uncovered mouth instead of yelling, “UNCLEAN!” A totally new life!
I also walked out having received two shots and two prescriptions for the days ahead. “Be sure to take each of the these for the next five days. You should be back to normal after that.” On the road toward walking in my cleanness. Similar to the leper: Go to the priest. Make the offering. Walk forward in your cleanness.
The point is this:
Jesus has the power to heal our most fundamental issue: The sin that leaves us sick and broken to the very core of who we are.
“One honest, genuine, humble interaction with Jesus is all that is required to heal us of the deepest uncleanliness that lurks in our heart and soul.”
The hidden places that even those closest to us cannot see with perfect clarity. He can make those places clean. The dark corners of our soul that only we know exist and only the Lord sees in fullness. He longs to and is able to clean those.
He was not intimidated by touching the leper.
He is not intimidated by whatever is lurking within us.
Sometimes those early interactions with Jesus involve Him showing us that those places not only exist within us, but that they are, in fact, unclean, and that they do, in fact, need cleaning. Even those who have walked with Jesus for years still have those illuminating moments. He is faithful to show us all the places that need cleaning.
Those are difficult moments. Humbling, yet gracious. Because Jesus is waiting to hear the same statement from us that the former leper made.
“Lord, If you are willing, you can make me clean!”
And He is. He is willing to do the unthinkable: He is willing to reach out and touch those places. In all of His holiness, He turns them from dirty to clean. Then, He gives us the power to walk forward in that cleanness, the sustaining power needed to live in the reality of our newly given spotlessness.
He came for the sick. He said so Himself.
And when you can take being sick no longer, you go to the one who can make you better.
“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
“I am willing. Be made clean.”
