Encounters with Jesus Series: A Leper

 Matthew 8: 1-4

Ice Breaker

How do you feel when you see homeless people on the street?

Do you ignore them (pass by on the other side)?

Do you have a chat with them?

Do you offer any money/coffee/sandwich?

Today’s study is about the way Jesus encountered a leper, someone forced to leave their family and live a life of misery and isolation.

Read Matthew 8: 1-4

Background information

If we compare Matthew’s account of the events of chapter 8 with Mark and Luke, we find a different order and chronology. One possible explanation is that Matthew is arranging his material according to topics and themes, not to chronology. Here we have the first individual healing in Matthew’s Gospel. 

In the world of the 1st century, leprosy was a terrible and destructive disease - and still is in some parts of the world despite a cure now being available. There was no hope for this leper so he comes to Jesus in desperate need. “Leprosy might begin with the loss of sensation in some part of the body; the nerve trunks are affected; the muscles waste away; the tendons contract until the hands are like claws. There follows ulceration of the hands and feet. Then comes the progressive loss of fingers and toes, until in the end a whole hand or a whole foot may drop off. The duration of that kind of leprosy is anything from 20 to 30 years. It is a kind of terrible progressive death in which a man dies by inches.” (Barclay)

Jewish law and custom stated one had to keep two metres away from a leper and if the wind was blowing towards a person from a leper the distance was 45 metres. The only thing more defiling than contact with a leper was contact with a dead body. Rabbis especially despised lepers and saw them as under God’s judgement and so deserved neither pity nor mercy.

In the Middle Ages, people with leprosy were taken into the church and there the priest read the burial service over him. For all human purposes he was deemed dead.

Questions for discussion

Q1. What factors might have kept the leper from coming to Jesus?

Q2. We read that the man knelt before Jesus. The Greek here is proskenein which is only used to describe worship of the gods. In what ways did the leper worship Jesus? What might we learn about the way we should worship Jesus in our own lives?

Q3. Look at the story of Naaman (2 Kings 5). When Jehoram, king of Israel, was asked to cure Naaman his response was … (verse 7). He knew he had no power to do anything. So what is different about the leper’s request and Jesus’ response?

Q4. Is there any significance in the leper’s request (verse 2)? Note that he called Jesus LORD. This is the first time Jesus is called LORD in Matthew’s Gospel and the word is used to translate the Hebrew word YAHWEH. Many of the people Matthew writes this gospel for would have been familiar with the Jewish context of the word LORD.

Q5. Given the background, why do you think Jesus put out his hand and touched the man?

Q6. Jesus often varied the manner of healing in ways that would have been meaningful in that particular situation. Think of the different ways in which Jesus healed individuals.

Q7. Once healed, what did Jesus ask the man to do? What was the reason for this?

Q8. Why did Jesus tell the man to go to a priest?

Q9. What might this passage have to teach us given that leprosy is not an issue in our society? Are there people who need our “touch” in today’s world? What might cause us to draw back from such action? Are we compassionate enough to people in real need today?

PRAYER

You might like to focus your prayers on leprosy in the world today. Also known as Hansen’s disease, it still exists but is relatively rare. According to the World Health Organisation there are just over 200,000 in the world with leprosy, mainly in Asia and Africa (India accounts for more than half of new cases). This figure is vastly lower than in the 1980’s (over 5 million) so great progress is being made. It is now curable with inexpensive multidrug therapy (MDT). It is important to note that the disease is not spread through casual contact like sharing meals, shaking hands or hugging, and once treatment has begun the patient stops transmitting the disease.

The Leprosy Mission was “born and cradled in prayer. We keep that tradition alive today

If interested, look up Leprosy Mission and find out more about its work and what to pray for.

“Leprosy is entirely curable if a person starts treatment as soon as they notice symptoms and if they follow the treatment plan that is given them by a health worker.” (Leprosy Mission)