While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Luke 5:12
Some diseases don’t show. Cancer can eat away at a person’s insides for months or years before it begins to pull their appearance in after it. People can be sick without showing it, sometimes without know it.
But leprosy—or whatever “serious skin disease” this is–leaves no doubt. The body becomes a map of its ferocious advance. The curse is evident, the corruption undeniable. So when this man (Luke’s first leper) approached Jesus, it’s likely everyone around the teacher fled. He’s exposed! And so is the leper, whose faith may be born of desperation but it’s still a powerful faith to brave such a scene. It’s also a humble faith: “Lord, if you are willing . . .”
Time stops. Just the two of them, forever. The leper was driven to this moment: saddled and mounted by a terrible curse that, as soon as he heard the name of the Lord’s, became a bountiful blessing. Because he can’t hide his need. He wears his need, not like a sandal or a cloak but like an ear or a nose—can’t hide it, can’t get rid of it. Need pushed him out of whatever hovel he was living in and steeled his determination against the horrified reactions of others along the way; need took him by the hand and pulled him through the crowd that sprang apart when they get wind of him. Need quivers like a compass needle, seeking and finding its true North, because North is there to find.
The leper is us, all just as disgustingly diseased even if we don’t show it. But if we know it, by instinct or circumstance or sheer grace alone, this is our only plea: If you are willing—
In the short, aching space between the two of them, a hand reaches out; the healer’s hand. I would love to see his face—is he smiling? The words smile. He came to say these words: If you are willing cues it up nicely.
“I am willing. Be clean.”
For the first post in this series, go here.
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