“Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Luke 5:12

Purity Outside

Make me clean – The leper used the right word for his need.  Katharisai.  Cleanse.  From our cultural perspective, we would probably have expected something else.  Heal me.  But in the Gospels, the words for healing are used of every disease except leprosy.  What a leper needs is cleansing.  To understand why there is a difference would take us to Leviticus 13 and 14.  Leprosy removed a person from the fellowship of the community.  Leprosy made someone an outcast, defiled, impure.  Leprosy was a lot more than just a disease.  It was excommunication.  This man needed to be brought back into the community of the ritually acceptable.  He needed to come home.

The Greek gives us a little different nuance here.  It reads, “you are able to cleanse me”.  The leper acknowledges the power of Jesus, not simply over the disease but over the impurity he carries.  Jesus is able to cleanse.   This is a strong statement of faith.  Who could do such a thing?  Could a priest remove the impurity?  Not without also healing the disease?  Could a doctor?  Not without also restoring the fellowship?  The man who could do this would have to be both prophet and priest.  He would have to have authority over both body and soul.  Jesus is able to cleanse.

Cleansing is an outside, visible change.  Katharizo is not the same as hagnizo (to sanctify).  Katharizo deals with our hands.  It is purity in presentation, performance and profession.  Hagnizo deals with the heart.  It is purity of motive, consecration and thought.  Both are necessary.   Western Christianity settles uncomfortably on hagnizo, as though the external manifestations of our belief are somehow secondary.  We often act as though God confines His expectations to our inner, spiritual lives but is simply a celestial forgiving machine when it comes to our outward actions.  We are mistaken.  Sin is leprosy of actions visible to others.  We need to be cleansed.  And Jesus is able.  The Doctor is in.

Where are you living as an outcast today?  What actions in your life are rotting your outside image?  When did you last see the Doctor for a thorough exam?  He is able to cleanse but first we must ask.