Read: Luke 5:12-16

Being a leper in the Bible times was very difficult. There was no cure for this terrible disease. The man in Luke 5 was full of leprosy. This means he would have had sores all over his body. He probably couldn't walk properly anymore and may have had toes and fingers falling off. 

As a leper he would also have had to live by himself in isolation. He couldn't isolate with his family in a comfortable house like we could do during the coronavirus. But he had to live on his own, outside the city. He couldn't go to the temple either. Again, during the coronavirus we couldn't go to church for a while, but the leper couldn't go for the rest of his life! And there was no livestream for him to watch. Not being able to go to the temple meant that he couldn’t make sacrifices and so he was separated from God as well.

God uses this leper as a picture of sin and death. By this picture, God wants to show us how wicked and sinful we all are. No, this leper hadn't sinned specifically to deserve this leprosy. Not at all. But God uses this picture to show us that because of our sins we deserve to be isolated or separated from God as well. 

But, we read that when the leper went to Jesus and begged to be made clean, Jesus reached out and touched him. He touched the unclean leper and healed him! This is God's grace, his amazing love. And this is again a picture of what the Lord Jesus does for us. He touches us. He comes to us sinners. He doesn't send us away, just like he didn't send the leper away. Instead he cleanses us too. He forgives us. What love and what grace! And so we can always go to Jesus with our sins. If we beg him to forgive us, just like the leper begged to be made clean, Jesus will always forgive us. No sin is too big for Christ to forgive.

Reflection with your child:

What is the Lord teaching us about himself by cleansing the leper?

Source: Sermon by Rev. R. Vermeulen