Be Clean

Matthew 8:3 “I will; be clean..."

A leper is encountering Jesus the Healer.  No one else would touch the leper’s case.  Certainly no one else would touch him.  Yet he came to the great Healing One with confidence.  He knew if he had come to an orthodox scribe or a rabbi he would have been repelled, even stoned away.  Simply, he makes his request:  “If You will, You can make me clean.  I am so tired of saying ‘Unclean, unclean’ everywhere I go.  I want to be clean.  You can do it if You will.

It was not a question of could You, just would You?
This should encourage anyone who feels he or she is incurable in body or too far gone spiritually for Jesus’ healing and cleansing touch. If you put yourself in the place of a 1st century Jew, you could not imagine anything more astonishing than that Jesus should “put forth his hand and touched him.” 

The incident underscores the painful ostracism of leprosy and the amazing love of God.That’s how it is with Jesus Christ - the leper or the sinner is not a loathsome spectacle or a menace to the community. 
He is a human being in need of help. So we are encouraged to see how this applies to us and then how and why we should make it our prayer.

Sin is spiritual leprosy.  It affects a person in similar ways. Leprosy was the most dreaded disease of ancient times.  And people who say sin can’t be all that bad have swallowed the Devil’s lie.  “The wages of sin is death” and as with leprosy that death comes by inches.  Like leprosy it separates us from others, from our true selves, and of course, from God. That is the ultimate price of sin.  

Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear."         

The Word says that “all have sinned.” We all need to be cleansed of all sin.  David’s repentance makes use of the word “clean” many times.         

-God wants our hearts to be clean. 

-His intent for all creation is cleanness.

-His will for us is cleanness. 

-Before we ask for other blessings, we must pray as David did in Psalm 51:1-4: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."

If you ask He will hear and respond. Be clean!