Cleansing a Leper

Matt. 8:1-4

I'm convinced that along with the horrors and misery of leprosy God has mingled a specific benevolent purpose for his glory. He teaches us something about more ultimate realities by consigning some to this disease.

I'm also convinced that this specific account in Matthew of a man being healed by Christ is meant to teach us something about our relationship with God.

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Notice that this man comes to Jesus unclean but knowing that Jesus is able to heal him. He casts aside the scorn of others and what they might possibly say or think. Remember, lepers were outcasts, but here he is, among the crowd. Kneeling at Jesus' feet, he knows that Jesus is Lord and that he has no claim on him. He knows Jesus is well able to heal, but he cannot demand it from Jesus. He says "You are able..." but now he is in effect asking "...are you willing, Lord?" This is the question on which everything hinges. Once the foundation is laid and God is acknowledged for who he is, Almighty, all-powerful God, this question must be asked. "Lord, are you willing?"

It's like a friend of mine said in her testimony, all she really cared about were two questions: "Is there a God?" and "Does he love me?" That is, "Is he willing?"

Why would he not be willing? We would be shocked and probably outraged if someone had the power to heal another, and save another and yet refused to do so. Remember though, this is leprosy that we are dealing with. Leprosy pictures and symbolizes guiltiness and sinful uncleanness (Lev. 14, I was surprised to notice the mention of a guilt offering starting in v12). It seems that is why God even created such a thing. It pictures a sinful stain that you cannot get rid of no matter how hard you strive, and God is too clean and righteous to defile himself with sin. Therefore leprous sinners are placed beyond all foreseeable hope. What can wash away sin?

Herein is the beauty and glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus reaches out his hand to touch what is unclean. "I am willing, be cleansed."

There is a God, a God who loves you, and who is willing to receive all that draw near to him. Should this not then cast out all fear and doubt?

O the wonder of wonders that God should love me,
Love a sinner so guilty, so vile and unclean.
To love the unlovely, how can it be done?
Tis only in Jesus, in his blessed son.

If God seems unwilling to save someone to you, then you need reexamine the situation again. God is not far off. Jesus is willing. One key factor is that this man wasn't just making a statement, he was making a plea. It's one thing for someone that is lost to say "Well, if God is willing, then he'll just save me." and then sit around waiting for God to repent and believe for him. It's another thing entirely to come to the feet of Christ as a helpless leper asking, "Lord, I know you are able, so will you please cleanse me." Jesus will say, "I am willing be cleansed."

Seek and You Will Find

By slowly reading the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, I've become convinced that it has a central theme. I think it's righteousness, that is, righteousness in the personal-holiness/sanctification sense. That fact has shed a lot more light on Jesus' teaching in these chapters (5-7).

Before I always thought that the section on prayer from 7:7-11 was something of an odd rabbit trail. But how about seeing a connection with the prayer and seeking mentioned in 7:7 with the seeking mentioned in 6:33? It really made a lot more sense to me in this way. Think of it. Jesus has been showing the great need to seek out personal holiness and righteousness, to hunger and thirst for it, to cut off your hand if you have to, to "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness," and then he says... "seek and you will find."

This means great encouragement for those seeking to be pleasing to God. You may not be perfectly obedient, and may stumble along at times, but if you are hungering, and thirsting, and crying out to be more like Christ, God will see that your desire is realized. He wants you to seek him, and he says that he will certainly answer prayers like that. He is a good father.

This is a promise to claim.

Wouldn't it be absurd to think that we want to be holier than God (in his secret will) wants us to be? To whatever degree we seek and long for righteousness he is sure to bless. Be encouraged.

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Also, I think in another small way this helps prayer stay in the right perspective. You pray for and seek "his kingdom and his righteousness" and everything takes a back seat. This seems to be the point when it comes to Jesus teaching in the preceding chapter about earthly cares and worries. It's almost as if Jesus is saying "Don't even pray for that, you just seek his kingdom and his righteousness, and I'll take care of that stuff." This might also be why in the Lord's prayer there is only one line mentioning our daily needs (give us today, our "daily" bread).

Jonathan Edwards and How to Make Melody With Your Heart

I was listening to Donald Whitney's lecture on Pursuing a Passion for God Through Spiritual Disciplines: Learning from Jonathan Edwards and he read an Edwards quote that has helped me tremendously. This has to be the exact meaning of Ephesians 5:19 ("...singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord...").

"After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of everything was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet cast or appearance of divine glory in almost everything. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in everything; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often used to sit and view the moon for a long time; and in the day spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things: in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice, my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer. And scarce anything, among all the works of nature, was so sweet to me as thunder and lightning; formerly nothing had been so terrible to me. Before, I used to be uncommonly terrified with thunder, and to be struck with terror when I saw a thunder-storm rising; but now, on the contrary, it rejoiced me. I felt God, if I may so speak, at the first appearance of a thunderstorm; and used to take the opportunity, at such times, to fix myself in order to view the clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the majestic and awful voice of God's thunder, which oftentimes was exceedingly entertaining, leading me to sweet contemplations of my great and glorious God. While thus engaged, it always seemed natural for me to sing, or chant forth my meditations; or to speak my thoughts in soliloquies with a singing voice." - Jonathan Edwards

A Title You Don't Want

In Matthew 7:5 Jesus uses the title "hypocrite." He has used it before... but this is different.

The context seems clear enough. "Don't condemn others and knit-pick at their righteousness, when you've got your own to worry about. That is, don't say one thing and not apply it to yourself." Something I didn't realize however (until R. T. France pointed it out) was that the title, hypocrite, that Jesus applies to disciples who act this way is elsewhere almost exclusively used of Jesus' opponents. That is, it's not normal for him to call his disciples hypocrites (remember, here he is primarily teaching his disciples). Normally he more or less says "Disciples of mine, don't be like the hypocrites..." but here it's more like "You actually are being hypocrites!" It's the difference between warning them of the danger of becoming like the Scribes and Pharisees, versus Jesus actually spotting hypocrisy in them. And where of all places do we find it? In judging one another.

It seems that our Lord, many times, seeks to elevate forgiveness, and mercy, and sympathy toward others above just about everything else. He says forgive or you won't be forgiven. He says if you condemn your brothers, you'll be condemned.

This verse had particular bearing on me, as I was contemplating rebuking a brother (just slightly) but upon further contemplation reasoned that it wouldn't be best. My flesh wanted to rebuke, not the Spirit of God in me, I think.

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Therefore, because Jesus seems unrelenting in using a strong term like hypocrite even toward his own disciples on this issue, it would seem that one of the quickest ways to make yourself an opponent of God (and to be unChrist-like and undisciple-like) is to go around condemning and knit-picking others' relationship with God.

Ode - Arthur O'Shaughnessy

I have a few ideas for future posts, but I haven't had time to write anything yet. In the meantime, I thought I would post one of my favorite poems. Here is Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy.

ODE
Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

A breath of our inspiration
Is the life of each generation;
A wondrous thing of our dreaming
Unearthly, impossible seeming—
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.

They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising;
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broken,
A light that doth not depart;
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man's heart.

And therefore to-day is thrilling
With a past day's late fulfilling;
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of to-morrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for its joy or its sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.

But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing:
O men! it must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
A little apart from ye.

For we are afar with the dawning
And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
Intrepid you hear us cry—
How, spite of your human scorning,
Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
That ye of the past must die.

Great hail! we cry to the comers
From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers;
And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
And things that we dreamed not before:
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.

(1844 - 1881)

In the Secret

Remember the old P&W song, "In the Secret?" The idea is that God is in the secret place and how we long to go there and worship him. I probably sang that song hundreds of times after my conversion.

Well I've found a similar concept in the the gospel of Matthew. In fact, this might be where the song comes from. Here are the verses from Matthew 6:

4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

6 "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

These verses seem to show that God is somehow especially present in secret places or when there are secret acts of righteousness offered up to him in worship. We know that God is everywhere all the time, but these verses say that he not only has a special blessing of his presence in the secret place, but they (technically just verses 6 and 18) say that the Father "is in secret." I don't think it's trying to stress anything too literally, but I do think it's meant to cause us to want to go to our closets of prayer and fasting and meet him there. There is reward there.

That was enough to encourage me, but more thoughts have followed. Tragic ones.

Not only do men in their own self-righteousness and God-despising attitudes forsake God's blessing for the notice and praise of man (see context), they actually turn places of secrecy which are intended to be sanctuaries for acts of pure and holy worship into unholy abodes. They take a secret place and use it for lust and immorality. They take a solitary place and use it to stew with bitterness and hatred for fellow man. What's deep in their heart comes out when they are alone, and the very place that God offers a special blessing of his presence and an opportunity to seek the notice and reward of God, they defile.

God help us.