GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 12TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 26 JUNE 2026

Matthew 8:1-4.  Jesus’ healing of a leper in today’s gospel is the first of ten healings by Jesus recorded in a series by Matthew in Ch’s 8 and 9 of his gospel so that we have to take note of what they mean, each at a time, and what they signify all together.  In our society we are almost completely unfamiliar with leprosy (or Hansen’s disease), but in Jewish society of Jesus’ time leprosy was considered second only to death,  One of my graduate students who had worked in a leper colony in Asia and based her dissertation on that described serious cases as a ‘living death’ which took twenty or thirty years.  It was a living death not only physically, with progressive loss of human function, of hands, feet, sight, even ability to speak.  So it was religiously and socially in Jesus’ time.  Religious law of the time closely  linked illness with having sinned.  Such deadly diseases as leprosy implied gravely serious sin.  Scribal law of the time meant that lepers had to live alone, come no closer to other people than six yards, and to call out ‘unclean, unclean’ if they ventured anywhere near others at all.  A healing, which the leper in today’s gospel asked of Jesus also meant absolution from grave sin.  A leper could never go near a scribe or Pharisees rabbi to ask this, but he was so confident of Jesus’ powers that he approached him.  Daring!  Even audacious!

The leper in today’s gospel came right up to Jesus and knelt in front of him – the verb ‘knelt’ in the Greek text here means to ‘pay homage,’ even ‘to worship’ a divine being.  He came to Jesus with the complete confidence that Jesus could heal, even leprosy or grave illness.  So he asked Jesus for a healing ‘if Jesus chose to do so.’  Jesus replied, ‘I DO choose.’  Immediately the leper was cleansed of his disease and Jesus told him to have his healing verified ritually by a priest in the Temple, but not to say anything to anyone else.  Jesus often told that to people he had healed.

What does all of this signify?  Yes, it speaks of the profound mercy and compassion of Jesus for all our ills and disorders.  But his mercy and compassion are not of human capacity, not just first-aid, if we may say, but divine in origin.  This means that his healings are signs of the Kingdom of God and that Jesus is Messiah -- they confirm what the prophets had foretold!    Jesus’ healings are also moments of profound revelation of who he is!