Restoration and Reconciliation (Leviticus 13:45–46)

The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
—Leviticus 13:45–46

Wow, these are extremely humbling verses, aren’t they? Especially when you put yourself in the shoes of someone who has leprosy. In Leviticus 13, this disease meant wearing torn clothes, leaving one’s hair unkempt, and crying out, “Unclean, unclean,” whenever anyone came near. As long as you had this disease, you were considered unclean and were required to live alone outside the camp. To add insult to injury, not only did this disease affect your physical body, but it also left you totally isolated socially.

There were reasons for this—even health reasons—but that does not take away from the humbling, saddening effects of leprosy in someone’s life or in the life of someone you love. This is heavy and heartbreaking.

Into that picture, I cannot help but think about Luke 5:12. Jesus enters a city, and a man full of leprosy falls on his face and begs Him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” In Luke 5:13, Jesus stretches out His hand and touches him, saying, “I will; be clean.” Immediately, the leprosy leaves him.

I love that picture. Jesus does not simply say, “Be clean,” though He could have. Instead, He reaches out and touches this leprous man. He does what no one else would do. He does not run away because the man is unclean; rather, He goes to him, touches him, and heals him.

When I think about that picture, I think about my life and yours. Obviously, it is not exactly the same, but we are unclean in many ways. I think about sin in my life—some of the worst things I have thought or done, things I would be ashamed for anyone else to know. And likely there are things in your life that make you feel unclean when you remember them. Yet Jesus knows all those things, and still He reaches out His hand into our lives. He touches us with a healing, redemptive, restoring, cleansing hand and says, “You are clean.” You are forgiven of your sin and your shame.

No matter how horrible that sin is, Jesus forgives when you put your trust in Him. No matter how much shame you carry, you are honored when you come face-to-face with Jesus—the One who touches our lives and makes us clean. This is glorious, life-transforming, awe-inducing truth: Jesus goes to the unclean and makes them clean.

So we pray:

O God, thank You. Thank You for sending Jesus into a world of sin, evil, wickedness, and uncleanness. Thank You for looking at our lives and not leaving us isolated from You in our uncleanness. Thank You for pursuing us and coming to us.

Jesus, thank You for paying the price for our sins, for taking our uncleanness upon Yourself. You made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God—that we might be clean before You, restored from shame to honor, no longer isolated but reconciled to You. All glory be to Your name for the gospel.

Jesus, we love You, and we pray that You would help us to love others as You have loved us. As Hebrews 13 says, help us to go outside the camp. Help us to go to the unclean, to care for those who are isolated, those imprisoned by sin and shame. Make us a picture of Your love to the people around us—and, as Your church, to the peoples of the world.

A Prayer for the Saharan Arabs

God, we pray for the Saharan Arabs of Mali—for more than 100,000 men, women, and children in this people group in West Africa. Please bring salvation. By Your grace and mercy, bring cleansing to the Saharan Arab people. Raise up Your church in West Africa and from around the world to proclaim Your saving power, so that they may know how much You love them.

O God, we pray all of this in light of Your Word in Leviticus 13 and Luke 5. In Jesus’s name—the name of the One who makes us clean. Amen.