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Matthew 8:3 And Yeshua stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. One of the identifying signs of Messiah is that He would heal lepers, and He did. It was such a known fact that that some lepers even traveled from afar to ask Him to heal them. The apostolic texts also inform us that Yeshua only did healing when people confessed Him to be the Messiah. When He did not ask for this confession, it was because the people’s actions denoted of it. Such was the case with those who touched the side fringes of His garment (Matthew 13:46; Numbers 15:38; Malachi 4:2) and the blind men who asked for sight calling Him ‘Son of David’, one of the Names of Messiah (Matthew 20:30-34). The text also tells us that many people He couldn’t heal because of their lack of faith (that he was the Messiah). This does not mean that failure to obtain divine healing is the result of not having faith that He is the Messiah though. For one reason or another sometimes He chooses that we remain sick. There will even be a time when no matter how much we pray and have faith, He will let us die. These are the times to not sin nor charge God with wrong and say with Job, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. Adonai gave, and Adonai has taken away; blessed be the Name of the Adonai" (Job 1:21-22). Our timing is in His hands. We are owed nothing; we deserve nothing; and even in the worst of situations we get away easy! Healing when it occurs though, is always tied to confession; that’s why even the disciples healed in His Name. One of the most overlooked elements of Yeshua healing lepers is that He touched them, therefore rendering Himself ritually unclean. Again we notice that Messiah did not come here trying to remain in His purity; He came and put on the clothing of sinful humanity. He had contact with lepers and with those with an issue of blood and hanged around with some of the lowest strata of society, all in order to fulfill the Messianic role He was sent by the Father to fulfill. This is particularly interesting when we realize that the Talmud interprets Isaiah 53: 4 and 5 by calling the Messiah ‘The Leper of the House of Study’, which would mean ‘The Scholar Leper’. Another Talmudic interpretation describes Elijah telling Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi that he could find the Messiah by the gates of Rome among the poor lepers bandaging their wounds, meaning in the most unlikely of places. Would you find Messiah today? Seek no longer among the pompous holiness of religious scholars, teachers, and congregations. Messiah is still found in the most unlikely of places. You may find Him among the dregs of society bandaging the wounds of those the world leaves by the way side. He might also be found healing the leprosy of an enemy of our people (2 Kings 5), or even the spiritual and physical blindness of one of our worst persecutor (Acts 9). He was sent to the ‘Lost sheep of the House of Israel’ (the Israelites of the twelve tribes)’, and as a light for revelation to the gentiles (Matthew 15:24; Luke 2:32). As He came to us taking upon Himself our diseases and the iniquity of our sin, He became the ‘Leper Messiah’. As He mingled with us, He trusted the Father for His own sanctity: we should not fear to do the same!
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