Bible Study series: Luke 5:12-16. This was one of the signs of the Messiah.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 5:12-16
12 And so it happened that while he was in one of the towns, look! A man full of skin disease! When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can cleanse me!” 13 He reached his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be cleansed!” And instantly his skin disease left him. 14 And he commanded him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest and bring an offering for cleansing, just as Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.” 15 The report about him spread around all the more. Great crowds were coming together to listen and to be healed from their illnesses. 16 But he was withdrawing into the deserted places and praying. (Luke 5:12-16)
Comments:
12:
As I noted in my commentary on Matthew 8:1-4, the standard translation is leprosy, and healing this disease was one of the signs that the Messiah had come. Scholars nowadays say the word was generic for skin diseases. Let’s call the man “leper” for convenience.
A leper was required by law to wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face, and cry out “Unclean! Unclean!” in order not to contaminate someone else (Lev. 13:45).
45 “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp. (Lev. 13:45)
Skin Disease, Mold in Leviticus 13, 14 from a NT Perspective
This leper was clearly desperate. It makes me wonder how desperate we get when our need is great. Are we casual, or do we fall on our face? He simply knew that Jesus was his answer. He had heard the reports about him, and now he fell on his face before his healer.
“if you are willing”: it could simply be translated “if you want to.” He asked for his specific need to be met. He did not hesitate to clarify his need. In other cases, Jesus asked what the disabled or blind person wanted (Luke 18:41). Sometimes the answer is not always clear, for the sick can get used to being a victim. Blind Bartimaeus (unnamed in Luke) shouted out his need for a miracle, as this leper did (Luke 18:35-43).
“look!” It used to be translated as “behold!” It is the storyteller’s art to draw attention to the people and action that follows. “As you, my audience, sit and listen to me read this Gospel, listen up! Look! A man with skin disease interrupts the flow of Jesus’s progress to his next stop!” This is a new translation for the old “behold!” Luke intends to grab our attention.
13:
Jesus’s response was perfect. He reached out his hand and touched him. God did that in the OT: Exod. 3:20; 6:6; 7:15; 9:15; 15:12; Deut. 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 11:2; 2 Kings 17:36; Ps. 136:12; Jer. 32:21). Jesus was simply following his Father’s example. “Jesus answers with a gentle touch. The stretch of the hand depicts physically his willingness to respond to the request. The leprous man is not sent away nor is he warned about coming near to Jesus. Rather, he hears and feels Jesus’ tender touch (7:14; 13:13; 18:15; 22:51). Jesus’ word would have been sufficient, but his touch confirms his care. So Jesus touches the man, despite the tradition that said such an act would render him unclean (Lev. 14:46…)” Bock, p. 474).
One reason that a leper was required to call out “Unclean! Unclean!” is that he must not touch and so defile anyone else. The leper did not touch Jesus; Jesus touched him, unconcerned for his own health. How could a skin disease get transferred to Jesus when he had healing power flowing from him? This power pushed the disease backwards. He was the healing Lord, not the possible victim.
“I am willing”: this could be simply translated, “I want to.” Now the question comes up, Is Jesus willing to heal my sickness? And the answer is he is willing. God and disease don’t mix. Where God is, diseases have to flee. No disease in heaven, for example.
Then this question comes up, then why did God not heal my loved one? He died! Answer: we live on planet earth, and disease temporarily has a right to be here, because it is a natural thing; it works by the laws of nature, and nature is terribly flawed. (Later on, when God brings in a new heaven and new earth, diseases won’t be allowed to live there.)
Next question: what happens when disease strikes a believer’s body? The human body lives in the shadowland, between light and darkness, the gray world between black and white. The believer’s body is part of the natural world, but it is also in the process of being renewed by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:10). That verse in Romans says that the body is subject to death because of the presence of sin (no, not one single sin, but sin itself is still in us), but the Spirit gives life because of the gift of righteousness. That is the shadowland—between our bodies wearing out and our bodies being restored. So Rom. 8:11 says that God will give life (future tense) to your mortal body. So one day you will depart from the shadowland and go directly into heaven. Let’s face it. Sometimes the disease wins, despite the best medicine, like chemo, and the most faith-filled, fervent prayers. Let’s face it. Nature runs amok and sometimes wins.
Bottom line: we do not have enough information to figure out why your loved one did not get healed down here on earth, in the shadowland. But one thing is certain: your loved one is in heaven, in perfect health. He no longer lives in the shadowland, in his deteriorating body. He is in perfect light with his forever strong spirit body, waiting for his resurrected body.
One day I was invited to go in a carpool to prayer for a woman (I did not know) who had cancer. I went twice, and then the Spirit whispered to me that it was a sickness unto death. In other words, God was going to take her home. I told the driver before I went the third time that I don’t need to go. “Why not?” “Because I feel like she is supposed to go home.” “What?” “I could be wrong, but that’s what I heard. But don’t tell the lady; I could be wrong.” The driver, an older man, had little discretion, so I don’t know whether he told anyone or even the lady with cancer. But that’s not the main point. The main point is that we did not end our first prayer session with the tag “if it be your will.” We assumed it was his will. However, sometimes God uses (not causes) disease to take us into eternity. The lady with cancer died; she was not healed.
Even the greatest faith teacher will eventually die, usually from heart failure. Yes, he may die peacefully in his sleep, but a bodily organ will have to give up (or perhaps God will simply take his spirit or life from him, yet the body was visibly wearing out from 21 years old to 91 years old).
Many years later a close relative called me to say she got cancer. And the Spirit clearly whispered to me that this was “not a sickness unto death.” The chemo worked, and she is cancer free.
Back to this passage in Luke. Praise God, this leper got healed instantly! Jesus was on the scene. Let’s hope with high expectations that you too will be healed. Don’t attach the tagline, “If it be your will” at the end of your prayer. Assume that it is his will, until you specifically and clearly hear otherwise. That’s the main lesson from v. 13: “I am willing.”
Recall Jesus’s own words. He said many lepers lived in ancient Israel, but only one Gentile leader was healed, Naaman the Syrian (Luke 4:27). The other Israelites with sin disease did not seek healing from Elisha, so were they perpetual victims in their own minds? Whatever they believed, they did not ask for help. Seek Jesus hard for your own healing.
Why Doesn’t Divine Healing Happen One Hundred Percent of the Time in This Age?
14:
Why did Jesus command him not to tell others? He did not want to excite popular excitement about Jesus miraculous work (Bock, p. 475). Jesus downplayed the miracles (Luke 4:35, 41; 8:56; Matt. 9:30; 12:16; Mark 1:34; 3:12; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26). He really wanted to teach. Miracles are the sign that back up teaching. Teaching is the main thing. Miracles without teaching is just a show. “The healing of lepers is one of the messianic signs of which the imprisoned John the Baptist was reminded (7:22). Also, as has often been observed, the crowds could all too easily apply to Jesus their commonly held view of the Messiah as a military or political liberator” (Liefeld and Pao, comment on v. 14)
The offering for recovery from skin disease was two live kosher birds and other items (Lev. 14:4-6). Then the cleansed person has to shave all his hair and beard, wash his clothes, and take a bath (v. 9). Later they must offer two male lambs and one-year-old ewe lamb and other items. Together they must have been expensive, and the leper could not work, so he must have had grateful relatives who supplied him with the offerings.
“for a testimony to them”: It is all right to tell the priest—a doctor today—that God healed you. Let him take the x-rays and examine your blood and other things. Then he will see that you are healed. It is your miracle testimony to him.
One last comment on v. 14: Jesus followed the law of Moses about offerings before he died on the cross (though no record says that he offered any sacrifices). It is a sure thing that when he was resurrected and healed people with skin diseases through his disciples, he never told the healed persons to go to the temple and offer the sacrifices prescribed by Moses. The gospel was going out across their known world, far outside tiny Israel. There was no longer any need for the Levitical temple system, which was put under God’s judgment and was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 (Luke 19:41-45; 21:20-24; 23:26-31; Matt. 21:33-45). The same goes for the tithe, which Jesus mentioned in passing before the cross when the Levitical system was still going on (Luke 11:42; cf. 18:12). Never once did he direct his church to keep the ten percent theocratic religious tax.
Why Tithing Does Not Apply to New Covenant Believers
Does Hebrews 7:1-10 Teach Church Policy of Tithing?
Please read every word, and by God’s grace you will see the flow and plan of God that even many famous Bible teachers don’t understand.
Progressive revelation is a fact of the Bible. Moral law from the Old is retained in the New, but rituals and harsh penalties and ceremonies and dietary laws (and so on) are not retained. Please interpret Scripture clearly and properly, in historical context.
What Does the New Covenant Retain from the Old?
Do Christians Have to ‘Keep’ the Ten Commandments?
Ten Commandments: God’s Great Compromise with Humanity’s Big Failure
One Decisive Difference Between Sinai Covenant and New Covenant
15:
This same reaction happened in Luke 4:37. Healing ministries draw the crowds. People had numerous needs, so great crowds gathered together. Notice that they were willing to listen. That means Jesus was teaching them, not just healing and delivering them (see v. 1; Luke 2:31; 3:12, where he was called “Teacher”; 4:15, 32). Teaching was part and parcel to his ministry. It was the foundation.
“to be healed”: the verb means to “make whole, restore, heal, cure, care for.” It is in the passive voice; that is, people were healed by him.
“illnesses”: it means, depending on the context, primarily “weakness”; and secondarily “sickness, disease.” The NIV translates it throughout the NT: weakness (most often), weaknesses, weak, crippled, diseases, illness, illnesses, infirmities, infirmity, invalid, sick, sickness, sicknesses. Here in v. 15 it means illnesses or sicknesses.
16:
But Jesus did not allow them to control him. He had to take a break from the excitement and the overwhelming needs. In Luke 4:42 he is also shown as needing to take a break. Yes, he was God, but he was also living in his human body. He got tired (cf. John 4:6).
7. Do I Really Know Jesus? Thirty Truths about His Life
He also had to pray. He needed to maintain his connection to his Father through prayer. He had to get away from the ruckus of the crowds, which can drown out his spiritual hearing. Too distracting.
“pray”: Prayer flows out of confidence before God that he will answer because we no longer have an uncondemned heart (1 John 3:19-24); and we know him so intimately that we find out from him what is his will is and then we pray according to it (1 John 5:14-15); we pray with our Spirit-inspired languages (1 Cor. 14:15-16). Pray!
What Is Biblical Intercession?
GrowApp for Luke 5:12-16
1. Jesus said he was willing to heal the man with the skin disease. Study Heb. 13:8. Do you believe he is still willing to heal today? What is your story of healing or of your friend or relative?
2. Jesus withdrew from ministry for a short time. Are you a workaholic, even in ministry? When have you felt the need to withdraw and pray? How were you refreshed?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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