A Touch of Leprosy

This was one of my previous blog updates! It was lost due to complications with my past blog site! 

Among one of the more famous stories of the New Testament is the story of the Savior healing the leper. This story found in the scriptures is very small, it spans hardly four verses. However, this week I was able to gain a deeper understanding of this small but powerful story. In Matthew chapter 8:1-4 it tells of the leper coming unto Christ and asking to be healed. The first thing I noticed about this story was how this man asked to be healed. In 8:2 it says "And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean." I love that this man didn't demand to simply be made whole. He first asked the Savior if it was His will to heal him. The other part of this scripture that reads "thou canst make me whole" was something that stood out to me as well. This man knew who the Savior was. He knew that Christ could heal him. His faith, paired with his humble question brought him his restored skin.

In this story we learned that back in New Testament times being a leper had many meanings. Leperacy could include any skin condition (any blemishes, imperfections of large variety, exc.) or it could include the severe case of leperacy we all think of. Being a leper meant that you were not only sickly but "unclean." By unclean, it meant that the people viewed the skin disease as "a punishment given to someone by the Lord." Not only did people not want to associate with lepers because their disease was extremely contagious but the lepers were, in a way, considered sinners or unrighteous. So the "clean" people would not have anything to do with lepers.

As we discussed this in class I was able to ponder how this relates to all of us. Each person on the earth is not perfect, that is not possible. We all have blemishes in our lives. Some are more extreme than others. While other people in this world may choose not to associate with those of us who have more obvious "blemishes" or "cases of leperacy" we have one person who we can turn to no matter what. The Savior does not care what we have done. If we are willing to come to Him He can heal us. But we need to reach out to Him and ask with submission for the help that the Savior can provide