The Sovereign Touch Text: Luke 5:12-16
Introduction: The Walking Dead
We live in a world that is terrified of contamination. Our age is obsessed with sanitation, with purity, with creating safe spaces, both physically and emotionally. We are constantly trying to insulate ourselves from anything that might defile, disrupt, or disease us. But our problem is that we have misdiagnosed the nature of our uncleanness. We think the problem is external, a germ, a bad influence, an offensive word. The Bible teaches that the true leprosy is internal. It is sin, and it has rendered every one of us unclean from birth.
In the ancient world, no disease carried the physical and social horror of leprosy. It was not just a medical condition; it was a graphic, walking illustration of sin's effect on humanity. It was a slow, creeping death. It isolated you, disfigured you, and cut you off from the covenant community. A leper was ceremonially unclean, a walking corpse banished from the presence of God and His people. He had to wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover his mouth, and cry out, "Unclean! Unclean!" wherever he went. He was, for all intents and purposes, dead while still breathing.
Into this world of rigid separation between the clean and the unclean, Jesus Christ steps as the ultimate contamination. But He works in reverse. Under the Old Covenant, the holy could be defiled by the profane. If you touched a leper, you became unclean. But when Jesus Christ, the Holy One of God, touches the unclean, He does not become defiled. Rather, His holiness is contagious. His purity is an invasive, conquering force. He does not catch the leprosy; the leper catches the cleansing. This encounter is therefore a microcosm of the entire gospel. It is the story of how God in Christ draws near to us in our corruption, touches us in our filth, and makes us clean.
The Text
And it happened that while He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him. And He directed him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But He Himself would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray.
(Luke 5:12-16 LSB)
Desperate Faith (v. 12)
We begin with the leper's approach, which is a model of true worship and faith.
"And it happened that while He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged Him, saying, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.'" (Luke 5:12)
First, notice the man's condition: "covered with leprosy." This was not a minor skin irritation. This was an advanced, hopeless case. He was a man whose identity had been swallowed by his disease. He was not a man with leprosy; he was a leper. This is crucial. This man knew he was helpless. The first step to receiving grace is to recognize how desperately you need it. Our culture of self-esteem tells us to find the goodness within. This man knew there was no goodness within, only a spreading death.
Second, notice his posture: "he fell on his face." This is the posture of worship, of utter submission. He is not making demands. He is not negotiating terms. He is prostrate before the one he recognizes as having ultimate authority. He breaks all the social and religious rules to get to Jesus. He, the unclean, enters a city and approaches the clean. This is an act of audacious, desperate faith.
Third, and most importantly, notice his plea: "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." This is one of the most theologically profound prayers in all of Scripture. He addresses Jesus as "Lord," acknowledging His divinity and sovereignty. And then he frames his request with two clauses. He has absolutely no doubt about Jesus's ability. "You can make me clean." He knows Christ has the raw power to reverse death itself. There is no question of His capability. The only question is one of sovereign will: "if You are willing."
This is the heart of true faith. It does not presume upon God. It does not demand that God conform to our desires. It affirms God's power and submits to His good pleasure. This man did not say, "I know you're willing, so you must do it." He said, "I know you are able, and I trust your will." He places the entire matter in Jesus's hands. This is the same posture Jesus Himself would later take in Gethsemane: "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). This leper understood submission to the divine will in a way that many healthy Christians still do not.
The Contagious Christ (v. 13)
Jesus's response is immediate, shocking, and glorious.
"And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' And immediately the leprosy left him." (Luke 5:13)
Jesus could have healed this man with a word from a distance. He healed the centurion's servant that way. But here, He does the unthinkable. He "stretched out His hand and touched him." According to the law in Leviticus, this act should have made Jesus ceremonially unclean. Everything the leper touched became unclean. But Jesus is the Lord of the Law. He is the reality to which the ceremonial laws pointed. When the source of all purity touches impurity, the impurity does not win. The purity obliterates it.
Think of what this touch meant to the man. How long had it been since he had felt the warmth of a human hand? Years? Decades? He was an untouchable, a pariah. This touch was a restoration of his humanity before it was a restoration of his health. Jesus touched his deepest wound, which was not his rotting flesh, but his profound isolation. In this one act, Jesus says, "You are not disgusting to me. You are not a monster. I will touch you." This is the gospel. God in Christ does not love us from a sanitary distance. He enters our mess and touches us in the place of our greatest shame.
And then Jesus answers the man's prayer directly. To the question, "If you are willing," Jesus responds with the voice of God: "I am willing." And to the affirmation, "You can make me clean," Jesus issues the divine command: "Be cleansed." The result is immediate. Not gradual, not partial. "Immediately the leprosy left him." The divine Word does not suggest or propose; it accomplishes. The power that spoke the universe into existence now speaks new creation into this man's diseased flesh.
A Testimony to the Law (v. 14)
After the miracle, Jesus gives a curious set of instructions.
"And He directed him to tell no one, 'But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'" (Genesis 5:14)
Why tell no one? This was not a command for absolute silence, as we see in the next verse. It was a command not to launch a campaign of popular excitement based on signs and wonders. Jesus's ministry was not about being a mere miracle-worker. The miracles were authenticating signs that pointed to His identity and message, but they were not the message itself. He was reining in a premature, misguided messianic fervor.
But the positive command is even more significant. He tells the man to go straight to the priest and fulfill the ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic Law for a cleansed leper, as laid out in Leviticus 14. This is astounding. Jesus, the one who just demonstrated His authority over the law by touching the leper, now commands submission to the law. Why? For two reasons.
First, Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. He lived a life of perfect obedience. By sending this man to the priest, He upholds the good and right authority of God's law. He is not a lawless revolutionary.
Second, it was to be "a testimony to them." To whom? To the priests, the religious authorities in Jerusalem. The process in Leviticus 14 for cleansing a leper was elaborate, involving two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. But it was a ceremony that had likely not been performed for centuries. Leprosy was considered incurable. So when this man shows up, perfectly whole, he is a walking, talking miracle sent directly into the heart of the religious establishment. He is Exhibit A in the case for Jesus being the Messiah. The priests would have to examine him, declare him clean, and offer the sacrifice. In doing so, they would be forced to bear witness, against their will, to the power of the one they were already beginning to reject. Jesus was making them sign the authentication papers for His own ministry.
Fame, Crowds, and Solitude (v. 15-16)
The final verses show the result of this encounter and the pattern of Jesus's ministry.
"But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But He Himself would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray." (Luke 5:15-16)
Of course, the man could not keep quiet, and the news spread like wildfire. The result was massive popularity. Large crowds came, but notice their motivation: "to hear Him and to be healed." They were drawn by the teaching and the power. But a ministry built on popular acclaim and spectacular events is a dangerous thing. It is susceptible to the whims of the crowd. When the miracles stop or the teaching gets hard, the crowds will turn, as they eventually did for Jesus.
And so we see Jesus's response to this growing fame. "But He Himself would often slip away to the desolate regions and pray." This is the anchor of His ministry. The more demanding the public ministry became, the more necessary the private communion with His Father became. He withdrew from the noise of the crowd to the silence of the wilderness. He exchanged the adoration of men for the fellowship of the Father. This is a profound lesson for us. If the sinless Son of God needed to constantly retreat to pray in order to do the Father's will, how much more do we, who are sinful and weak? He did not draw strength from the crowds; He drew strength from His Father in prayer. And it was from that place of prayer that He would go forth to touch the next leper.
Conclusion: Come and Be Cleansed
This story is our story. In our sin, we are that man, "covered with leprosy." We are spiritually disfigured, isolated from a holy God, and under a sentence of death. Our sin makes us untouchable. We try to cover it up, or manage it, or pretend it isn't there, but it is a creeping death that infects every part of us.
And the good news is that Jesus Christ is still in the business of cleansing lepers. He invites you to come as this man came: acknowledging your desperate need, falling on your face in submission, and trusting in His sovereign power and will. You do not need to clean yourself up before you come to Him. You come to Him in order to be cleansed.
And when you come, He will do for you what He did for that man. He will touch you. Through the gospel, Christ reaches out His hand and touches you at the point of your deepest shame. And He speaks His sovereign word: "I am willing; be cleansed." At the cross, Jesus became the ultimate leper. He was cast out of the city, afflicted and stricken by God, and bore our uncleanness so that we might be clothed in His perfect cleanness. He took our leprosy so that we might receive His health.
The only question is the one the leper brought. It is not a question of Christ's ability. It is a question of your willingness to come. Will you fall on your face before Him today and say, "Lord, I am unclean, but you can make me clean"? If you will, you will hear His glorious answer echo in your soul: "I am willing. Be cleansed."