He Overwhelms Our Uncleanness


Every day, the news testifies to us that evil is growing faster than good.  The darkness of the world seems to be winning.  Even in our struggle with sin, we can feel as if it is always one step forward and two steps back.  
The first part of our passage from Sunday's message in Haggai 2:10-19 would seem to agree.  The prophet showed in vv12-13 that in the temple sacrificial system, defilement was more contagious than holiness.  In the battle between holiness and uncleanness, if one or the other was going to eventually win the day, it would be uncleanness—a seemingly hopeless situation.  
Of course, these shadows cause us to long for the substance, which is Christ (Col 2:17).  In discouraging times, we must look to Him for the real story, which is that with Christ—our better sacrifice—holiness overwhelms uncleanness.  A picture of this reality can be found in Matthew 8:1-3, the story of Jesus healing a leper.
Before we consider those verses, keep in mind that when Jesus heals diseases in the Gospels, it serves various purposes.  First, it has the very real and practical benefit of ministering compassion to the sufferer (Matt 14:14).  Second, it demonstrates Jesus’ power and testifies to His identity as the Christ (John 7:31).  Third—and we tend to overlook this—it is emblematic of His ability to cleanse us from sin.  One chapter later, Jesus shows that if He has the authority to heal, He has the authority to forgive sin (Matt 9:1-6).  Similarly, when Jesus heals a man blind from birth, He then reveals what this ultimately pictures—He came to give sight to the spiritually blind (John 9:39).  
Therefore, if we would read Matthew 8:1-3 correctly, we must understand that this is not only a healing story, but also a statement about Jesus' ability to take away sin and give holiness. 
When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. (Matt. 8:1-3) 
There are so many reasons to love the story, not the least of which is how Jesus healed the man.  Strictly speaking, it was completely unnecessary to touch the leper.  Jesus was known to heal with a word and across long distances (Matt 8:5-13, 16; John 4:46-53).  Yet, given the nature of the man’s ailment, healing by touching was the most meaningful and compassionate way Jesus could have done it.  
For our current purposes, even that beautiful aspect is beside the point.  Let's put this in the context of what we've seen in Haggai and in the context of what the law teaches about leprosy.  Leprosy contaminates everything around it.  Two entire chapters of Leviticus are dedicated to dealing with leprous disease (Lev 13-14).  Anything that the leper touched became unclean.  Even going into a leper’s house would make you unclean.  It was incredibly contagious, the perfect symbol for sin.  Just like in our passage in Haggai, leprosy testified that uncleanness is far more communicable than holiness.
But what happened when Jesus touched the leper?  The leper’s uncleanness wasn't communicated.  In fact, not only did Jesus not become unclean, but the leper instantly became clean, indicating that we have a force here altogether different from the Old Testament shadows.  Jesus’ cleanness overwhelms uncleanness.  His holiness overwhelms sin.  
What wonderful news is this!  Prior to conversion, our defiled consciences rightly testify against us of the magnitude of our stain.  After conversion, the enemy wrongly testifies that nothing could cover this or that particularly black sin.  To both, a mighty, risen Christ replies, “I make all things new.  I impute righteousness to everything I touch.”  Good news to the unsaved and good news to the saved.   
Such things are worthy of meditation. When we feel guilt about sins long-forgiven, even when we feel downtrodden over temporal troubles--what a relief that Jesus brought an infinitely contagious holiness to bear on our sinful souls.  

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