Leviticus and the Leper: How The Law Helps Us Understand Jesus’ Ministry
Detail of Christ cleansing a leper by Jean-Marie Melchior Doze, 1864 (Public Domain).
This article is adapted from a three-part series in Project 18:15, my weekly briefing of Christian news, biblical knowledge, and historical insight. Sign up for free here.
Many believers struggle to understand or appreciate the book of Leviticus. It’s a book of laws, and not many besides lawyers care to read laws even in a modern context. Yet the psalmist declares, “O how I love Your law!” (Psalm 119:97), and we would do well to understand why.
Actually, with greater hindsight than the psalmist, Christians arguably have even more reason to love God’s law. A grasp of the concepts in Leviticus provides a rich context for understanding the ministry of Jesus, and gives the hearts of the faithful all the more reason to extol Him. With that end in mind, let’s consider the following concepts from Leviticus, and then draw a powerful connection to the ministry of Jesus and the significance of these concepts for us.
Holy, Common, Clean, and Unclean
Leviticus 10:10 commands ancient Israel, “You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean…” The four adjectives in this verse (holy, common, clean, and unclean) are essential in ancient Hebrew thought, and in understanding the link between their faith and our own.
The first adjective is holy. Holiness and its pursuit is the theme of Leviticus, as seen in God’s repeated refrain, “Be holy, for I am holy” (11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:8). What is holiness? Commentator Mark F. Rooker calls it “separateness” or “otherness.” Pastor Greg Livingston calls it “the sum of [God’s] infinite being.” Pastor John Piper defines it as God’s “infinite value as the absolutely unique, morally perfect, permanent person that He is.”
In each of these cases, it has something to do with being different from everything else—which makes sense, since our verse presents holy as the opposite of common. God is utterly different, and He calls His people to be different as well.
The second adjective is common. Since this verse has the only occurrence of the word translated “common” in the entire book of Leviticus, scholar Gordan J. Wenham suggests it’s either:
the umbrella over the two groups “clean” and “unclean,” or
synonymous with “clean” (as a middle state between “holy” and “unclean”).
It would make sense as synonymous with clean, since Leviticus implies throughout that most objects and people start off clean by default (which would make clean the most common state).
Clean and unclean, then, are the third and fourth adjectives. “The basic meaning of cleanness,” Wenham explains, “is purity.” By contrast, then, uncleanness is impurity.
So, in ancient Israel, these four terms—holy, common, clean, and unclean—constituted a kind of three-level hierarchy of all things (holy, common/clean, and unclean).
Now, thinking of it as a hierarchy, an object or person could, in certain cases, be moved higher or lower in rank by certain actions. The status of a person or object could move from one of these levels to another. How? Wenham observes four ways.
Pollution, Sanctification, Cleansing, and Profaning
Pollution. A clean item could become unclean through simple physical contact with an unclean object, person, animal, etc. (e.g., Leviticus 5:2-3, 5-6; 11:31-38). Certain events could also make a person unclean, like childbirth (12:2, 5), emission of bodily discharges (15:2-3), and menstruation (15:19). Then also, whoever touched the unclean person, the bodily discharge, the menstrual blood, or even a bed upon which the person had reclined, would also become unclean (e.g., 12:2b; 15:4-7, 24). In other words, uncleanness was transmissible.
Sanctification. Sometimes, a holy item’s holiness could be transferred to a clean item, making the clean item holy. One example was the unleavened bread offered as Aaron and his sons’ portion. Whatever touched this food offering became holy (e.g., 6:16-18, 25-27). Like uncleanness, holiness was transmissible.
Cleansing. Unlike uncleanness and holiness, cleanness was not transmissible simply by touch. As the default state, it was affected by the holy and the unclean, but never the other way around. In order for the unclean to become clean, then, there had to be a process of cleansing rather than a simple touch. Depending on how the uncleanness had come about, this process of cleansing could vary from offering a sacrifice (e.g., 12:7) to taking a bath (e.g., 15:18) to simply waiting for a period of time (e.g., 15:28).
Profaning. It was strictly forbidden for any unclean thing to come in contact with any holy thing (i.e., 12:4b). This was profaning. When this happened, there were severe negative repercussions (e.g., 7:20, 21; 22:3)—in some instances, death for the unclean thing (e.g., 10:1-2).
To summarize: in the system outlined by Leviticus, clean things can be made unclean by pollution or made holy by sanctification, some unclean things can be cleansed, and holy things can be profaned.
So, we’ve seen how everything in ancient Israel was classified into one of three categories: holy, common/clean, and unclean, and we’ve defined these terms. We’ve also detailed the ways a person or object moved from one category to another: pollution, sanctification, cleansing, or profaning. Now, in light of these concepts, consider this specific example, and how it provides context for a powerful moment in Jesus’ ministry.
The Healing of the Leper
Leviticus 13-14 records the laws about leprosy, which is an umbrella term for any number of skin diseases. The priest must follow a procedure to determine whether someone is leprous, and if he is, he is declared “unclean.” A leprous person must live in a particular way (13:45-46). He must wear torn clothes and keep his hair unkempt. Wherever he goes, he must cover his upper lip and call out, “Unclean, unclean.” So also, he must live outside the camp, and he remains unclean as long as he has the disease. If the disease clears up, the priest must inspect him again, and he must go through a ceremony to be cleansed, which includes offering a sacrifice (14:1-32).
These laws in Leviticus provide context for a significant moment in Jesus’ ministry recorded in Matthew 8:1-4. Jesus is descending the mountain where He just preached the Sermon on the Mount, and “great crowds” are following Him. At that moment, a leper kneels before Him and says, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretches out his hand and touches the man, saying, “I will; be clean.” Immediately, the man’s leprosy is “cleansed,” and Jesus commands him to show himself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded.
Consider these four observations:
Huge crowds were following Jesus when the leprous man appeared seemingly suddenly. He should have been calling out, “Unclean, unclean,” so the crowds would part, which would have made his appearance less than sudden. Matthew doesn’t record whether the leper did this—but if he didn’t, he was not following the law of Moses to the letter, a fact which Jesus apparently overlooked. Jesus’ response was gracious in light of the man’s faith.
The leper’s request was to be “clean.” That word had in its scope everything he lost when his disease began: fellowship with God, inclusion in his community, a sense of dignity, permission to even remain well-groomed, and more. The leper was asking for his life back, and proclaiming his belief that Jesus could give it to him. Jesus did.
Jesus healed him with a touch. He could have simply healed him with a word, without physical contact (he demonstrates that ability in the following verses, 8:5-13), but he preferred instead to touch him. But recall that Jesus was clean and the leper was not. A clean person was not supposed to touch an unclean person, or he would also become unclean (via pollution), because uncleanness was transmissible and cleanness was not. In Jesus, however, there is a reversal of this phenomenon: uncleanness doesn’t affect Jesus. He affects it. Jesus’ cleanness is transmissible.
Jesus is not only clean, but holy. He is God in the flesh. He’s the One who said in Leviticus, “Be holy, because I am holy.” Recall that there were negative and often fatal consequences for any unclean thing that came into contact with a holy thing (i.e., profaning). If it were not for Jesus’ choice to veil His glory, a touch could have meant death for the leper. But in light of the leper’s faith, there is again a reversal of the Law in Jesus: when uncleanness came into contact with Him, the Holy One, the result was not death, but—in a manner of speaking—life. He transmitted restoration and wholeness.
What It Means For Us
Without the concepts of Leviticus as a frame of reference, we lose some of the significance of this miracle—and, perhaps, the miracle of cleansing in our own lives.
In the present, the New Covenant era, ceremonial uncleanness is of little concern to God (e.g., Matthew 15:11; Mark 7:19; Acts 10:9-16; 15:1-35). But moral uncleanness—sin—remains of great concern (e.g., Romans 6:1-2; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Ephesians 5:3-5). As with the leper, so with everyone. Everyone who says in faith, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,” receives the answer, “I will; be clean.”
