Clean, Forgiven, Connected | Sunday, September 7, 2025

And as it happened, when he was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus and he fell on his face and implored him saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Then he put out his hand and he touched him saying, I am willing, be cleansed... Then behold, a man brought on a bed who was paralyzed... When he saw their faith, he said to them, man, your sins are forgiven... I say to you, arise, take up your bed and go to your house... And they were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear saying, we have seen strange things today. (Luke 5:12–26)

When you come to Jesus in faith, you always walk away with far more than you came looking for.

More Than We Came For

I love the gospels, and I love digging in to see who Jesus is. Many of us know these stories already — the leper, the paralytic — and both appear in three of the gospels, so they're important. But whenever I open the Word, I pray, "Lord, help me understand this in a fresh light." I prayed that as I prepared, and a week and a half ago I got poison oak pulling weeds. God has a sense of humor. I didn't want leprosy, but suddenly I related to the leper on a whole new level — constantly scrubbing, constantly itching.

Have you ever walked into Costco for one thing and come out with a cartful? That used to annoy me about my dad; now, as a dad of three, that's me. We're a three-or-four-gallon-of-milk-a-week family, and I never leave with just the milk. Sometimes life is like that. You go to the doctor for a routine checkup and they find something more important. You go to the dentist for a cleaning and walk out with cavities.

In Luke 5 we find exactly that. Two familiar stories give us two pictures of sin and two pictures of faith. The leper comes for physical cleansing but receives the compassionate touch of Christ and a brand-new life. The paralytic comes to walk again, and Jesus gives him something infinitely better — the forgiveness of his sins. When we come to Jesus in faith, we always get more than we asked for. This passage is about who Jesus is, what he values most, and the love he has for you — that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

A Man Full of Leprosy

Luke is a physician, so he uses precise language: "a man full of leprosy." I love how he begins both stories almost casually — "it happened that when he was in a certain city." Jesus meets us on the ordinary days. Where will he meet you? On a Monday, a Tuesday, an ordinary day.

Leprosy was a contagious disease that ate the skin and the flesh, leaving open red and white wounds across the body. Two whole chapters of Leviticus — chapters 13 and 14 — are devoted to it. The priest had the role of declaring a person clean or unclean by visual inspection. It was incurable, and it led to death. To be "full of leprosy" meant an advanced, terminal stage. To hear the priest say "unclean" was a social death sentence. This man had to live outside society. He could no longer worship in the temple. As a husband and father myself, I think about it differently now — he couldn't hold his children's hands, hug them, or see his wife. He was desperate, hopeless, helpless, and isolated.

This is one of our two pictures of sin. Sin starts by affecting us just a little, and we say it's no big deal, but it corrupts our entire being and leads to death. It separates us from God, just as the leper was separated from society. And no matter how much you wash yourself, you cannot make yourself clean. Remember Naaman in the Old Testament — he was cleansed not because the Jordan was special, but because God performed a miracle. The leper represents our human condition: broken, unclean, and unable to fix ourselves.

"I Am Willing"

This leper fell on his face and said, "If you are willing, Lord, you can make me clean." Notice his faith — not "if you can," but "if you are willing." He never doubted Jesus's ability. And consider what his faith cost. He risked everything by coming into the city. He was breaking the law, drawing too close to people, risking death if caught. His faith challenges me.

And Jesus says, "I am willing." God is willing to cleanse us of our sins — to take all your past, all the shame, all the weight on your shoulders, and separate it from you as far as the east is from the west. Great faith in Jesus always receives more than it seeks. That's point one. Think of what this man had endured — no social interaction, no physical touch for years. The law required him to cover himself, keep his distance, and cry out, "Unclean, unclean!" How humiliating.

Then Jesus does the unthinkable. He stretches out his hand and touches him. Rabbis avoided lepers for fear of defilement, but Jesus reverses it — his holiness makes the unclean clean. Jesus is our great High Priest, meeting us in our defilement and cleansing us. And more than the healing, this was the first human touch this man had felt in years. We are made for life in connection — with God, with one another, and with the world through Jesus Christ — and Jesus comes to restore that connection.

If you feel unclean this morning, if you think you must clean up your life before coming to Jesus — that is not true. He comes to us while we are unclean and makes us clean. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new is here." That is the gospel.

Sent to the Priest

Jesus charged the cleansed man to tell no one but to show himself to the priest and make an offering as Moses commanded. Jesus came to fulfill the law, and he honored it. The priest would verify the healing — and only an act of God could cure leprosy, so it was proof of God's power. The healing wasn't merely physical; it restored the man to worship. He could go back to the temple, back to his family, back into the homes he had been shut out of for years. Jesus heals us spiritually and restores us to fellowship — first with himself, then with one another. When you become a believer, you are adopted into the family of God and receive an inheritance that is imperishable: eternal life.

A Man Who Withdrew to Pray

As the report spread, great crowds gathered, bringing their sick to Jesus. He was like the first-century emergency room, surrounded by the suffering. But verse 16 caught my eye: "He would withdraw often to lonely places to pray." Sandwiched between two great miracles is Jesus getting alone with the Father. If Jesus had to withdraw to pray, how much more do we?

Prayer positions us to receive God's power. That's point two. Maybe you've never prayed before — today is a great day to start. It doesn't have to be fancy; it just has to be between you and God. Maybe, like me with three little kids, it's hard to find a lonely place. One place I've found is the car. Some of my sweetest, most intimate moments with God have been driving — pouring out my heart, asking for healing and forgiveness, praying that God would soften the hearts of those who don't yet believe.

Prayer is one of the most neglected practices in the church. So I urge you, believers: pray. First Thessalonians 5 says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." As Pastor Miles often says, where prayer is focused, power falls. A.W. Tozer wrote, "Without prayer you cannot win, and with it you cannot lose." Are we spending enough time in prayer? Examine your own heart this week.

Four Friends and a Roof

Now the paralytic — our second picture of sin and of faith. On one of those ordinary days, as Jesus taught, the Pharisees and teachers of the law sat by, observing and critiquing, and the power of the Lord was present to heal. Maybe you're here to observe and critique. You're welcome — and you'll find Jesus's power present to heal and restore.

Mark tells us four men carried this paralyzed man on his mat. We don't even know if the paralytic wanted to go; he was completely helpless, at the mercy of others. What a picture of friendship and faith. When they found the house packed and couldn't get in, they didn't give up — true friends don't give up, and neither does great faith. They went up on the roof, tore through the tiles, and lowered their friend down before Jesus. As someone who has roofed his own house, this makes me cringe — but it was all for Jesus.

Imagine the paralytic's guilt — unable to do a thing while his friends tore up someone's roof and lowered him into the middle of a crowded room. In that day, people assumed paralysis was the result of his sin or his parents' sin, so his condition itself reminded him that sin was present. And when Jesus saw the faith of the four friends, he said the unexpected: "Man, your sins are forgiven you." Why? Because that was the most important thing this man needed.

What Are You Willing to Do?

The friends raise a crucial question: what are you willing to do to bring your friend, coworker, family member, or neighbor to Christ? These men were willing to dig through a roof. Romans 10:14 asks, "How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one they have not heard of? And how can they hear without someone telling them?" Jesus ascended and sent the Holy Spirit so that we could be his witnesses.

You might say, "I'm not a preacher." That's fine — the church doesn't need a crowd of preachers; it needs witnesses who get out and say, "Guess what Jesus did in my life?" Notice that the Scriptures record not a single word spoken by these four friends — only their action. So maybe you grab a corner of the bed. Maybe you gather three friends to pray for someone who doesn't know Jesus. There are many ways to bring people to him. I hope this stirs a holy ingenuity in us. This man could have stayed paralyzed his whole life, but his sins were forgiven. I'd rather go into heaven paralyzed than run into hell on two feet.

The Forgiveness We Need First

Often what we think we need most may not be what we need first. That's point three. The paralytic came to walk, but his greatest need was forgiveness, because sin had left him in spiritual paralysis — stuck in the same dreadful loop, unable to help himself, paralyzed by despair. That despair grows from unbelief and, at its root, from unpardoned sin. Christ doesn't wait for you to clean up your act. He comes to you and says, "Your sins are forgiven you."

The scribes and Pharisees questioned him: "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Their theology was right, but their application was wrong. Only God can forgive sins — not a priest, not a pastor. Only through Jesus Christ and the blood he shed on the cross can your sins be forgiven and not counted against you. But they missed the obvious: Jesus was revealing his divine authority to forgive sins. So he asked, "Which is easier — to say your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and walk?" To prove his authority, he told the man to rise, take up his bed, and walk. And the bed that had carried this man for years became the bed this man carried. When we come to Jesus, he makes all things new.

Willing, Able, and Worthy

The man walked away glorifying God, and the crowd said, "We have seen strange things today," and glorified God. Jesus is willing to cleanse, able to forgive, and worthy of glory. That's point four. There is no boring day in the life of a believer — when you follow the Most High and put your faith in Jesus, everything becomes providence. Everyone you meet has a purpose; God wants to work in and through you every day to make you a witness.

This whole passage shows Jesus is willing — he touches the leper; able — he forgives the paralytic; and worthy — he receives glory from the leper, the paralytic, and the astonished crowd. The only ones who don't seem to glorify him are the religious leaders who studied the book. We have to be careful of religion. Amazement seized them all.

Coming to the Table

When we put these two stories together, Luke shows us the heart of Jesus and what he came to do. The leper teaches that great faith always receives more than it seeks. The paralytic reminds us that what we need most may not be what we need first. Both show that through prayer and faith we are positioned to receive God's power — not because we earned it, but because he gives it freely. In both cases Jesus is willing and able to cleanse and forgive, and he is worthy of our praise.

Here at Cross Connection we practice open communion. You don't have to be a member; what matters is that you are a follower of Christ. First Corinthians 11:28 says each person is to examine himself before he eats the bread and drinks the cup. The word "examine" means to test or prove — to test whether your faith is genuine. So examine yourself. If you have trusted Christ for forgiveness, we welcome you. And if you are not yet a believer, take this time to consider the grace of Jesus, who is willing to cleanse and able to forgive, no matter what you've done.

Closing Prayer

Pray this with me, in the quietness of your own heart:

Lord Jesus, I come to you today realizing that I am like this leper — I am unclean, unable to save myself — and I am like the paralytic, spiritually helpless and in need of your forgiveness. I believe that you are willing to cleanse me and able to forgive my sins. I confess that I have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. Jesus, I ask you to forgive my sins and make me clean. I surrender my life to you and ask you to be my Lord and Savior. Allow me to follow you, Jesus, and to live for you from this day forward. In your name we pray, amen.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you." Let us partake in remembrance of the blood that was poured out for us. God is good. Amen.