Torah portion: Leviticus 14:1-15:33

Metsora (‘one being diseased’)

Once, when Yeshua was in one of the towns, there came a man completely covered with leprosy. On seeing Yeshua, he fell on his face and begged him, “Sir, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Yeshua reached out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing! Be cleansed!” Immediately the leprosy left him. Then Yeshua warned him not to tell anyone. “Instead, as a testimony to the people, go straight to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded. (Luke 5:12-14)

In Jewish tradition a leper was known as someone permanently smitten by God (though that wasn’t always the case; see for example, Moses in Exodus 4, Miriam in Numbers 12, Naaman and Gehazi in 2 Kings 5).

Leviticus 14, this week’s Torah portion, tells us what Moses commanded with regard to someone who had been healed of leprosy – something that could only happen through divine intervention.

The leper, who should have been living outside of the camp, was required to be seen by a priest, who would check him over and confirm that divine healing had taken place. The healed man’s response to this divine intervention was to undergo a ritual purification process.

Responding to God’s Healing

Stage 1: The priest ordered two live, clean birds and associated items be brought. Outside the camp, blood of the first bird was sprinkled on the healed leper seven times and then the second bird was set free, carrying the man’s leprous impurities away.

Stage 2: After washing his clothes, shaving and bathing, the healed leper was considered clean and could come into the camp. But still a contamination risk, he must remain outside his tent, separate from his family, for seven days.

Stage 3: On the eighth day, after repeating the washing, shaving and bathing process, the healed leper was considered clean and could enter his tent to re-join his family.

Stage 4: On the same day he should bring various sacrificial offerings to the entrance of the tabernacle, where the priest would make atonement for him before Adonai. Thereafter, the healed leper was considered completely clean and able to re-join the community in worship of Adonai at the tabernacle.

A Picture of Our Purification

I suggest that this process in Leviticus, which Jesus taught about and affirmed through healing the leper in Luke 5, is also implicit in Paul’s letter to the Romans, in which the Apostle teaches about the Gospel and our rescue from sin.

Stage 1 (Romans 3:23-25): We learn that we’re all sinners (lepers), as able to save ourselves as a leper is able to heal himself. But by an act of God we can be cleansed: Yeshua replaces the birds of stage 1 with His own bloody, sacrificial death, taking our sins (leprosy) far away from us.

Stages 2 and 3 (Romans 6:3-4): We are immersed, thereby acknowledging what Yeshua’s sacrifice has done for us. Then, as Yeshua was raised from death, we are raised from baptism into new life and can join the fellowship of believers, growing ever-closer to them and the Lord by being sanctified by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit (see also Eph 5:26).

Stage 4 (Romans 6:19 and 6:22): As in stage 4 where the healed leper brought his offerings to the entrance of the tabernacle, so begins our new life: making thank-offerings of righteousness that honour the Lord and contribute to our being made holy, set apart for Him.

Let us, together with the Apostle Paul, say, “And the end result is eternal life!”

Author: John Quinlan