Matthew 8:1-4

2 Kings 25:1-12

Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Matthew 8:1-4

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.

And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,

“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,

“I will do it. Be made clean.”

His leprosy was cleansed immediately.

Then Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one,

but go show yourself to the priest,

and offer the gift that Moses prescribed;

that will be proof for them.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I wish to be made clean with all my heart. You sent your Son to cleanse me and wash away my sins with his blood. He is the true Lamb sacrificed for our sins. He is my brother and Redeemer, who paid my debt of sin and brought me home to you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The First of Ten Great Works of the New Moses: Matthew 8 begins the narrative section of Book Two of Matthew’s Gospel. While Book One, Matthew 3-7, announced the Kingdom, Book Two, Matthew 8-11, concerns the establishment of the Kingdom. It covers Jesus’ miracles and his commissioning and instruction of the twelve apostles. Jesus, the New Moses, comes down from the mountain after his sermon to perform the first of ten great works and signs that reveal the nature of the kingdom he has announced. The 10 great works of the New Moses recall the 10 plagues the old Moses mediated to Egypt. Jesus first cures a leper, who exhibits great faith in Jesus and his divine power. Jesus is not made ritually unclean by touching the leper; rather Jesus’ holiness transforms the uncleanliness of the leper and makes the Leper clean. In his Incarnation, the Son is not made unclean by assuming our human nature. He became like us in all things but sin. He was not contaminated by his solidarity with us. Through his passion, Jesus transforms our human nature, he merits for us the Spiritual Bath that will cleanse us of our sins. We are made clean in the waters of Baptism because it is our share in the action by which our human nature was transformed, namely the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

2. Liturgical Worship in the New Kingdom: Jesus announces his kingdom with a call to repentance. Through the gift of God’s grace, we turn from a life of sin and enter into communion with God. Christ, the high priest taken from among men, has made us a new people, a kingdom of priests. Jesus tells the leper to show himself to the priest so that he can be reintroduced into the community of worship. Through our Baptism and our Confirmation we are introduced into the Liturgy of God’s Kingdom: we now share in the thanksgiving sacrifice of the Son of God; we truly worship the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

3. From the Babylonian Exile to Jesus: In the First Reading, King Zedekiah’s rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, led to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, the palace of the king, the Temple of the Lord, and the walls of the city in 587 B.C. Jeremiah prophesied that the exile of Judah in Babylon would last for seventy years: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place” (Jeremiah 29:10-11). God promised to restore Israel and give them a Davidic king to establish peace and justice in the land. What is more, “the restored reign of the Davidic king is joined, in Jeremiah's prophecy, to an inner transformation that accomplishes a new passover: ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord’ (31:31-32). Israel’s death will be followed by resurrection” (Levering, Ezra & Nehemiah, 41). King Nebuchadnezzar will have a dream of a statue and the prophet Daniel will have a dream of four beasts that symbolize the succession of four kingdoms, leading to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth. The golden head and the lion represent the Neo-Babylonian empire (612-539 B.C.), the silver chest and the bear represent the Medo-Persian empire (539-331 B.C.), the bronze torso and the leopard represent the Greek empire (331-63 B.C.), and the iron legs and ten-horned beast represent the Roman empire. During the time of the Roman Empire, God sent his Son to establish his Kingdom, a Kingdom which will never be destroyed.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you have made me clean through Baptism to worship you in Spirit and in truth. I now share in your death and resurrection and am a member of your Kingdom. Extend your reign in my heart, in my family, and in my community.

Living the Word of God: What do I need Jesus to make clean in my life? Where is there leprosy that only Jesus can heal in and through the Sacrament of Reconciliation?