“Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, touched
him, and said, “I want to, be clean again.” At that very moment, the man was cleansed
from his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you do not tell anyone; but go to
the priest, have yourself declared clean, and offer the gift that Moses commanded
as evidence for them.”

Reflect

“Be clean again.” In the Gospel passage for today, Jesus’ teaching on loving
kindness is concretized by healing a person with leprosy. The leper presented
himself to Jesus with a conditional statement if Jesus would be willing to cure him
of his leprosy. We know that Jesus always wills doing good for the wellbeing
of others. Nonetheless, Jesus exercised his goodwill without condition. With the
Greek verb thelō, “I will,” Jesus was able to verbally express his will of curing the
leper. But before Jesus had said a word, he already stretched out his hand to reach
out to the leper. Hence, Jesus’ goodwill was demonstrated through a concrete
gesture of reaching out, which was backed up by Jesus’ kind words. Moreover,
merely with Jesus’ gesture of reaching out and through his kind words, Jesus had
already brought good upon the leper. Kind words coupled with loving gestures of
concern do heal people.

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