I do will it. Be made clean

A man with leprosy goes to Jesus seeking healing.  Since few, if any of us, have ever seen leprosy, we cannot imagine what he may have looked like at this stage nor what he has thus far suffered.  We know that a leper lived completely isolated from his past life, suffering alone and thoroughly ostracized by the community.  Luke, however, presents a man brave or desperate enough to go to Jesus and beg to be cured.  Not only does Jesus heal him, but he touches him.  That certainly was not necessary for physically healing him, yet the human touch heals something deeper in the man; Jesus did not wait for the situation to “improve” before touching him. The fact that this detail is included in Luke’s account also becomes a call to remind us of the necessity of being fully present to others in their suffering.