Have you ever had a big mosquito bite? Or a bad case of poison ivy? Or an allergic reaction to your mom’s meatloaf? Or anything that made your skin itchy and scratchy and sore?

In the Bible there was a very nasty skin disease called leprosy, and people who had it were called lepers. Leprosy was painful. It was dangerous. And sometimes it looked really bad. In order to keep others safe from the disease, lepers had to stay away from people and announce “Unclean! Unclean!” to everyone.

It was definitely no fun to be a leper. Leprosy was probably one of the saddest, scariest, most miserable things a person could have.

One day in Galilee, a leper came up to Jesus begging on his knees, “Please make me clean! I know you can heal me if you want to!” What an amazing thing for the leper to say. Most lepers didn’t dare go near people. And most lepers didn’t believe that an ordinary-looking man like Jesus could heal them. This leper had a lot of guts. And a lot of faith too.

Jesus saw the leper and was moved with pity. He was heartbroken to see a man in such misery. So Jesus did the one thing no one dared to do with lepers: he touched the man. Jesus stretched out his hand and said, “You’re right. I can heal you, and I will. Be clean.”

And you know what? He was clean, just like that. It was a miracle. That’s not how God always works. Sometimes God has reasons not to heal the people he loves. But this time, with this man, Jesus made him clean right on the spot.

But that’s not quite the end of the story. Jesus told the man to go to the priest like the law required, but to say nothing about the miracle to anyone else. Jesus knew all the attention would make his ministry harder. But the man didn’t listen to Jesus. He blabbed about his healing all over town. And sure enough, things got a lot harder. People started mobbing Jesus. He wasn’t able to go out into the open anymore. He had to watch his back. He had to hide out in lonely places.

A strange thing had happened. The leper was now free, but Jesus wasn’t. The leper had new life, but soon people would want Jesus dead. The leper was no longer an outcast, but before long Jesus would be. The Lord and the leper traded places. One man’s salvation for another man’s suffering. That’s how it works with Jesus. And that’s how it works for us when we ask Jesus to make us clean.