March 4 | Matthew 8:1-4

Katie Borden
3 days ago
2 min read

DAILY READING

REFLECTION

The Reverse of the Curse

By Katie Borden

I know a third grade teacher who once had his students participate in an experiment to teach them about the spread of germs… using glitter. One morning, my friend dabbed what seemed like an insignificant amount of glitter into one singular student’s hand, and because third graders don’t keep their hands to themselves, by the end of the day there was glitter everywhere. As in, they were still finding glitter in the carpet at the other end of the school building weeks later.

The school custodian was not pleased.

And I don’t think my friend was allowed to run that experiment ever again.

I’m reminded of this story in today’s passage. Leprosy was a disease that spread like that glitter. It was easy to contract and difficult to get under control. In fact, it was so contagious that people were isolated to leper camps outside the cities in an effort to contain the disease. Its effects damaged people’s lives both physically and socially.

Sounds like sin, doesn’t it? Sin corrupts our lives with incredible speed and ferocity, and it infects everything it touches. In this broken creation, it seems like the darkness of sin encroaches in on us and spreads its life-stealing consequences out into the world around us. The way things normally work in this world, momentum seems to be in sin’s favor. Like glitter that “infects” nonglittered surfaces, disease infects nondiseased people, and sin corrupts everything it touches.

This is why I have found so much power in one little sentence in today’s text: When the leper asks Jesus to heal him, Jesus agrees, and then we are told that “Jesus reached out and touched the man” (v. 3).

Jesus touched the man, but instead of sin spreading further as we might expect, Jesus, in the power of God, reverses the curse of sin by his touch. Jesus heals by his presence. He demonstrates in this touch that the power of God is more potent than the power of sin, and healing flows into the places where sin and sickness once reigned.

This is such good news for us still today. In a world where we still see so much brokenness and pain, we know that because of Jesus, his death, and his resurrection, the story of the universe does not end in darkness. God’s power overcame the grave, and his healing presence will make everything whole. Thanks be to God!

PRAYER

God, we praise you for your power over sin and death. We ask that you would make your blessing and healing flow into the places in our midst where the curse of sin is stealing life, and restore us to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KATIE BORDEN

I’m a lifelong member of UALC and have had the privilege of serving our community in both volunteer and staff roles over the years. I love learning, OSU football, good conversations, chocolate croissants, laughter, and sharing about the good news of Jesus in whatever capacity I can.