Jesus Demonstration of Radical Forgiveness

According to Matthew, immediately following Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he came down from the mountain and performed two acts of healing which demonstrated radical forgiveness. The first was an encounter with a leper. (Matthew 8:1-4) It was customary to assume that leprosy was a sign of God’s disfavor and the leper bore full responsibility for keeping separate from the community. His condition was seen as a sign of his sinful life and anyone who touched him was made unclean with him.

This leper violated the rules and came up to Jesus. Jesus, in the eyes of the faithful, made himself unclean by reaching out and touching him. In contrast to the world’s assumption that associating with bad people will contaminate you, Jesus assumed that good can contaminate the bad and make them well.

By his act, he cleansed the leper and restored him to the community of the people of God. Certainly a contemporary parallel for the church today would be people with AIDS. Society generally treats such people as bearing the punishment for their lifestyle and our fear of contamination often separates them from community. Could their souls be cured by the church community’s radical acceptance?

The second act of radical forgiveness performed by Jesus was in connection with a Roman centurion and his servant. (Matthew 8:5-13) The actual word translated servant can also mean child. The centruion’s compassion for this young man would indicate that his relationship may have been closer than one strictly of master and servant. In the Roman world, it was not uncommon for an adult to find intimate companionship with a young boy. If so, this would reinforce even more Jesus’ radical act of forgiveness.

In either case, the Roman would have been considered an outsider and even at his best a representative of the enemy which oppressed the people of God. In Luke’s version of this story, there is indication that the centurion was well loved by the community but here there is no such indication.

Jesus’ first response was to offer to accompany the centurion to his home which would have violated the rules of separation between Jew and Gentile. Jesus’ actions included the Gentile centurion and his servant within the fellowship of God’s healing love. In doing so, Jesus offered a radical demonstration of God’s grace.