If you want to, you can make me clean.
—Matthew 8:2
CDC didn’t initiate the 6-foot distancing rule. Long before COVID-19, there was leprosy—and the Rabbinic rule was that no one could come nearer to a leper than four cubits—six feet.
One day a leper pushed his way through the crowd, knelt before Jesus, and said, “Sir, if you want to, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out and touched him. “I do want to,” he said. “Be clean!” (Mt 8:2–3).
There was no remedy for leprosy. But here was a leper who was certain that Jesus could do what no one else could. And Jesus, who was forbidden to come within six feet of him, touched him and healed him.
Don’t feel too unforgivable to approach Jesus. If he wants to, he can make you clean. And he wants to.
Jesus is as close as your shadow.