Lord, If You Are Willing...

When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 

Matthew 8:1-3

This passage beautifully illustrates the compassion of our Lord.  Though MULTITUDES pressed all around him, demanding of his time and attention, Jesus took time out to help this man afflicted with leprosy.  No doubt, out of the many people who were there, others were afflicted in some way or another, hoping to be cured by our Lord and Savior.  But Jesus paused, took valuable time out of his busy schedule to help THIS man - the man with a most uncurable and debilitating of diseases.  My heart was captured by the compassion expressed by Jesus in this moment.  Christ's compassionate love wasn't lost in the pressures of the world around Him.  In this act, we see a Savior reflecting the nature of His Father - loving the unlovable, healing the unhealable, touching the untouchable.  We see a compassionate God!

 

Leprosy was, and still is, a horrible disease.  It was the HIV of its time.  In most cases, there was no cure.  Once a person had this disease, they were exiled from their family, their home, and their town.  They were looked down upon as cursed.  They were despised by others. They had no hope.  But this man with leprosy dared the crowds.  This man dared to risk it all for the opportunity to fall on his knees and worship His Savior!  He asked for the impossible - to be made clean of the disease that had plagued him.  But he left the decision up to Jesus - "Lord, IF YOU are willing..."      Jesus' touching response - "I am willing; be cleansed!" 

We, too, have an incurable disease - it's called sin.  However, sin is far worse than any disease that we can contract. There is no worldly cure for this disease.  The only cure for sin is to come humbly before our Lord and ask for His forgiveness.  Each day we have an opportunity to fall on our knees before our Savior and worship Him, asking, "Lord, if you are willing.."  And if we are sincere and repentant, His response will always be "I am willing; be cleansed!"  In fact, He has already proven just how willing He is - by dying on the cross for our sins.  No matter what we have done, how bad it is, or how often we have done it - if we truly seek his forgivenes and turn away from our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us!

I wonder why Christ stopped to heal this man out of the multitudes who were there? I believe it had to do with this man's heart condition - his attitude of worship and his willingness to submit to God's will on the matter. This is the same attitude that we, too, should approach our Lord with. He has the cure for our disease, but is our heart condition ripe to receive His forgiveness? Are our hearts wholly surrendered to Him and truly repentant?
 

Look and see the compassion in his eyes calling out to you as you approach Him.  He desires you to come to Him.  Worship Him on bended knee asking, "Lord, if you are willing..."  He will answer!

 

In His Love, Cathy