He Is Willing

“I am willing; be cleansed.” [Matthew 8:3 NKJV]

I wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole. You have heard that before haven’t you? I am not sure where it originated from but if that idiom existed in the Aramaic language I am sure people were saying it about lepers. They were the outcasts of society. People believed that if you were stricken with leprosy you had done something awful and God was punishing you for it as He had been known to do. What if we took that same way of thinking and applied it to cancer? All who have it did something that caused God to put it on them. No, sin brought disease upon the body and God did not bring sin into the world. As a society we do not avoid those with cancer but do our best to treat them. As Christians many of us lay hands on them, anoint them with oil, and pray for them. We certainly do not marginalize them as outcasts. Jesus changed their way of thinking by healing lepers. I can imagine someone in the crowd saying, “He touched him! He touched him! He touched that leper!”

It was not the physical ailments Jesus was so much concerned with because He knew the body would die anyway at some point. He healed their physical bodies so their suffering would be eliminated. He demonstrated His power over disease that we may know He has power over sin. We can define uncleanness several ways but the way God defines it has to do with our spiritual condition. A diseased soul is much worse than a diseased body. The body eventually dies; the soul never will. Our lesson is not to marginalize the sin laden souls but rather to embrace them and allow Jesus to touch them through us. What an honor to have someone say of you, “Look, look, he is talking to a sinner!” Look, look, she is praying for that drug addict!” Remember Jesus touched us when we were unclean and He is still willing to cleanse others!