The Man With Leprosy Mathew 8:1-3
1 When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." 3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.
Jesus was teaching and preaching from his Sermon on the Mount series and large crowds could have meant as many as 5,000 people. This man with leprosy put it all on the line to approach Jesus. In this time just about any skin disease was associated as leprosy, but this guy probably had the real deal. Uncurable and like HIV of today it could take as many as 10 years to take its toll and a person with leprosy would die a slow, painful death often losing body parts along the way. The FIRST thing this guy did was acknowledge Christ for who he was, LORD, and then he knelt down to worship him. This leper could have been stoned to death for this mere act. He then says, "If you are willing...." because he KNOWS Christ can heal him, he then says, "...you can make me clean." I think this guy would have been fine either way. He would accepted whatever action Christ would have taken.
Then Jesus reaches out to the "untouchable." The unclean person who was required by law to yell, "UNCLEAN" as he approached people. Jesus touches this man and says he is willing and heals the man. IMMEDIATELY the man was healed. In verse 4 Jesus tells the man to tell nobody, but to go to the priest and offer the gift of Moses. Basically this man went before the priests to show that he had been cured of leprosy and he could then be CLEAN and enter the temple. Back then the priest would probably watch for a few weeks to make sure he was clean. Kind of like someone being in remission from cancer today, it was a wait and see effort.
In our class today we basically talked about this man's attitude and approach. He didn't say HEAL me in a selfish way. He basically said to Jesus, if it is your will, heal me! I think we fail to take into account God's grand plan when we pray for things. We selfishly pray for healings without humbly approaching God and seeking his will.
I do think Jesus still perform miracles today!
We also looked at Matthew 8:23-28 where a storm comes upon the disciples in a boat and they panic while Jesus sleeps. We also looked at Matthew 9:1-8 where Jesus is approached by men carrying a paralytic. In this case Jesus looks at the faith of the friends and then first forgives this man, and then heals him in front of the scribes, or men of the law, basically committing the act of blasphemy since only God can forgive.
I love this passage too because the man was forgiven AND healed because of someone elses faith. If you are faithful to God he is able to work in the lives of others!
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2 comments:
One of the things I noticed about Jesus is that there was no prescribed way to heal a person. A touch, mud in the eyes, instantly, later after washing in the river, He used whatever way he wanted to heal. I think we sometimes thinking that healing has to look a certain way or be in a certain time frame. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts ar not our thoughts, They are higher. I wonder which God would see as more vital, Heaing us of a disease or healing a hard heart? Perhaps through the process of dying from a disease was the route taken to be healed from a stronghold in your heart. Which do you think God would value more, a well body which will be renewed in time or a well heart?
I do like how Jesus knew that the paralytic needed forgiveness FIRST before he really needed the healing.
Also, Jesus healed people who weren't even there.
I think the healed heart. We'll get new bodies in Heaven some day.
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