Seeds for 07/10/2023 - Matthew 8:1-4

Scripture: ¹ When Jesus 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 cleansed of his leprosy. ⁴ Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Observation: After teaching on the mountainside just off the edge of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus is plunged back into His healing ministry. The crowd had grown during the Sermon on the Mount and they were impressed by the authority with which Jesus spoke.

The way the text reads, the man with leprosy seems to be part of the crowd that was following Him from the place of the Sermon as He departed. I wonder if this is how the man came to believe that Jesus had the power and authority to make him well. Either way, this is what he believes.

“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

What a statement of faith! In those simple words, the man acknowledges Jesus’ power while not presuming upon it.

Sometimes we are angry at God for “making someone sick” or “taking someone away.” We assume an active working on God’s part to inflict someone with a particular sickness. Here, the man seems to understand that disease is simply a part of this world. The Bible does reference God causing some malady in particular instances. Far more than that, it reports sickness and death straightforwardly as part and parcel of living in the fallen world without attributing the cause to God.

What is consistent is God’s allowing illness to exist in the world even while He has the ability to heal it. This is tough and there’s no way around it. Healing—whether through miraculous intervention or human agents—sometimes occurs and sometimes does not. The most famous example of attributing an affliction to God and reporting God’s unwillingness to heal is Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. In that text, we find Paul surrendered to and finding positive meaning within God’s refusal to heal. Instead, God teaches him deeper dependence and the sufficiency of God’s grace working within him.

So the man with leprosy models three important things for us:

1. Acknowledgement of Jesus’ absolute power to heal.

2. Deference to Jesus’ sovereign discernment concerning when and whether to heal.

3. Approaching Jesus to make the request, no matter the outcome.

The man’s story involves Jesus’ wonderful reply, “I am willing, be clean.” That’s not the result every time. We cannot approach Jesus in a transactional way, as if indicating proper deference to Jesus sovereign wisdom is the magical incantation that will result in acquiring the healing we desire. That’s simply not how it works. But we can approach Him in humble, trusting faith, knowing that whatever the outcome, His love for us is steadfast and His wisdom is trustworthy.

Application:

• What do you need to acknowledge Jesus’ ability to heal in your life?

• What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?

Prayer: Lord, you have the ability and authority to cleanse and to heal. Help me intercede persistently and trust you humbly. Amen.

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“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

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