A short Faith building post.  Jesus, The Ministry Years 2.

Jesus, just finishing the Sermon on the Mount,  encounters a Leper.  

In the Old Testament, and Jesus’s time, Lepers were at the  bottom of the social scale.

It was worse than today’s “Hansen’s Disease.” There was no cure, except a miracle.  (Naaman, 2 Kings 5)

Naaman was told, by a Hebrew servant girl, of a man of God in Samaria, (Elisha ), who by the Power of God could heal him.   (Great read).

 If healed, you had to be looked at by a priest.  The different color of skin or hair, even different colors of mold on walls of your home were symptoms.  (Leviticus 13-14)

I understand,  it can leave you with no pain receptors and people would have toes and fingers eaten by rats, while they slept.

Knowing nothing till waking .

All Lepers, lived separately  from the healthy, had to rent their clothes, cover their mouths and cry out UNCLEAN, as they walked towards the healthy.

All to ensure people were not touched by them.  (It spread by skin to skin contact).  A horrible life sentence, for the afflicted.

Luke tells us, this Leper, was full of Leprosy and as he approached Jesus, he fell down and worshipped as he cried out.

“Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.”

Matthew, Mark and Luke all have this man, asking Jesus this same question.  “If You will, You can make me clean.”

If Thou will? If he stopped there it would be a question. He didn’t and it becomes a statement of faith.
I think it’s a wonderful statement of faith, “I know You can,” while surely,  a sad commentary of his knowledge of the Lords will.

He knew who and what he was asking.

I bring my car to the garage to get it fixed, not to the florist.  I know that Gary or McCabe’s or Timmy’s  will get my old heap back up and running.

The guy selling flowers, not the right man for the job.  He was asking the right guy.

So, his question was; Will You?  Not can You?

He had, a measure of Faith,  a realization of who he was petitioning,   and a lack of knowledge of the desire of same.

Jesus, having compassion touched him and immediately he was healed.

Unlike Naaman who had to go wash 7 times, when Jesus heals, saves it happens immediately.

In the time of miracles, the sick was healed, the dead raised and they served the Lord, immediately.  None of this nonsense of the Church being a hospital.

Jesus, was a Fix-it Shop-Filling Station guy.  He healed you filled you with His Spirit and sent you on your way.

This is what we need to see today.

Jesus told him, tell no one, go to the Priest, have him declare you are clean.   He didn’t, probably couldn’t.  He went on his way rejoicing .

Good for him, bad for Jesus.  No longer could he minister in peace, multitudes sought Him, for healing.

Something we need to get down into our Spirit, Something we need to know, without exception.

“great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.”  Luke 5:15

“as many as touched him were made whole.”

“If Thou will?”  Should not be a question for us, The will of God is “That all would come to a knowledge of salvation and all who touch Him will be made whole.“

Gods will is not a mystery to those who know Him.  We know the Author by knowing His Word.