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Jesus said “I am willing. Be clean.” Did you realise that this applies to you and your situation too? Whatever the nature of your ‘uncleanness’, Jesus is willing and able to cleanse you and change your life.

Luke 5:12 begins “And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man …”
This is a distinct change in language. Before this it was pure narrative, telling the story of the call of Peter, James and John. This change in style is meant to capture our attention. This is something different. It contains a story but it’s more than a story. It’s a teaching story, what would be called a ‘Maschil’ in the Psalms. It is a type, an example, a template. What we learn from this story applies not just to this instance but to all instances. That’s why the details don’t matter. It does not tell us when it happened or where it happened or the name of the man concerned. As to when, “it came to pass”; as to where “in a certain city”; as to whom “behold a man”.
This is deliberate, intentional. We cannot say that what happened here applies only to that particular time or place or person. Pause, and think about that, or, as the psalmist would say “selah”.

Now, to the story.
Jesus was in a city. Why does it tell us this? The difference between a village and a town or city is the number of people. A city speaks of lots of people. Among all these people there must have been many lepers yet we focus on one, behold a man. This man was full of leprosy. I love the way the author does not say “behold, a leper” but “behold, a man, full of leprosy”. I am not my sickness, I am not my sin, God does not see me that way.

Leprosy is a progressive disease, it eats your body little by little. It is a slow and lingering death as more and more of your body decays. Here was a man in the final stages because he is not simply described as having leprosy but being full of leprosy. Here is a man at the gates of death, hopeless and helpless who sees Jesus and reacts in an amazing way.

This man falls on his face, an attitude of absolute worship and calls Jesus “Lord”. He did not see just a man but he saw God in human flesh and worshipped Him.

There are many questions we could ask here. How did he recognize Jesus as God? Why did not other lepers come with him? Why was it that this man approached Jesus rather than Jesus approaching him?

When Peter recognized Jesus for who he was Jesus said that Peter was blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal that to him but His father in heaven. Seeing Jesus for who he is remains a gift from our Father in heaven, a gift He would gladly give to all for God is not willing that any should perish but that all should find salvation in His son.

Jesus was famous. What He did and what He said were spread abroad by one person telling another. It was gossip, it was news, it was a verbal report. As Isaiah has said “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” There was no proof, it was a question of faith, you either believed the stories or not. This man obviously did and recognized that this was the promised Messiah, God in human flesh, Emmanuel.

We do not know who or what the man was before he became a leper, perhaps he was a priest or some other student of the scriptures. Once you become a leper your former profession or standing counts for nothing. Kings and priests become simply lepers.

Perhaps others believed but did not think God would be interested in helping them. No doubt, many of them believed that God was in some way responsible for their disease in the first place. We think God makes people sick either for punishment or as a blessing in disguise. The bible does not support this view.

Here, as in other parts of the gospels, we see that the people came to Jesus for help and Jesus healed all who came. We do not read that Jesus went into the hospitals or the leper colonies and healed all the people there. At the pool of Bethesda where many were waiting to be miraculously healed Jesus asked only one man “Do you want to get well?” Conversely, we do not read that any of those who came to Jesus were turned away; we read again and again that He healed all who came to him. We also read that again and again Jesus urged all the people to believe and to come to him for salvation.

It seems impossible to conclude from these facts that God chooses who gets healed and who doesn’t or that God chooses who gets saved and who doesn’t. From the facts we must conclude that God makes the offer to all but there must be a response from man in order for God to heal or to save. With this the scriptures agree. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

This man, full of leprosy, recognized Jesus as the messiah. He knew that God could heal him if he wanted to but had no idea whether God would want to or not. How many millions of people believe the same thing? This is a very common theology and it is this very question that the story before us addresses.

His request to the Lord was clear and unambiguous. “Lord, if you are willing you can make me clean.” Jesus does not hesitate, He does not explain that in some cases he would be but in other case he would not. Jesus makes an instant and amazing response. “He put forth his hand and touched him…” Nobody touches a leper, in those times everyone believed that that’s how you get leprosy. There was no other person in the world who would touch a leper but Jesus put forth his hand and touched him saying, “I will, be thou clean.” And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

We know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever, unchanging, eternally the same. There was an old and a new covenant in His relations with men but God remains constant. Why then do we believe that God’s will is variable and beyond knowing? When Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” he was always those things and will always be those things. When Jesus says “I am willing” does he mean that he is willing sometimes?

There are many who believe that healing is dependant on God’s varying will. If God wants you healed you will be healed and if God does not want you healed then you won’t be. This helps us make sense of our lives but it cannot be supported from scripture. If it was God’s will to heal the leper (specifically) we would read of Jesus approaching the leper but it was the leper who approached Jesus. If it was purely an affair of God’s will we would not read of Jesus saying to another who was healed “Your faith has made you well” because it would not be their faith but God’s will that effected the healing.

What the scriptures reveal to us is a willing God who requires a willing and believing human being to work through. The only time God plans to enforce His will is in judgement. In this age of grace it is not just up to God, we play a part in seeing God’s will come to pass.

In the story before us it was a city or town, lots of people, there must have been other lepers. If it was just up to God surely Jesus would have healed others there too.

We should let this story answer this question for us. Is God willing to cleanse us, heal us, save us? The answer is always yes. Knowing that God is willing should give us confidence to find a way into His presence and receive his touch and hear His voice. As long as we question his willingness we accept our sickness as His will for us and take a passive stance. If God wants to heal us He will. Why do we wait until we are in extremity, until we are ‘full’ of our sickness or problem before we press into God?

We have an enemy who is a deceiver, in fact, deception is his only real power and he is very good at it. That’s why we need to base our faith not simply on our experience or the common doctrine of others but on our study of the bible. We may interpret our experience to conclude that God sometimes heals and sometimes doesn’t and that the variable is God’s will at that particular time.

Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

A very popular scripture, most often mis-quoted and mis-represented as saying something like this. “Jesus said that we can do the works that He did if we believe.”

That is NOT what this verse says. It is not about the works that Jesus DID. He is talking about “the works that I DO”. Present, not past tense.

Jesus is not proposing that we should try and do the same sort of things that He did but that we should allow HIM to carry on doing the same works through us!

This is the way that Jesus worked. He said that it was the Father who gave Him the words to speak and it was the Father who did the works. It wasn’t Jesus, it was the Father. In exactly the same way, the ascended Jesus wants to give us the words to speak and to do His works in and through us. Jesus said, “Just as the Father has sent me, even so, I send you.” John 20:21 In the same way of working, with the same promises, with the same results.

One of the common misconceptions of Christianity, and I hesitate to write this because it will sound like heresy to many, is that Jesus could heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers and drive out demons because He was the Son of God. That is not true. Jesus on the earth could do those things because He was the Son of Man. It’s an authority thing. In the beginning the triune God gave dominion on the earth to man. God said “Let them have dominion …..” Adam yielded that authority to satan in the garden but that did not mean that God took the authority back. Jesus referred to himself constantly as the Son of Man. Why did he do that? To show that what he did, he did as a man, an unfallen man, a man with authority. If he did them because he was God then we cannot emulate Him. Jesus sent his disciples out as men and they came back having healed the sick and driven out demons. When Jesus sent them He gave them authority. Now, Jesus sends us with the same authority. Even better, we are not alone, He himself comes with us, within us.

The way Jesus worked is the way we should work. He spent 30 years soaking up the Word of God before He started it putting it into practice. We want the results without the homework. Jesus heard from Heaven. He knew how to hear God’s voice even in the midst of great pressure. When they told Him that Lazarus was sick, come quick, He did not respond to the situation but listened to what God was saying. “When Jesus heard, He said …” He lived to please one! No one else’s opinion mattered more, not even his mother. Jesus said to the Pharisees who lived for men’s praises, “How can you believe when you receive praise one of another and seek not the honour that comes from God alone.”

Jesus wants to continue His ministry to the lost and lonely, to the sick and wounded, to the poor and perishing. He cannot do that directly because he is no longer physically on the earth. This is not a limitation, quite the opposite. Before, he was restricted to one time and place at any moment. Now, he can be everywhere that we are. This is the greater works because he is not geographically restricted. Wherever we are, He is. Will we devote ourselves to the Word the way Jesus did? Will we learn to hear the way that Jesus did? Will we devote ourselves to him the way that Jesus did to His Father? Will we get free from pride and the need for men’s approval and seek to please Jesus only?

Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

How many times have we read or heard this famous verse from Isaiah 40?

Here is the whole thing in context. Isa 40:29 – 31He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. 

I had a couple of days off sick with a virus recently and woke up on the third day feeling nauseous and trembly inside, no appetite, no strength, no energy. I am sure that feeling is known to many of us. I turned to this passage and began talking to the Lord about waiting, what does it mean? The way I read it, God wants to give power to the weak and strength to the faint. That was definitely me. God’s chosen delivery method was through waiting. “Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength”. So, I was asking the Lord, “what does it mean, to wait on you?”

I knew that it did not mean waiting FOR the Lord. That is a passive stance. God can heal me whenever He’s ready. No, it doesn’t work like that. Faith without works is dead. Passivity; waiting for God in that way is basically faithless. God is ready now, that’s why it says “He gives power to the weak” It doesn’t say sometimes, now and again, if you deserve it, if you are good enough.

I knew that God wanted to give me His power and strength, I just needed to understand his delivery method and put it into practice. First of all, my wife made porridge for herself with honey and I was reminded of the verse which says “Eat honey, my son, for it is good.” OK, I made myself some porridge with honey and ate it. Next thing, I had a haircut scheduled for 9:00 am, this was about 8:00 am and we were thinking about telephoning at 08:30 to cancel the appointment.  I asked the Lord about that and felt I should go. I was thinking very much about the word shall. They shall renew their strength. It does not say ‘might’ or ‘could’ but ’shall’. The barber was a 10 minute walk away so I decided to walk there and see how I felt.

I was singing these verses all the way there and I was very aware of the next bit, “they shall walk and not faint.”Sure enough, I made it to the barbers OK and all the way home again I was singing these verses again, particularly, “they shall walk and not faint”. We had originally planned to join our church walking group and do a 5.5 mile walk that morning and right there and then I knew what God was saying to me. “Do the walk!”

My wife was a little surprised by my suggestion but agreed and we set off to meet the group. When we arrived at the start of the walk someone drew my attention to a pair of buzzards circling lazily overhead. “Wings like eagles!” God is such an encourager! None of this flapping business, they just spread their wings and rely on the wind.

I can report that I completed the walk without any bother and felt 10 times better than I would have done if I had stayed tucked up in bed! I remembered a quotation from a South African evangelist called Benson Idahosa. “Life will not give you what you deserve, but only what you demand!” Faith had to make a demand on my bodily strength in order for it to be manifested. How much strength would I have needed to stay in bed, cancel the haircut and forget about the walk? None!

I don’t understand it all but waiting on the Lord is not waiting FOR the Lord. He is ready to act now if we will co-operate by faith. It definitely involves listening to the Lord, meditating on His word and putting into practice what it says, choosing the way of faith not the way of feelings. If I had allowed my feelings to dominate me and waited until I felt better, waited until I received the strength before I made a demand upon it, I would not have received it. I would have spent the day in bed. God was gracious and gentle in encouraging me to do the 10 minute walk to the barber before reminding me about the 5.5 mile walk we had planned earlier in the week. God is like that, he gently leads us in our steps of faith. I hope this has encouraged you, feel free to add your own comments  and posts about your own healing journeys.

How many times have we said that? “God, I can’t do this. You will have to find somebody else.”  In John 6:5 we read “Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.

Philip did what we do, we look at the size of the problem and compare it with the size of our resources and we say it can’t be done. That’s the wrong way of looking at things. When Jesus looked at the problem he compared it with the resources of heaven. In Matthew’s account we read (14:19)  ”And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”

Jesus was looking up to heaven. Compared with the love and power available to him there, the problem did not look impossible at all.

We may think, “It’s alright for Jesus, He was the son of God.” That’s true, although he constantly referred to himself as the Son of Man to show that what he did was as a man, not as God. Though we are the children of men we are also children of God by faith in Jesus. What Jesus did, we can do, if we do it the same way He did, by total reliance on His father in heaven.

It says that when Jesus asked Philip the question, he was testing him. That doesn’t mean he was marking him to pass or fail. It means he was giving him the opportunity to learn, to grow, to develop. It’s the same for us. Impossible situations are not there to discourage us, to show up our failures, they are there for us to learn how to overcome them through faith. They are there to give our faith a workout, to develop our faith muscles.

If all we have is our selves, our human resources, we can’t do it. If that is all we consider we will never attempt anything beyond our abilities. Having tried and failed a few times, sometimes publicly, we learn to live within our resources. We do not want to risk humiliation and failure.

That is not all we have. I am human but I am not only human. I have Jesus, my Higher Power, living right here inside me. Philip had Jesus right there with him but he didn’t consider Jesus in the right way. If Philip couldn’t see it, touch it, hear it, taste it or smell it then it wasn’t real, it didn’t count. Andrew was the same. He did his sums and counted 5 loaves and 2 fish. Then he counted the people, over 5000 men plus women and children. That did not add up to anything they could do. “Send them away to buy bread for themselves” was the universal decision of the disciples.

Do you ever look at the needs of others and want to help but feel totally inadequate? Of course you do, we all do. In ourselves, we are inadequate. In fact, if we think we are adequate we have a real problem. But Jesus wants to move through us to reach out and touch others. When we give Him the little that we have He blesses it, breaks it, and does wonders with it.

Do not look at yourself and give up. Look up and give yourself to HIM.

Ps 89:15-18 “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound! They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance.   In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.  For Thou art the glory of their strength, and in Thy favor our horn shall be exalted.  For the LORD is our defense, and the Holy One of Israel is our King.”

There is a joy and a strength that comes from weakness confessed. Coming out of denial and admitting that we have a problem which we ourselves cannot manage or overcome is the beginning of finding joy and strength. To those who do not understand, admitting weakness, surrendering to our Higher Power, Jesus, is going backwards. They think that might is right, only the strong survive etc. Never show your weakness, act tough or people will despise you and take advantage of you.  

Our verses from Psalm 89 tell us a different truth. Blessed are the people who rejoice not in themselves but in Jesus, His strength, His righteousness, His mercy, His favour. He is our defence and our hope and in Him we find joy and liberty. He teaches us to confess our weaknesses to ourselves, to God, and to another human being.  James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”   

I like that phrase, “so that you may be healed”!  This is the way that God has ordained for our healing. I used to surf the adult channels on the TV from time to time and confess it to the Lord the following day. No matter how often I confessed my sin to the Lord I would do it again. While I was doing it I knew that he knew I was doing it but it did not stop me doing it. This went on for years until the day that I admitted the exact nature of my wrongs to another human being. I cannot explain how this works but from that day I am not tempted. 

It is not that I am tempted and have found new strength to overcome, there is a measure of this but generally speaking I am no longer tempted. How did that happen? One minute I was a prisoner to my weakness, my “tendency to do the wrong thing” as John Baker puts it so well, and the next minute I was free. And I KNEW that I was free! My shame and embarrassment at confessing my sin turned to joy and liberty, a liberty that has continued to this day, more than three years later. How does that work?  

I cannot explain it completely but God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud but He gives grace (favour, strength, joy, liberty, whatever your need is) to the humble. The first word of the gospel is repent. Practical repentance is not just a feeling of sorrow or regret, it is worked out in actions, in turning away from our sins and following Jesus, taking His advice, obeying His instructions.  

He tells us to confess to one another, not so that we may be humiliated and shamed but that we may be healed and liberated. It works! I and countless others can testify to this wonderful truth. We are indeed a blessed people.