i want to be like Him

Jesus Heals a Man with Leprosy

1 Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside.2 Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. "Lord," the man said, "if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean."
3 Jesus reached out and touched him. "I am willing," he said."Be healed!" And instantly the leprosy disappeared.4 Then Jesus said to him, "Don't tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy.s This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed."

matthew 8

we talk about this story a lot at rock harbor. i mean, a lot. not just because it's just a great story, but because it's one of the best pictures of who Jesus really was. yes, this is a story about a man who had faith in Jesus, and if we have faith in Jesus that we can be healed from the inside out, He is willing to enter in and work with us. but more than that, this is a story about who Jesus was. let's tackle this one point at a time.

the first part is about faith. the leper not only had faith in Jesus but knew that he couldn't anything about his leprosy, he didn't try to get cleaned up before asking Jesus to heal him. it should be the same way for us! we have to realize that there's really no way for us to make ourselves clean enough for God! we're still sinners through and through unless we've actually acknowledged that Jesus was punished for our mess ups, our misses, our sins! i like this thing that mike erie always says, it's like knowing the cleaning people are coming to your house and you end up cleaning up beforehand so you don't seem too messy! what?? what's the point in that?? the cleaning people are there to clean up your house and your mess! it's the same way with God, He's there to clean up your life and wipe away your mistakes and sins. you don't have to get "cleaned up" before coming to God! He wants you as you are!! Jesus came to the leper, the man who couldn't do anything about his sickness, to clean him. Jesus comes to us, the people who can't do anything about our sin on our own, to clean and forgive us. that's the beauty of it. there's no "extra" work that we have to do. there's no religious rites that we have to go through. everybody feels that if we want something from God, we have to do something to earn it. nope! not the case! that's the beauty of grace!!! His love is freely given to us. we don't need to do anything. we just need to come to Him, sins, shames, regrets, scars, tears, and all. and He'll run to us with open arms celebrating that His child has come home.

now, the juicy part that i personally really like. =] do we know what taboo means? it's something we should never, ever, ever, ever do. ever. it's something, where if you do it, everybody is shocked and disappointed or even offended because of it. what are some of our social taboos? maybe drinking and driving? or peeing in public? or pushing an old lady to the ground? or stealing a kid's candy? we can come up with more examples but let's move on! now, when we see these things happening in public, we can already imagine and see the frowns and the looks of, "what is that person thinking?? or how rude!!" even disgust comes across people's faces. touching a leper was the same way. but not only would you get dirty looks from other people, your whole social status would just totally dropped because you've been made "unclean." but Jesus, He didn't care. He touched that leper's hand and healed Him. He broke the social conventions, He disregarded His own status, He reached out to be in the same vicinity, to be at the same level as the leper. and He continues to do the same for us. He continues to break social conventions. He reaches out to the prostitutes, the sex offenders, the swindlers, the liars, the cheaters, the gamblers, the hot-tempered. why? because He loves the heck out of them. He loves the heck out of us. He doesn't care what His reputation is going to be reaching out to someone who is struggling with an addiction to pornography. He doesn't care what His reputation is going to be reaching out to someone who is struggling with an addiction to drugs, alcohol, and sex. this always convicts me. because my love always has a line. there's always a line for all of us to how far we'll go to love someone. Jesus demolished that line. i mean, He trashed it. i want to trash mine, too. everyone. is. loved. everyone. is. wanted. i want to live with those lenses on.

p.s. from my reading, it seems that Jesus didn't want the leper to tell everyone about what happened because He wanted people to come to Him because of His teachings, not because of His miracles. He wasn't looking for people who were simply there for a show. =]