This is Faith to Witness 99. Motivating us to seek a deeper faith, stronger witness.

Season 4 Episode 207 When Jesus Says “I am willing” (notes from a healed leper)

Here’s the Top 3 Take from this week’s episode.

1. Lay down your spirit
When we ask our Savior to lay his hand on our wound, we must recognize the sovereign nature of his power to respond.

2. Ask from a convicted heart
Conviction brings us to kneel before Jesus, with an open and honest perspective of our open wound.

3. Steward the Savior’s touch
The healing that our Savior does within us must live amongst a crowd of unbelievers, within a community of lukewarm believers. And as praise in the inner circles of those who are overjoyed by our healing.

Stay with us for the conversation. e207

Suppose Jesus healed a leper. Today we look at the leper that met Jesus as he was coming down from the mountainside following his sermon on the mount. Jesus had just taken a crowd of faces to a spiritual place that brought the flickering of a new divine light to their hearts. A new voice of divine authority. The beatitudes, and, the behaviors that compromise a life. Murder, adultery, divorce, revenge, fasting, judging, and how to build a relationship with him.

What was the leper’s life? Leviticus chapter 13 and 14 tell us about the depth and breadth of leprosy. This was a dreaded disease that the Israelites feared. Being “unclean” meant that a leper was separated from their family, their community and a God who dwelled among them in a sacred tent. His people needed to attend to being clean physically as symbolic of being spiritually acceptable. Because God is holy. While trekking through Leviticus is not the easiest reading, God is clear about what must be done to have a relationship with him. Because he is holy.

The Jewish law required that a priest designate the person as “clean” to re-enter the community. It was a complex process. Physical exam. Symbolic ritual. With blood. With oil. This ritual was a public testimony that you had been cleansed.

This encounter between Jesus and a leper brings us face to face with our own spiritual skin. Through the festering skin of a cast out, we learn how we approach Jesus with an appeal, how we navigate when Jesus heals a part of us and how to manage his touch on our lives. The way we do this has everything to do with how we lay down our witness to others.

I’m Kathryn Bise, your host.

Lay Down Your Spirit

Matthew 8:1-2

Jesus Heals a Man With Leprosy

8 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.”

When we ask our Savior to lay his hand on our wound, we should come before him knowing the power is his to respond. This man was convicted about the power of Jesus. And his sovereignty.

Ask From a Convicted Heart

The leper’s skin was scabbed over with conviction over conviction. We do not know why he had leprosy, the circumstances, the contraction of it, the connection to his suffering. Yet he was ostracized by the Jewish law, and shunned from all human connection.

Here’s what I can’t get out of my mind. That the leper approached Jesus knowing in his heart the power Jesus had, and that Jesus was Master of it. This was the moment he connected his faith to the Master. This was the moment he laid down his spirit in humility by asking the right question.

The leper said, “If you are willing…” This tells me that the leper recognizes that Jesus knows his heart, that he will see past the festering, calloused, oozing skin, the cause of it, and release his divine power to take the unclean state away. Physical relief, social re-connection, spiritual redemption.

When we ask from a convicted heart, conviction brings us to kneel before Jesus, with an open and honest perspective of our open wound.

The Greek word for to kneel is proskynéō, pros-koo-neh’-o, by Strong’s definition, to prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore):—worship.

Conviction opens up the wound so Jesus can attend to it. Holy Spirit convicts us about what lies beneath the surface.

When the leper kneeled and said “If you are willing…” he did not say “If you have the power” – he was convicted that Jesus had the power. It is in this moment, when we ask the right question, that our faith lives through the faithfulness of Jesus.

Because Jesus responded like this:

3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.

This is the stuff our Savior is made of. That when he touched the leper he delivered his own free will to the healing. When he touched the leper he reached deep into the leper’s heart to coax his spirit.

Steward the Savior’s Touch

Jesus told the cured leper this:

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.”

While Jesus was bearing witness to his timeless Heavenly Father he was reinforcing the leper’s connection to his Jewish faith and community, and, he was protecting his purpose on earth, that it roll out toward the moment when he chose to lay down His Spirit, and the curtain tore in half. About 3:00 pm on Good Friday. Mark 15: 38-40

Jesus was documenting his sovereign power as God’s Son.

When we receive the Savior’s touch, his healing on some portion of our life, maybe a mental roadblock, a physical impairment, maybe a real life scare, perhaps a relationship, who do we seek out to bear witness to the Savior’s touch?

What needs to be restored in your life from this cleansing? And how do we protect the purpose of Jesus as the sovereign Son of God?

Let’s consider that Jesus had descended from the mountain, having just addressed the crowds with this:

Matthew 7:16-20

16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

So who do we seek out? Holy Spirit. To claim the healing and bear fruit from it.

How do we steward the Savior’s touch?

The healing that our Savior does within us must live amongst a crowd of unbelievers, within a community of lukewarm believers. And as praise within the circles of those who are overjoyed by your healing. We must document the healing.

This is a deep gift to give someone. We do not go to a priest. The approval comes from how the hand of Jesus has changed something in us. So much so that we can re-enter a conversation, a relationship, our work schedule, a spiritual habit. We must be open to our wounds, appeal to the free will of our Savior, and bear witness to his touch through our fruit. The lone leper could not contain his testimony.

When We See That Jesus Has Healed a Wound

The reported total of lepers Jesus healed during his time on earth was 11 men. It’s almost maddening to look at the approach and response of the 10 lepers in a group that Jesus met later in his ministry.

Luke 17:11-19

11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

Let’s consider this: that they stood at a distance, were not touched by Jesus but were cleansed, and only one came back to thank him, throwing himself at Jesus feet. A Samaritan. Someone outside the chosen nation.

This group of lepers asked for pity, contrasting the lone leper who asked if Jesus was willing in all his power. This is so sad to me. By definition pity is a top-down feeling of sorrow that disguises pride, that the giver thinks it below him to be in that situation. There’s disgust in the middle of all that.

Jesus doesn’t pity us. He came to walk with us. Pity is not compassion. Pity is not empathy. Pity does not participate. Pity stands aloof from all the noble reasons a divine God would act. Jesus did not save us out of pity. He saved us out of purpose, to reunite us with his Heavenly Father.

We should not ask Jesus to pity us. We should ask him if he is willing to tend to our wound.

Like the lone leper:

A healing happens when we repent.
A healing happens when our conviction fuels our ask.
A healing happens when we feel the Savior’s touch from deep within.

And we become the one of ten who turns toward the giver with gratitude because the giver was willing, human.

Today’s Motivation Travels Well

Let’s ponder, pray, and pursue his Word about today’s motivation.

1. Lay down your spirit
When we ask our Savior to lay his hand on our wound, we must recognize the sovereign nature of his power to respond.

2. Ask from a convicted heart
Conviction brings us to kneel before Jesus, with an open and honest perspective of our open wound.

3. Steward the Savior’s touch
The healing that our Savior does within us must live amongst a crowd of unbelievers, within a community of lukewarm believers. And as praise in the inner circles of those who are overjoyed by our healing.

God’s faith to your witness. Go find the one.