16 January 2020 - i do will it

Today's Readings

(Audio)

“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

The LORD can heal us. He can heal our souls, our minds, and our bodies. We see so much of his ministry in the gospels is compromised of healing those who need it. We know that even in our own day miraculous healings still occur. Disease is banished without a trace. Depression is destroyed. Addiction is released. Yet even if we know and believe this, have we ourselves stopped asking or expecting healing in our own lives and the lives of those we know?

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”

Sometimes it requires patience to wait for the healing hand of God. But sometimes we get so comfortable waiting that we actually give up before the healing is received. And this is a problem because healing is not meant only for ourselves. We are made more whole for the sake of the Kingdom. It isn't simply so that we can brag about the supernatural power of God. It is rather so that we can take the place among God's people which he intends for us.

Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”

Our motives for desiring healing are purified by waiting in patience for Jesus to come and have pity on us. We must not be like the Hebrews who decide for themselves to bring the ark of God into battle. This is exactly the sort of battle that ends in defeat. It is the sort of request for healing that leaves us disappointed. Rather we must wait for Jesus. The healing is not something our wills can effect. When it comes it comes as mercy and not as our own triumph. Desperation drives us to drastic measures. But the only measure that matters is longing for Jesus and calling out to him. 

Just as the presence of the ark didn't prove God's power to the Philistines so too are any of the miracles of God in our day. They do often give reason to believe in God. But they will never be a bludgeon we can use in apologetics because they rely on the openness to mercy shown by the leper in order to be received.

The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.

We may imagine that we are still being patient when we have in fact surrendered hope. The LORD wants to reignite in our hearts the desire for his mercy and the belief that he wants to offer it to us. For this, let us pray: "Redeem us, Lord, because of your mercy."