We are told that large crowds followed Jesus after He came down from the mountain, no doubt awed by what they recognized as the great authority with which He spoke – authority that was so obviously superior to that of the scribes and religious leaders.
In contrast to the astonished crowds a solitary man came and bowed down before the Lord Jesus. He wasn’t just any kind of man, he was one plagued with leprosy, that highly contagious disease which rendered a person an outcast in society – shunned through fear of contagion by a mere touch.
I don’t know if he had heard any of Jesus’ teaching up on the mountain. He wouldn’t have been allowed to be in the middle of the crowd, but maybe he had been standing afar off and some of Jesus’ gracious words had drifted in his direction. Maybe he heard Him say, “Ask, and it will be given to you . . . for everyone who asks receives” (Matthew 7:7-8). Or maybe he heard this: “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (v.11).
Possibly he had just heard reports of Jesus’ miracles, but maybe he had witnessed firsthand the healing of others. We are not told any of these details, but what we see is a desperate man falling in absolute faith at the feet of Jesus, somehow recognizing that He had the power to do the one thing he thought he needed most – healing from his leprosy: “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean” (Matthew 8:2). Notice he didn’t say, “Lord, if You are able, make me clean.” There wasn’t a doubt in the leper’s mind about Jesus’ ability to heal him – he was just concerned that He might not be willing!
Mark tells us in his account of the same story that Jesus was “moved with compassion” when He heard these words (Mark 1:41). The pitiful condition of the man, coupled with his unwavering confidence, touched the One whose very purpose was to “heal the brokenhearted” (Luke 4:18). I can almost hear the Saviour say, as He reached out and touched the untouchable, “OF COURSE I am willing, be cleansed!” And the healing was immediate and total.
The man’s faith was indeed admirable; he believed the impossible could happen – an incurable illness could be eradicated. But his faith is not the most important aspect of this story. Many people today will say they have faith – faith in the universe, in their own “truth”, in the stars, in fate, in gods made of wood, stone, or iron. Some people have faith in their own abilities or intelligence, in the stock market, in possessions, in science. As has often been said, however, faith is only as good as its object. Those things just listed are all either liable to fail or incapable of acting on anyone’s behalf in the first place.
The most important point in this story is the Object of the leper’s faith. He could have had faith in literally anyone or anything else, believing that they or it could heal him of the disease that was ravishing his body. But that faith would have been worthless, and would have sent him back to whatever hovel he might have called home, bitterly disappointed, and in the same condition that he had probably been in for years. His faith had value because he chose to place it in the right Person, the One who was both able and willing to meet his need.
Many today just don’t know who to turn to. They don’t know who they can trust in a world of lies, deception and false hope. The Lord Jesus’ acts of physical healing were in part an evidence of His compassion and love for those whose bodies were sick, but more importantly they demonstrated His power to deal with the greatest need we all have, the need for spiritual healing.
In the story that follows that of the leper in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus healed a paralyzed man who was let down through the roof by four friends. This man’s need was as obvious as the leper’s - but rather than immediately heal the paralysis Jesus’ first words to him were, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.” In answer to the cries of “blasphemy!” from the religious leaders who knew only God could forgive sins, Jesus also healed the paralytic’s physical condition and explained that the physical healing was proof of the fact that He also had the authority to forgive sins.
For the one who falls at Jesus’ feet, recognizing that His death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection is sufficient to save them, He is both able and willing. The apostle Peter tells us that the Lord is “NOT willing that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). For believers who have already surrendered their lives and long to walk close to Him, He is able to “keep us from stumbling” and guarantees that He will present us “faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24).
With either new or renewed confidence, “let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16) and trust in the One who is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
