"A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.' Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. 'I am willing," he said. "Be clean!' Immediately he was cured of his leprosy."
I'm reminded of another story -the one where the lame man lay beside the pool waiting for someone to help into the healing waters. Jesus asked that man, "Do you want to be well?" These are two sides of the equation of spiritual healing. One the one side we must actually desire to be made whole and clean. On the other side, our desires must align with the Lord's desires as to how and when.
The man by the pool could not walk; the man in this story had leprosy. Our issues may be different than either of these. But in a sense, they are the same. When this man asks Jesus to make him clean, it means more than just physical healing. According to Mosaic law, leprosy made a person ceremonially unclean, meaning that they could not participate in the required rituals and ceremonies at the temple. Because they could not participate, their sins could not be forgiven and they could not be right with either God or other people -that was the Old Covenant. This man is not only asking to be healed (although he is asking for that), he is also, and maybe more importantly, asking to be restored and made acceptable to God. This is the same need that each of us has.
To put this in a context for us today, I believe that God moves to bring us into right relationship Himself and others through the blood of Jesus when our motives for being made right and clean and whole align with His motives and desires. When in the deepest regions of our hearts we are longing for what God desires, we are made clean and whole. This is not a result of repeating a prayer after a preacher (although that sometimes is a catalyst), and God cannot be manipulated or conned. When our hearts are in alignment with God's heart, however, we are restored.
"Clean before my Lord I stand, and in me not one blemish does He see;
When I gave all my burdens to Him, He washed them all from me."
(Nancy Henigbaum)
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