#DailyDevotion Jesus Is Willing To Heal Us
Matthew 8:1–4
He went down the hill, and large crowds followed Him. 2There was a leper, who went to Him and bowed down to the ground before Him. “Lord, if you want to,” he said, “You can make me clean.” 3Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him. “I want to,” He said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was clean. 4“Be careful not to tell anyone,” Jesus said to him, “but go, let the priest examine you, and offer the sacrifice Moses ordered, to show them you’re well.”
What hill and where did the crowds come from? Jesus had just finished his Sermon on the Mount, so it is that mount he is descending from and it is the crowd who was listening to him that followed. Jesus’ coming down the mount after teaching the crowd is as if the LORD (because Jesus is the LORD) came into the camp of the Israelites in bodily form after having spoke to them the words of the covenant. But that is exactly what the LORD Jesus Christ does.
One of the amazing things he does almost immediately is heal a leper who falls down before him seeking healing. For one thing, this leper breaks all the rules by going through a crowd with leprosy. It’s like knowing you have Covid and standing and going to a Black Friday sale at Walmart. Everyone who was near this guy became at least ritually unclean for a period of time. The faith of the leper in Jesus is pretty amazing with these words, “Lord, if you want to You can make me clean.” There is no doubt in the mind of this leper Jesus has the power and authority to heal him.
Now Jesus does an amazing thing. Besides affirming he wants to heal the guy he reaches out and touches the guy. Well in touching the leper Jesus would become ritually unclean. In doing this Jesus fulfilled what was written by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53, “4Surely He has taken on Himself our suffering and carried our sorrows,…” I guess it is interesting the Gospel writers quote this as, “He took away our sicknesses and carried our diseases.” Were they doing an interpretation of the prophet or were they using a variant version of the Hebrew and Greek. Being inspired by the Holy Spirit, they are nevertheless correct. Jesus here is taking the uncleanness of the man’s leprosy and his leprosy into himself. Normally Jesus would be unclean for touching a leper but his life overcomes the leprosy. Being healed the man no longer was a leper. No disease, no foul.
But it was not without cost to Jesus, even if he would no longer be considered unclean because the leper was no longer a leper. Peter writes us in 1 Peter 2, “24He carried our sins in His body to the cross so that we’ll die to sin and live for righteousness. His wounds have healed you.” Now some may try to say this only deals with forgiving sins. However, all our illnesses come from being sinful. Just as we are forgiven of our sins but can’t see it. We can only believe it. We will see it at the resurrection. In similar fashion, we don’t always see the healing our LORD Jesus Christ provides. We must wait for the resurrection of our bodies. Just as sure as the leper was healed and proved it by going to the priests, we too are truly healed of all our infirmities in Jesus Christ and will show ourselves as such before God our Father.
Heavenly Father, grant us faith in Christ so that we may be healed not only of our sinfulness but also of all our diseases when you return in glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.