A Man With Leprosy
40A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
41Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" 42Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
43Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44"See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." 45Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
A man with leprosy came and begged on his knees to Jesus...He asked Jesus, if He was willing, You can make me clean...The man had faith in Jesus to heal him...It was important for the leprous man to have faith in Him to be healed...He also knew that if Jesus was not willing to heal him, that He had the right or choice not to heal him...Jesus healed all that came to Him, who had faith, and ask for His help...Yet, that was not the purpose for His earthly visit...His purpose was not to come and go into every town, and every village and heal all who were sick...He could have, but He didn't heal everyone in every town...For all those that did come and see Him in faith, He did heal them...However, many in the nation of Israel did not come and did not get healed...He is the greatest of all healers, but that was not His purpose then and not His purpose now...Many in Israel did not come and were not healed...And even though He is known as a Great Healer, that is not the only thing He wants us to know about Him...
Jesus gives the man with leprosy after healing him, a strange request...The leprous man was healed so quickly...How could he not be excited and want to talk about this strange Great Healer?...But Jesus tells the man not talk or tell of this healing to anyone...And not only did He give the man a warning about this, we are told Jesus sent him away with a strong warning...For some reason, Jesus did not want to be a popular healer...But He was...One might think that Jesus did not want to go into towns with large crowds awaiting, to see the next healing miracle...When we count all the miracles Jesus did, the large majority of His miracles are of the healing variety...Yet, He did not want us just to be focused on His divine healing powers, which He certainly has...Becoming famous, a celebrity, and popular does not interest Him...He is a humble man...But there is a paradox here...Men and women on earth, like celebrity...We like famous and popular people, watch and follow them...We tend to like people who do things really well...Jesus healed people as well as anyone could heal...This alone (His healing ability) would grow His popularity...It would be natural for the healed leprous man, want to say that the Greatest Healer had healed him of his disease...It would be natural for others, to want to see, listen, and hear about this real-reality story of this great healing...Also as part of the paradox, Jesus wants us to spread the Good News...How can the Good News be spread without telling others about Him?...
Jesus interests are not about fame and fortune...He knows the real treasures of His heart...His treasures are not fleeting...He knows what treasures are...Sometimes, we as man and woman forget the real treasures of the heart...It seems in our society we follow fads and material things...It appears if a poll were taken today, most of us if we had to give up one of the following two items, our Bible or our smartphone -that it would be a close call...Which is really the treasure?...Most of us did not even know what a smartphone was twenty years ago...
Jesus teaches us the eternities...He wants us to focus on His Father...He wants us everyday of our lives to be closer to God...Therefore, we have to read the Bible regularly to get closer to Him...There are many things that Jesus teaches...Some of His major teachings are to love God and love our neighbor...He also teaches us about suffering, forgiving, being humble, helping others, and not to be hypocrites...We should try each day to read about our Father and learn more about Him...We should each day try to grow in faith...These are some of the eternal things, He teaches...These are things that never grow old or out of style or out of fashion...They were here yesterday, and will be here tomorrow...Jesus wants us to have faith in Him...This is the Good News He wants us to spread...