He Will; Be Clean

I love the encounters that people have with Jesus.  He tells fishermen to throw their nets back out after a long day of fishing and they catch a record breaking amount of fish.  His point, however, is not fish but the success of following the Lord's Will in sharing your faith. 
They lower someone through a roof to get to Him.  They are amazed when He heals the paralyzed man but some are mad when He said He could forgive sin.  Christ's concern was the sin, not the physical.  I wonder how He would feel about our prayer meetings in the local church. 
A tax collector is saved and he gets so excited that he invites his lost friends to have a meal with Jesus.  Church folk didn't like it.  Why would Jesus hang out with such folk? He then replies that it's the sick that need a doctor, not the well.  He wants to lead people to everlasting life. 
That brings us to that leper that I am thinking about today.  Leprosy is a horrible disease, both physically and socially.  After reading Philip Yancey's book, The Gift of Pain, years ago, about Dr. Brand's work in a leper colony, I learned more about leprosy.  It is not near as contagious as people thought it was.   It is not the disease that causes you to lose body parts either.  It is the effect of losing sensation in your nerve endings and causing injuries that you are not aware of.  Those injuries and infections lead to the loss of parts.  However, as is well documented and overpreached, leprosy was such a social curse in Biblical days and before medicines were found to cure it that the people suffered in multiple ways.  This guy with leprosy comes to Jesus and says "If you are willing, you can make me clean."  Jesus simply says, "I will. Be clean." (Luke 5:13).  After Jesus' touch (a socially significant event) the man is clean.
But remember from our other stories: it was not the fish, not the healing nor the social status, that Jesus is concerned about. It is instead cleansing from the much more dreadful disease of sin. And I am firmly convinced that if one comes to Christ and sincerely asked Him to make her clean because she knows that He can, He will still respond,"I will. Be clean."  Because He can and because He will, I celebrate today the forgiveness that only comes through Christ.  It puts a skip in my step and I hope it helps you to have a great day.