Today's passage is Luke 5:12-26. Jesus heals a man with leprosy as well as many other people. He often goes away to be alone. .He heals a paralyzed man whose friends break the roof of the house Jesus is in and lower him to Jesus. Jesus heals him by saying his sins are forgiven which gets him in trouble with the Pharisees who are there.
Why does Jesus pray alone so much? Do the friends of the paralyzed man repair the roof they broke?
In today's passage we see two examples of faith, the man with leprosy and the paralytic and his friends.
The paralytic and his friends let nothing obstruct them from standing before Jesus with their request. Nothing mattered except getting to Jesus. That's why Jesus called the man "Friend" (20).
#65279;
The man with leprosy knows that Jesus can heal him but he's not sure that he will. That's why he says, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.
" The man knows he can't do the job himself, believes that Jesus can, but is not sure of Jesus' willingness.
The man's faith is perhaps very humble or perhaps is faith is compromised because he sees beyond himself to a greater context.
He understands that it may not be possible for him to be made clean of his skin diseaase and rejoin his community at this time.
There may yet be something he needs to understand about his spiritual state and relationship with God before he experiences a healing.
#65279;
I am like the man with leprosy, not the paralytic and his friends, whose extraordinary optimism I don't often have.
"If we can just make it to Jesus," they seem to say, "then all will be well.
We can fix a roof any time, but this may be our only chance to meet Jesus." I don't have that singleminded focus.
#65279;
When my life collapsed, all I saw was desolation.
Spring flowers didn't fill me with joy.
I thought how quickly they would die.
I sneered at people dressed nicely and walking purposely to work or to meet someone because they didn't see that the street bums, the failed people, the derelicts and the dying were the truth of life.
Every day I went to worship and prayed, "If you are willing, Lord."
Then I didn't go to worship, but I still prayed that prayer. "Lord, if you are willing."
#65279;
I knew God could heal me and my situation because he was God.
What I wanted was the end of my pain, my suffering, my unhappiness.
I wanted the fantasy life that advertiizers told me I should have from every magazine, every poster, every TV commercial.
I had no job, no communtiy, no hope. God did just not seem interested in my plight. I believed he was not willing.
#65279;
What took me five years to even begin to understand was that I, not God, was the one who was not willing.
God couldn't clean me until I saw and admitted that I was unclean.
I needed to see the sins that sullied me.
When I finally started going to Jesus to be cleaned of my sins, then he said, "I am willing" and my life began to change.
I'm still going to Jesus to be cleaned because that's what's important.
#65279;
Application: to keep praying to see my sins so I can ask for cleansing through confession and repentance.
#65279;
Lord, continue to inspire me with your Spirit to see my sins and seek your cleansing.
