Matthew 8:1-4
1 When Jesus came down from the
mountain, large crowds followed Him. 2 And
a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are
willing, You can make me clean.” 3 Jesus
stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And
Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the
priest and present the offering that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
There are times we enjoy so much that we wish they would
never come to an end. I would imagine
that Jesus thoroughly enjoyed teaching and that the people were enjoying
listening. Following the Sermon on the
Mount Jesus came down from the mountain with large crowds following Him. As wonderful as it might have been to just
stay on the mountain and teach the people; Jesus knew that it was necessary for
Him to come down and continue spreading the Gospel. The ministry is always about people. There were many people listening to Jesus,
but He was passionate about spreading the Gospel to different people. He moved from place to place in order to be
able to spread His message to others. It
is easy for us to get comfortable in our routine and with the people that are
surrounding us. New people and different
surroundings always take adjustment and cause a certain level of
discomfort. God often calls us to leave
our comfort zone as we serve Him.
A CONFIDENT REQUEST: As Jesus is coming down the mountain a leper
bows down before Him and makes an amazing statement: “Lord, if You are willing,
You can make me clean.” We don’t know
how this man heard about Jesus. What we
do know is that he recognized Jesus as Lord, humbled himself before Jesus by
bowing down and had complete confidence in the power of Jesus. This leper was courageous and confident. His sickness would have left him ostracized
in the society. He must have been
desperate to be cured. He knew he had a
great need and He brought that need to Jesus.
Too often our pride or timidity keep us from having this kind of
boldness in prayer. Jesus had just
finished teaching His disciples about prayer and now we see a great example of
how prayer should work in our lives. We
must recognize our need, believe in the power of God, worship before Him and
simply ask Him to do what we desire in submission to His will. We do not come to Jesus making demands but
humbly requesting Him to work in accordance with His will. Pride and timidity are the enemies of prayer.
A COMPASSIONATE RESPONSE: Jesus was moved by the faith of
this leper and healed him. He simply
said that He was willing to heal him and by His words the man was made
clean. The most persistent diseases and
even death are all under the authority of Jesus. There is nothing that is beyond His ability
to solve. It is not always His will to
cure every illness but He is always able to do so. After the leper was healed Jesus told him to
go show the priest so he could be declared clean according to the Law and to be
quite about how he had been healed.
Jesus wanted to make sure the law was fulfilled but He also wanted to
avoid a massive number of people that might come simply wanting to see
miracles. Physical healing was a part of
what Jesus did but His main focus was the truth of the Gospel that would bring spiritual
healing to the hearts of men. Jesus has compassion
of the needs of men but He also knows that our main need is not physical, but
spiritual.
APPLICATION: Take our requests to the Lord is courage and
confidence. Don’t make demands of the
Lord in prayer but humbly ask Him to accomplish His will in our lives. Be more concerned about our spiritual state
than our physical well-being.
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