Willing - Able - Done

Matthew 8:1-17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

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.”

⁵ And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, ⁶ and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” ⁷ Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸ But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.⁹ For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” ¹⁰ Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. ¹¹ I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; ¹² but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³ And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment.

¹⁴ When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever. ¹⁵ He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him. ¹⁶ When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. ¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”

In today’s text we see three different and important aspects or factors in or of the healing power of Christ. First:  A leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”  Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.   1 John 5:14-15 says:  This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.   Concerning the crucifixion, Jesus Himself prayed to the Father: "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." (Luke 22:42) He taught us to pray:  Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)  We need to pray in alignment with the will of God. This is not a cop out. It is not an excuse. We don’t ask God for something with the idea that it is not His will to answer. We do though need to know God’s word so that we know His will. We need to know what He said so that we can know what He wants to do. Later in today’s text it says:   When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”    In the beginning, when God created man, in Genesis 1:26-28 He said:   “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”   God’s will is that we would be like Him. Anything less than the perfection He intended for us is outside of His will.

Second we see in today’s text:  When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him,  and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.”  Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”    Will Jesus find faith like that of the centurion in us?   Do we know, believe and trust the authority of Christ?   Romans 14:11 says:  For it is written, "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD."   Philippians 2:10-11 says:  At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  In Matthew 28:18 Jesus Himself says:  “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”   All authority has been given to Jesus. Every knee shall bow, those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth. The spirits of sickness, infirmity and even death are subject to the authority of Christ. Do we know and believe in the authority of Jesus? In John 14:13-14 Jesus says:  “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”   Do we believe, like the centurion, that Jesus both can and will do miraculous things that we ask? He did not find that kind of faith in Israel. Will He find it in us? 

Third, and finally in today’s text it says:  When Jesus came into Peter’s home, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick in bed with a fever.  He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him. When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.”     Here we see that Jesus not only is willing to heal and He also has the authority to heal, but even before Jesus came to earth to live as a man and die for our sins, God spoke through Isaiah, in Isaiah 53:3-6 He says:  He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.   Even before Jesus was born, God revealed what He would do. The verse says: by His stripes we are healed.   It is more than that He is willing to heal. It is more than that He has the authority to heal. Even before He was here, it was determined that by His stripes we are healed. It was is and always will be, past, present and future.  On the cross, In John 19:30, Jesus said:  “It is finished!”  All that Isaiah spoke, all that Jesus came to do is already fully accomplished. He is willing. He is able, He has the authority. He has already accomplished it. We are healed by Him. 

What we need then is not that Jesus would do something more for us or for those we pray for. What we need is to see the circumstances and situations of earth come into alignment with the realities of heaven. We need to see the manifestation of Jesus will, His authority and what He has already done. Amen.

Lord Jesus, You taught us to pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.
Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.   May the circumstances of our lives come into alignment with Your will, Your authority and what You have already done. Amen.