Willing - Able - Done.

Luke 5:12-28 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ¹³ And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him. ¹⁴ And He ordered him to tell no one, “But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” ¹⁵ But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses.¹⁶ But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

¹⁷ One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and fromJerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.¹⁸ And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. ¹⁹ But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. ²⁰ Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”²¹ The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” ²² But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” ²⁵ Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. ²⁶ They were all struck with astonishment and began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen remarkable things today.”

²⁷ After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” ²⁸ And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.

In today’s text we see three vital elements necessary for healing. First regarding the man with leprosy, the text says:  While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him.  Then it says:  One day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and fromJerusalem; and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing. And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.”   So, we see that the will of God is necessary for healing. We see that the power of God is needed and also that it is necessary that there be faith.

In looking more closely at these, in relationship to healing today, let’s begin first with the power of God. God is omnipotent. He is all powerful. We know that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth. (Matthew 28:18) We know that demons recognize Him and are subject to Him. (James 2:19) There should never be a question of whether God can do something. Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave after enough time had passed that those who were there expected that his body would have begun to decompose and stink. (John 11:39) Even more, in Matthew 17:20, Jesus says:  “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” In John 14:12-14, Jesus says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”    In giving us the Holy Spirit, we have the same power that was active, responding to the spoken word of God at creation, living inside of us. Nothing will be impossible if we have faith. It is not faith in ourselves or our abilities though. It is faith in Jesus. He says we will do the works He did because He is the one who will do it. So, God is all powerful and the all powerful God abides with us and in us. Regardless of the situation or circumstance, we don’t need a great big faith, we just need a small amount of faith in a great big God.

This then brings us to the third element in today’s text.  It says:  Behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” And He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”  Jesus taught us to pray: Your kingdom come, Your will be done.   It is important that we recognize that God is sovereign and so everything is according to and subject to His will. I think though, that at times we use the sovereign will of God as a way to hide our lack of faith. Rather than asking in Jesus name, believing He will do it, we almost apologetically say if it is Your will. Then if we do not receive what we asked for, we say that it must not be His will. I believe, as with the lepor, nearly every time, Jesus is willing. God’s will may not always line up with our way. In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says:  “My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”  Additionally, because God is eternal and not subject to finite time as we are, His will might not line up with our time. Again though it does not mean that God is not willing to do what we ask. Look again at the account of the paralized man:  Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.   Jesus says that it is just as easy to heal as it is to forgive. Healing and forgiveness are equal. Is it possible that there are times that when we don’t get what we ask, it is because we lack faith? It is not faith in God’s ability that we lack. We know He is omnipotent. What we really lack is the faith to believe that we are worthy of what we ask. Perhaps we don’t receive our healing because we don’t truly believe we are forgiven. We need to believe that Jesus died not only for the sins of the world, but that He died for each of us individually. We need to have faith to believe that if it were only we ourselves, individually, Jesus would have said to the Father: “I am willing.” Across time, two thousand years ago, Jesus said: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)  God is eternal. We need to believe not only that He can and that He will, but that He already has. On the cross, Jesus said: “It is finished.” (John 19:30)

All powerful Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit; I believe You can. I believe You are willing. In fact I believe that You already have done all that I need. On the cross You said: “It is finished.” By faith, I believe and receive Your will.   Amen.