Jan. 12, 2010

Key Verse:

He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.

(Matthew 8:17)

Central Truth:

God accepts us and loves us even when we don't deserve it.


GOD'S HEALING TOUCH

Matthew 8 takes us on a journey where we truly see Jesus' miraculous powers. In this passage, Jesus is walking down from His Sermon on the Mount into the valley below and enters a crowd. A man who is a leper approaches Him. Leprosy is a severe skin disease which causes the nervous system to break down. People afflicted with the disease lose the ability to feel and touch. Sometimes their limbs may even fall off. In these times, a person with the disease would often become an outcast — even to their family — for fear the community would contract the disease.

The leper is so excited to see Jesus. He decides to ask Jesus to heal him. The leper dared not touch Jesus; so Jesus reaches out to Him. The leper is healed and free to rejoin society.

Wow! As I read this passage, I am humbled and amazed. Jesus, who is the cleanest and purest human, touches an unclean and diseased man. Don't you know the crowd was shocked! I can just see their faces and hear their rumblings. It makes me think of present day when we sometimes choose to judge others and their actions.

I believe that the healing of the leper is a story with a dual meaning. Yes, the miracle was healing a disease. However, the leper was also an outcast of society. Jesus heals the leper thus showing us a BEAUTIFUL picture of acceptance and love. Sin is also an incurable sickness — and we ALL have it. Only Jesus' healing touch can take away our sins. But we have to be humbled like the leper and ask Jesus for His help to be whole again. If we fail to ask Jesus for his help, we will not be free from sin, isolation, anxiety, and lack of peace. The healing that Jesus gives is quite the opposite. He offers us wholeness, acceptance, and peace.

Jesus' greatest commandment is to love one another. When we have experienced the healing touch of Jesus we want to share it with others. We should look for and even pray that God would bring people into our paths that need acceptance and love. We should point them to Jesus. Sometimes this may mean reaching out of our comfort zone. God welcomes EVERYONE into his Kingdom - even the leper, the adulterer, the thief, and, yes, the murderer. How many times do we shy away from social outcasts for fear of what others will think of us? It is not about us. It is about Jesus and His love.

In my own life I have experienced isolation, anxiety, and a feeling of being unworthy of God's love. There have been some really, really dark days. Because I felt so isolated, I prayed that God would give me Christian friends who I could be accountable to. I have been overwhelmed with the people that God has put into my life that have given me confidence and believed in me. Will you be that person for someone? Will you step out of your box and possibly change some one's life forever just by telling them about God's gift for their lives?