He is both willing and able to heal

SCRIPTURE:

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Mark 1:40-42

OBSERVATION:

In this passage in Mark, we see probably the first encounter between Jesus and a leper. The desperate leper falls to his knees and begs Jesus “If you are willing, you can make him clean”. Interestingly, at this point, Mark records that Jesus was indignant or angry. Some translations have changed the wording from “indignant” to “compassionate”, which seems to fit more to the image of our Lord Jesus as our kind and compassionate Healer, which he is.

However, at various points in Scripture, we see that Jesus did get frustrated and angry with his disciples and also the crowd. Sometimes we forget that Jesus is fully human, with the same range of emotions and feelings that all of us have, although He never sinned. It is also interesting to point out here that anger itself is not sin for in Psalms, it is written, “in your anger, do not sin”. There is also righteous anger in zealousness for God’s honor like in the incidents where Phinehas of old killed out of zeal for the Lord and when the Lord Jesus cleared the temple from unscrupulous merchants who were exploiting the worshippers.

What then arose the Lord’s anger here? We get a clue from the leper’s words. He said “If you are willing….” Implying that Jesus might not be willing to heal him. Throughout His ministry, the Lord always healed those who came to Him. The only place he would not do many miracles was in his own hometown because of their lack of faith. On the other hand, Jesus was thrilled when Gentiles like the centurion showed great faith in him. When the father of a demon-possessed child came to Jesus, the Lord rebuked him for saying “If you can do anything?” Based on this, we get the impression that Jesus did not like “if you are willing”.

Hebrews 11:6, a really wonderful verse, states “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” There are two components here to faith. Firstly, we must believe God is, and secondly we must believe that God rewards those who come to him. The leper believed Jesus was able to heal, but was not sure if Jesus would heal him, which misses out on the second component. That’s why Jesus was displeased. He wants to heal, and He wants us to believe that He wants to heal us.

What if a Christian was sick, but never got well and died. Was it because he did not have sufficient faith? We simply could not assume that. Each one of us has our set time of life determined by God on the face of the earth. In His wisdom, it is He who decides, and our part is to accept that. However, by and large, Jesus showed in the Gospels that He is both able and willing to heal, and that is why we need to come to Him believing completely that He is both able and willing to heal us. Our healing then becomes not a question of if but when as we continue believing in Jesus as our Healer. If it is our time to go home, then it is time, but as long we remain on the earth, we must believe in His healing for us.

A reminder here again on how to have faith? It has to be received. It comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and here is where we need to keep reading aloud Scriptures concerning healing, listening to teaching about healing, and spending time with people who believe in healing.

APPLICATION:

Believe that Jesus is both able and willing to heal us. Come to God, believing that He is and that He will reward us with healing. Saturate our minds and hearts with God’s Word on healing, knowing that as we hear His Rhema Word, we will receive more and more faith in His healing.

PRAYER:                                                                                                                                                                         

We praise You, Lord Jesus, for this great truth, that You are both able and willing to heal us today!  Let this truth always abide deeply in our hearts that we may look with deep trust at You believing that you reward us. Strengthen us, heal us, bless us we pray, that we may serve You more and more as You call us. May Your name be praised forever, Lord. In Jesus name, Amen.