In and Out

AIDS. It is a word that sends panic through those diagnosed with it. Not only do they need to deal with the disease, but they are ostracized by the rest of the world. No one wants to take a chance and get AIDS. No one wants to touch them anymore. I think that is similar to what the people who had leprosy felt like. Because once they had leprosy, they were not only fighting the disease, they also were separated from their families and friends and their lives would never be normal again.

“While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’” Luke 5:12-14

I can hardly imagine the thrill that coursed through the man’s body. After years of watching his body waste away and being ostracized by the community, he was healed. Just like that. No big ceremony, no crowd watching, just a simple, “I am willing. Be clean!” One of the characteristics of God is compassion. Jesus was filled with compassion on many occasions and reached out and touched and healed. Surely as we navigate this life, we all want healthy, strong bodies. And when we are sick, we pray for healing. And our God, full of compassion, often chooses to heal us.

But I can’t help but wonder if Jesus was thinking about the spiritual healing that each of the people were in need of as he healed their physical bodies. When we cry out to God for physical healing, I wonder if he is crying out to us, “If only you could take your eyes off of your body for a moment and look at the condition of your soul!” It is not that he doesn’t care about our physical well being, but that he knows there is so much more. This earthly body is a temporary vessel. Even the strongest of bodies eventually succumbs to death. Those that he healed would eventually die. But there is eternity with Jesus if we take time to notice our souls and nurture them. That is so much more important than the condition of our physical bodies.

Even though Jesus told the man, “Don’t tell anyone,” there were bound to be questions by the priests and by the family and neighbors when he returned. And who, just having been given back his life, could keep quiet!

“Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Luke 5:15-16 I wonder what Jesus was praying when he was in those lonely places. Was he battling the desire to be popular and well loved? He could go around saying, “Be healed,” and everyone would love him. They would follow him around like the pied piper. Or was he planning strategy with his Father – planning how to move them from understanding only their physical needs to also understanding their spiritual needs and be healed completely?

Jesus gave and gave and gave and gave some more. He healed, he taught, he cast out demons. I’m guessing that in those quiet alone times with his Father, he was getting loved on by God, being rejuvenated so he could go back out and give and give some more. Sometimes people in ministry (be it preaching or handing out food to the hungry) forget who their source is. They don’t take time to withdraw to a lonely place and pray to rejuvenate their spirits within them. They are busy doing good things and running on their own steam. And then they get burned out – completely. Our bodies are vessels – made to be used by God. But if we don’t let God pour himself into them, they will soon have nothing to pour out.

Oh God, I want to be filled by you so that there is always something there for those who come needing to be healed. Use this vessel – all that I am – to touch, to teach, and to heal.