Matthew 8-4: 1When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. 2And a leper came to Him and bowed down before Him, and said, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” 3Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4And 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.”
He told me not to say anything, but of course everyone who knew me "before" knew, and I told everyone. I couldn't help it. I gradually came to understand why He had said, "Don't tell anyone."
A while later, He returned to my town, and I decided to follow Him. I was too late to be one of His 12, or of His 72, but I followed Him until they murdered Him, and then I followed Him after He rose. As I followed and listened to His teaching, I found that miracles of healing and understanding are one. In other words, there was a reason Jesus could heal me, besides the fact that He was God's own Son (I'm telling you this as a Jewish man, which means I believe He's equal with God, like John says in His teaching).
The reason is that Jesus represented ME. He actually took my sicknesses on Himself...
“HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.”
“HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.”
That's what Isaiah said about Him.
When He did that (I thought about this later), He should have gotten all the sicknesses He cured (there were thousands besides me), but He didn't. Then I realized, as I thought about this, that sickness was part of the evil He came to cure--sin, death, sickness,Satan, the whole thing. He came to "fix things completely," and what I had received was a foretaste of everything that will eventually happen to the folks who believe in Him. No more death. No more sickness. No more suffering. No poverty. No starvation. No hatred. No anger. No evil of any kind. When He touched me, I was healed, but He did not get sick. But He did die, and took all my sickness and weakness to the grave with Him. And I was well. Then He rose, and left it all there--for everyone, and when He rose, He broke the back of evil in this world. You may think, "There's still evil," but there someday won't be, because of Him. Because of Him, all things will be "made new," and no bad thing will survive. And for those of you who think evil is "interesting," I point to my leprosy. Is that interesting? Good? To have sick people lying in your streets and homes? Are funerals "interesting?" How about mass murder? or earthquakes? or volcanoes? If you think those are interesting, it's because you haven't had any of them happen to YOU.
Jesus came to make things right, and for me, that started with me. He made me right. First in my body. Then in my soul. And someday, forever.
It all happened because of a touch. I don't know why so many people resist His touch, but take it from me, you shouldn't.
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