Jesus Wills It

“Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, 
touched him, and said to him, 
‘I do will it. Be made clean.’”

Mark 1:41

Have you ever experienced being denied something even though you know the person whom you approached could have easily granted it to you? Perhaps it was because they really did not want to grant it to you or maybe they knew they had authority and power over you and they wanted to make sure you knew that. Or, they genuinely considered it and discerned it was not what was best for you. This can be the same in our spiritual lives.

When a leper approached Jesus, he said to Him that if Jesus wills it, He could make him clean. The interesting thing is that the leper does not really ask Jesus to help him, but his nonverbals did. The leper knelt and begged. He risked being ridiculed to go among the people to reach Jesus. Most lepers were outcast and needed to stay away from people, but this one leper risked being punished or shunned even more just to approach Jesus because he knew He could do something that would change his life. Instead of asking, the leper made sort of a statement or confession of faith, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” The leper expressed his faith in Jesus and His power and authority. And Jesus did will it and He made the leper clean.

The Lord wishes to make us clean too, but do we believe that? Do we see the areas in our lives that need healing? What are the leprosies that eat away at us? Jesus wishes to shed light on those areas in our lives and bring healing, but we need to want it. In order to do that we need to have a relationship with Jesus. Only when we have a relationship with Him will we believe and know that He truly does will our healing and our good, and when our hearts know and believe that, like the leper, we can approach Jesus with all our problems and wounds without hesitation and trust that He will gaze upon us with love and compassion and say to us, “I do will it, be made clean.”

Click below to watch this week’s reflection.