When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus streched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 8:1-3
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” … Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” So he went and washed and came back seeing.”
John 9:1-7
Scripture gives us tender accounts of Jesus going directly to individuals who are in great need in order to heal them and feed them. Many were society’s outcasts, unclean with illness and disease. Jesus spends time with them and even touches them when no one else ever would. Jesus’ human interaction causes me to thank God for His unconditional love and mercy.
And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.
Matthew 8:14-15
In our society today, we have a class structure with the rich, the beautiful, and the brightest on top. Everyone wants to be with them or be like them. But all people are made in the image of God, and Jesus models His love for all of us in that while we were His enemies, sinning against Him and without regard for Him, He died for us (Romans 5:8). Jesus is a living witness of how to love everyone and refuse to back away from the sick or destitute among us.
I am in a group many people avoid because disability makes a person different or hard to understand. I cannot thank God enough that He understands me, and He chose me to be His child even though I have a disability. I continue to pray for healing, but God has done the greater work by healing my heart and saving me. God has given me a message of hope, and I pray people will see God’s peace that comes through having a personal friendship with Him. God rejects no one who seeks Him. Jesus promises, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).
Since Jesus shows unconditional compassion, we too can show similar love with the Holy Spirit’s help. Many people are hurting today, and often in these moments of greatest need, they are the most open to God and His help. I know in my life, weakness and disability have made me aware of my desperate need for a Savior every moment of every day. I believe God uses my disability to make me sensitive to others in need. My heart is eager to help because God is sustaining and helping me. I have the resources in Scripture, and a God who can do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or think.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
Jesus did not heal everyone while He was on earth. Those He did heal did not all submit to Him as Lord or believe He is God’s Son, the second member of the Trinity (Luke 17:11-19). This reveals man’s true nature. We eagerly accept God’s blessings, but if sacrifice is involved or our prayer is not answered the way we want it to be answered, we think God is unjust or unloving. How can we dismiss the greatest love ever shown to us? Christ died on the cross in our place for all of the evil that we have committed. He is without sin; sin is our greatest sickness. If we confess Him as Almighty God and the One who has all power to save us, the lost, we are healed. Christ is our healer, since He forgives the one who comes to Him in faith.
… [T]hat whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:15-16
Jesus’ death paid the price for sin. After His death and burial, on the third day, God raised Him from the dead, and for forty days He walked the earth, showing Himself to His disciples and the people of the area. This is also part of the Great News. Jesus conquered death, and if He is your Savior, you too will not stay dead in the grave. Like Jesus, who ascended to heaven after forty days of walking the Earth, your spirit will join all believers in the presence of God until the bodily resurrection, where we will be completely healed forever and remain in continual worship. What an incredible future to look forward to!
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:8-11
‘Man’, said a thoughtless, ungodly English traveller to a North American Indian convert, ‘Man, what is the reason that you make so much of Christ, and talk so much about him? What has this Christ done for you that you should make so much ado about him?’ The converted Indian did not answer him in words. He gathered together some dry leaves and moss and made a ring with them on the ground. He picked up a live worm and put it in the middle of the ring. He struck a light and set the moss and leaves on fire. The flame soon rose and the heat scorched the worm. It writhed in agony, and after trying in vain to escape on every side, curled itself up in the middle, as if about to die in despair. At that moment the Indian reached forth his hand, took up the worm gently and placed it on his bosom. ‘Stranger’, he said to the Englishman, ‘Do you see that worm? I was that perishing creature. I was dying in my sins, hopeless, helpless, and on the brink of eternal fire. It was Jesus Christ who put forth the arm of his power. It was Jesus Christ who delivered me with the hand of his grace, and plucked me from everlasting burnings. It was Jesus Christ who placed me, a poor sinful worm, near the heart of his love. Stranger, that is the reason why I talk of Jesus Christ and make much of him. I am not ashamed of it, because I love him.”
Holiness by J.C. Ryle (336-337)
Keys for the Kingdom 