We come into contact with the first detailed accounts of Jesus healing three different people.
We have already received the report that Jesus has the power to heal. In Matthew 4:23-25 we read that he healed every disease and every sickness.
Today, we get a firsthand, up close and personal, account.
Before we dig into the text, I want to ask you to ponder what you might think is the greatest healing Jesus has ever done? What might you think it is?
Hold that thought and let’s take a quick peak at the text.
In the first healing, I notice the man with leprosy worshiping Jesus. Did you catch that bit? Jesus touching the man is certainly stunning.
In the second healing you cannot miss the centurion’s faith. Nor can we miss Jesus healing across a great distance. Yet the interaction between the two is quite personal.
Before we look at the third, people often say we must have faith that Jesus can heal, beforewe can be healed. That however makes Jesus’ power conditional on our faith. That cannot be, nor does it match the next healing.
Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law as she lay ill. She neither addresses Jesus, nor does she appear awake. Yet he holds her hand.
What is clear in each case is Jesus’ close contact with each person: with the man with leprosy, the centurion, and Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus is not some distance, far away God. Jesus touches our lives. At times he touches those parts that need physical healing. At times he touches those parts that need emotional healing.
Which brings me round to the question I asked you to ponder? What do you think is the greatest healing? It is a request for healing that Jesus always answers with a “Yes!” It is the healing of our relationship with God.
And for Jesus it is up close and personal. Jesus has gone to the Cross that we may be healed.
When I first had someone point this out to me, it caught me off guard. How does the thought that the greatest healing, the healing of our brokenness with God, the healing Jesus always says “yes” to – is to make our relationship with God eternal – strike you?