The God who meets me where I am

From Today's Reading:

A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." 3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.  Matthew 8:2-3 

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering." 7 Jesus said to him, "I will go and heal him." 8 The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. Matthew 8:5-8

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." Matthew 8:17 (New International Version)

When the leper and the centurion called out on Jesus they had real obstacles that stood in the way of receiving what they needed from Jesus.  And they really were desperate.  Leprosy was a death sentence. Paralysis is a horrible condition today, how much more in that day where there was no medical services to help this poor man.

Coming to Jesus was the only hope for these people but seemly impossible circumstances stood in the way.  Jesus was always touching the sick and healing them, but nobody would want to touch a leper.  That act was both repulsive and against Jewish law.  It would render Jesus unclean. So the leper’s question was not “can you make me clean”, but “will you”?  Jesus instant response was “I am willing”!

The centurion faced the hard fact that he was an outsider.  He was a soldier, a leader in Rome’s occupation force.  Jesus was a man of peace. Entering a gentile home would defile Jesus and subject him to criticism from the Jews.  But, Jesus’ unqualified response was “I’ll go to your home and heal him”.  We focus on the centurion’s response which is a great lesson in faith.  But I want to think about our savior and the lengths He will go to reach me.

No matter how repulsive my condition, no matter what roadblocks may exist, Jesus pushes them aside to reach us.  His focus is on our needs; our need for salvations, for healing, for encouragement, for strength.

Matthew sums it up with his quote from Isaiah: "He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases." Taking them up means Jesus gets personally involved.  It does not say He simply sweeps away our problems.  It says he takes them up and carries them.   His sympathy and empathy is so intense that He chooses to step under the load with us and participate in our weakness and pain.  He touches the outcast, the lowly.  He’s placed himself in the place where He will get soiled scooping me up. He will go where the need is, no matter who it is and where they are.

That’s the savior we have!