12 One day in one of the villages there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus he fell down before him in prayer and said, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”
13 Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there his skin was smooth, the leprosy gone.
14-16 Jesus instructed him, “Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed self to the priest, along with the offering ordered by Moses. Your cleansed and obedient life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done.” But the man couldn’t keep it to himself, and the word got out. Soon a large crowd of people had gathered to listen and be healed of their ailments. As often as possible Jesus withdrew to out-of-the-way places for prayer.
17 One day as he was teaching, Pharisees and religion teachers were sitting around. They had come from nearly every village in Galilee and Judea, even as far away as Jerusalem, to be there. The healing power of God was on him.
Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit, and Luke states that the healing power of God was on Jesus. Jesus is able to heal all our diseases, outer and inner. Jesus is God. Jesus came to seek the lost and heal the patients, spiritually sick and also physically sick at His time of ministry. On the other hand, Jesus is also compassionate on people in need. The man covered with leprosy knew that Jesus was able to heal but he was not quite sure if Jesus was willing to heal. This man uttered a prayer of request to Jesus, "If you want to, you can cleanse me." This man begged for Jesus' healing of his life - leprosy is incurable to him. Without Jesus' healing, he would remain a leper for all his life's time. His earnest prayer touched Jesus' heart and Jesus in turn put out his hand and touched this leper, saying, "I want to, be clean" - I really want to cleanse you, delivering you from this illness and bondage; I really want to give you a new life, having freedom from all kinds of slavery and living out a cleansed and obedient life to God; I really want to.....
My Lord Jesus, You are not only a mighty God but You are also the most compassionate One on earth. You want to cleanse me; You want to heal all my illnesses (spiritually or even physically though you may have your own way of working in me); You want to liberate me to live out a cleanse and an obedient life to you. You want to and You even stretch your hand to touch me - to show Your love; to show Your power of healing; to show Your affirmation, etc. My Jesus, let me experience Your touching in me today. May I experience Your words of affirmation - "I want to, be clean" and Your touching hands in cleansing and deliverance.
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