Daily Devotional

There is a lifetime of good news packed into this verse, and it begins with the order. Before Jesus heals the disease, he answers the doubt. The man asked, in effect, two things. Are you able, and are you willing. Jesus goes straight for the willing. I will, he says. Those may be the sweetest two words that man had ever heard. He said, if you will. Jesus answered, I will.

Then notice the hand. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. He did not need to. Later in this same chapter he heals a centurion’s servant from across town without a word of contact. So the touch is not a technique; it is a message. Under the law, when a clean person touched an unclean person, uncleanness won. Defilement always traveled downhill and overtook the clean. Everyone in that crowd braced for it as Jesus reached out. Commentators such as Morris and Doriani point to the shock of the moment. This is the reversal of Leviticus. The uncleanness did not travel up Jesus’ arm. His cleanness flowed down it.

And it was immediate. Not gradual, not after a course of treatment. The man who had not been touched in years felt a warm hand on his skin and, in the same instant, felt the disease drain out of his body. The real wound Jesus reached was deeper than the leprosy. Under the sores was a fear that he was not wanted. The first thing our King wants doubting, desperate sinners to know is not merely I am able. It is I am willing.