Willing And Able

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever”

Hebrews 13:8


Have you ever thought if compassion clothed itself in a human body and walked the earth, what would it look like? The good news is we don’t have to guess. Jesus Christ is love clothed in humanity. If you could peel back the flesh on Jesus you would find love. Isn’t that what the Cross exposes? Beaten beyond recognition, his body ripped open from the scourging, those witnessing the brutal crucifixion saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears what love looks and sounds like. The first words out of Jesus mouth from the Cross were, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."  And the good news for you and me today! Jesus Christ is still the same yesterday, today and forever, He is love! 

Just like you and I, Jesus actions are the deepest and truest reflection of who He is. To say Jesus is compassionate is made known in that when confronted with the sin of this world Jesus moved closer to it not further away from it. When you consider the Levitical law in the Old Testament, clean and unclean more often than not was addressing a persons moral purity not their physical hygiene. The solution offered was a sacrifice not a bath as the problem was not dirt but rather guilt. Just like we seek to avoid touching things that can get us dirty when we are cleaned up, the Bible makes clear that moral impurity is contagious too and yet Jesus never moved away or sought to avoid the unclean. He actually drew closer and came near. This is love.

During His earthly ministry when Jesus (who was clean) touched an unclean sinner Jesus didn’t become unclean but rather the sinner became clean. I like what Jurgen Moltmann writes regarding miracles, “miracles are not an interruption of the natural order but the restoration of the natural order. We are so use to a fallen world that sickness, disease, pain and death seem natural when in fact they are the interruption.”

Because Jesus is love He went from town to town and place to place rehumanizing the dehumanized and cleansing the unclean. Its safe to say He couldn’t help Himself as He went about fulfilling Psalm 61:18-19, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.” When Jesus saw people in pain He was moved to help. It just is who He is.  

Jesus had compassion because at the core of His being He is compassionate, it just is who He is. When the leper came to Jesus saying “Lord if you are willing make me clean,” Jesus didn’t hesitate, He immediately stretched out His hand and touched him saying, “I am willing” and “be healed”. The thing you want to see and take with you today is this, “The word “will” in both the leper’s request of Jesus and in Jesus’s response to the leper is the Greek word for “desire or wish”. In other words, the leper was asking Jesus what His deepest desire was. And Jesus responded to the leper saying that His deepest desire was to heal him.

What was true then is still true today. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and because of that you can rest assured today, Jesus wants to heal you too. It’s His heart that is reflected in His actions and why He went from town to town moved by compassion. As well, it’s why He left heaven and came to earth. He did it for me, He did it for you! Do you need a touch from Jesus today? Ask Him, He is willing and able! 

“Jesus, the friend of sinners”

Luke 7:34


I LOVE YOU!




Michael Osthimer

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