Yes, He Wants You Whole

“And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.” (Lu 5:13 AV)

 

It is easy to forget that Jesus died to make us whole.  He wants us to be cured of our sin-sick souls more than we ever will.  This man with leprosy is a good picture of the will of God concerning those inflicted with their own wickedness.  No, it is not the will of God that we all live in perfect health until the day of our departing.  So, we cannot apply this verse and claim it to mean that if we are ever faced with a physical challenge, God wants to heal us.  This simply is not the case.  However, we can make the application spiritually.  This is a truth we know.  We simply forget, or fail to realize the true significance of this application.  God wants our spiritual health more than we will ever want it.  He wants us to be free from sin and the spiritual anguish that comes with our situation.  He does not want us to exist in misery.  He does not want is to live with a spirit of defeat.  Jesus came to heal sinners.  Not see them suffer.

With my wife’s recent stay at a local hospital for cancer surgery, we were so blessed to be served by a staff that went out of their way to meet every need we had.  Even the custodial staff treated my wife as though they were there to serve her every need.  Most custodial staff are impersonal and want to get in and out with little interaction with anyone.  Having worked that kind of job for a number of years, I understand.  Those serving as custodians are humble people who feel as though they should exist and work in the background.  We are the meanest of all workers and are not able to converse intelligently or profitably with those whom we serve.  We are servants of servants.  However, I was really taken by the personalness of the custodial staff at our hospital.  We had a time!  We had a hoot!  They took the time to talk with you as they cleaned.  This excellent service didn’t stop with the custodial staff.  The hospital she stayed at was a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Wisconsin.  I was not there for the majority of those visits but I was there for a few.  Each time they came to check on her, it wasn’t a merely clinical visit.  They didn’t treat her as a health puzzle to solve.  They didn’t see her as a mass of cells or tissue from which they could learn.  They treated her like a person.  If there was a request for more or different medicine, the nurses took their time to explain the doctor’s decision on the type of medicine and dosage.  In short, we felt as though they cared about the whole person and wanted them to leave the hospital in the best possible condition both physically and mentally.  My wife was not a source of income.  She was not a customer.  She was a person.

Because we cannot see God by sight, we tend to forget just how much He loves and cares for us.  As a parent, we want our children to do well, and hate it when they suffer from their own choices, or life itself.  We ache when they ache.  Sometimes, we can do nothing about it.  Other times, we intercede.  We try to give them the best life possible with the least amount of necessary discomfort.  God is not different.  Jesus died because we have suffered since the world began.  We suffer because of our own choices.  We suffer because of the choices of others.  We suffer because the sentence of death is upon us.  As a parent’s heart would ache because of the suffering of his or her child, God does so much the more.  Jesus does desire to make us whole.  This is why He left the glories of heaven and gave His life.  He did so to end human suffering.  Jesus died so that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  So, when the leper asked if Jesus was willing to make him clean, the answer was obvious.  The Father may not promise you an end to all physical suffering.  This is part of the human experience and cannot be avoided.  What He will promise is an inward life full of suffering if we will only yield to Him and trust in Him.  Absolutely, He wants to make you whole.  That is for what He died.