As they went

 

Jesus heals.  He healed people when He walked this earth as a man and He is still healing people today through His power and Holy Spirit.

Even when He was among us, He didn't have to be present to heal someone.  There is the account of the canturion (if you are not familiar with this account, please read here).  And there is the account here in Luke 17:14, the verse I want to write about today.

Three words stuck out to me: as they went.  

Jesus could have easily touched the lepers and healed them right then and there.  But for whatever reason, He told them to go on.  He told them to go show themselves to the priests.  

Now why would they want to go show themselves with their leperous bodies to the priests?  Did they simply do as Jesus asked, knowing that He is Lord, and not think why they were doing so?  

Jesus didn't tell them that He would heal them on their way to the priests.  He simply told them to go.  Did they intuitively feel that they would be healed as they went?  Or did they simply walk on in faith?

Scripture doesn't tell us the inner thoughts of the lepers, only that they went as Jesus told them to go.

I can imagine that when they stood before the priests that they were as shocked as the priests were!  There they stood, once unclean and outcasts of socity, clean and whole.  Healed and well.  How could this be?!  

Then they laid it on them.  It was Jesus.  Jesus healed us on our way here to see you.

We don't know if the priests were converted by the witness of this miracle or went off in a huff in prideful jealousy of Jesus' tremendous healing powers.  

What we do learn is that Jesus heals when, how, and where He wills.  

Are you waiting for Jesus to heal you?  A loved one?  Have you been waiting a long time?  I have.

Jesus is not healing when, how, where, or the way I want Him to.  I am left stumped as to His delay in healing.  

But what I glean from this Scripture is this.  I need to be on my way!  I need to keep doing as Jesus tells me to do and perhaps, in the doing, the healing will come.  

We don't always sit passively waiting for a touch from God, even though He is more than able to heal in an instant.  

Maybe the lepers needed to increase their faith.  Maybe Jesus wanted them to know His healing power in unexpected ways, not as they had wanted or hoped (but they still got their healing).  

Maybe the Lord is increasing my faith as I wait for His healing in my life.  Maybe He will heal my loved on and myself in unexpected ways that I couldn't have imagined.  Since He is Lord, He chooses the when, how, where, and even the why.  I don't.  

There are wounds in life that a physician cannot heal.  There are emotional, mental, and even spiritual hurts that only Christ can heal and make whole.  

How He does it is entirely up to Him, I've learned.  Pleading, crying out, praying on my knees, even fasting - in my particular situation, none of these brought me the results I desired from Jesus.

How hard it has been!  My faith is strong enough to know that Jesus is able to heal in an instant - anything and anyone, anywhere.  Yet in this case, my faith is not moving the mountain that I see as stunting my life, joy, and happiness.  

Is the "mountain" that powerful?  Or is merely a molehill that I have made into a mountain in my thoughts?

They say that what we focus on becomes larger.  What if I were to simply walk on with Jesus, walk on with faith, walk on trusting that God knows best when, how, where, and, dare I say it, even if to heal?  Can I still walk with grace, my head held high, knowing and trusting that He really does know best?  Can I wrap my brain around a loving God letting someone needlessly suffer?  Can I still trust God in the pain and struggles of life?  

If we can't trust Him in the muck and mire, then I doubt we trust Him at all, really.  That is the power of faith - not just to "get us through" the hard times, but to build us up and strengthen us in the hard times.  To make us into overcomers!  To say, like Job, "Though He slay me, I will trust Him."  

These are very practical, everyday faith issues that we all face on some level.  

As they went.  As you go.  As I move forward.  The key is to keep pressing on!  I know how hard it is, friends.  But if we are truly warriors for Jesus, His soldiers fighting the good fight, then why do we want or even expect only "good times?"  

I could say that I didn't sign up for this when I came to Christ, surrendered my life to Him.  But this is exactly what we, albeit unknowingly, sign up for.  Tests, trials, faith-building dramas - this is what we can expect when we follow Christ.  

Is life one unending battle and trial?  It can seem like that!  But the Lord knows when to ease up.  I need a better perspective.  I need to remind myself that we are just passing through this short, breath of a life.  I need to remember that everything, all of it, that I endure in faith I will be rewarded for in eternity.  Big time.

Eyes on the prize, friends!  Let us trust Jesus as we go.  And they were healed as they went.

Oh Lord.  You see all and know all.  You never needlessly have us suffer.  In Your Kingdom, there is always a purpose for what You will, even when we can't understand all of Your ways.  Help us walk on in grace and faith trusting You more each day.  Help us focus on You, the good, in our lives and help us to overcome!  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.