Is Jesus Really Willing to Help You?

There is a difference between believing someone can help you and believing they want to. Most Christians, the speaker argues, are convinced God has the power to act but remain uncertain about his willingness. The whole weight of that doubt sits on one word: willing.

The Question Behind the Question

In Matthew 8, a man with leprosy approaches Jesus and says, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Notice what he does not say. He does not say "if you are able." He knows Jesus can heal him. The uncertainty is about reception.

The speaker points out what this man's life had taught him. Under Levitical law, someone with a defiling skin disease had to wear torn clothes, keep his hair unkempt, cover his face, and cry out "Unclean, unclean" whenever anyone came near. He had to live outside the camp, under a legally enforced exile. Doing that for years does not make you doubt God's power—the God who wrote that law is obviously powerful. It teaches you something else. You learn to watch people's faces. You learn how people avoid you. You learn to be the thing other people are protected from.

So when this man kneels before Jesus, his mouth, trained by years of practice to announce his own contamination, instead says: If you are willing. He is not confused about power. He is bracing for rejection.

The Hand Before the Cure