If You are Willing

By Charles Mills

Charles Mills is the author of more than 50 published books and over 300 articles. Mills began his career at Faith for Today and the Adventist Media Center in Newbury Park, California. For the past 35 years, he has been an independent media producer, writer, and radio/television host. Leprosy. While it’s rare today, there was a time when it was one of the most feared diseases in the world. Those so afflicted were considered outcasts, undesirables, and dangerous. They were forced to live a life of isolation and abandonment.

Consider this description: Signs of leprosy are painless ulcers, skin lesions of hypopigmented macules (flat, pale areas of skin), and eye damage (dryness, reduced blinking). Later, large ulcerations, loss of digits, skin nodules, and facial disfigurement may develop. The infection spreads from person to person by nasal secretions or droplets (medicinenet.com).

If there was ever a reason to shun an individual—to keep your distance, to drive a person into seclusion—this would seem to be it. Yet, someone suffering from leprosy approached Jesus in a small town near the shores of Galilee. This man wasn’t at the beginning stages of his disease. He was covered with it.

“When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean’” (Luke 5:12, NIV).

“If you are willing.” There was no question of ability. He wasn’t saying, “If you are able.” The leper knew of Christ’s power to heal. He’d overheard stories about Him. He had confidence that this man—this stranger, this traveling teacher—could rid him of his deadly curse.

“Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man” (verse 13). Jesus touched him. You didn’t touch lepers. You didn’t even come close to them. Why? Because the disease could pass from them to you. Everyone believed it was highly contagious. To touch a leper was

to put yourself in danger. But Jesus reached out His hand and did the unthinkable.

Then, His gentle touch was followed by an announcement that changed that man’s life. “‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him” (verse 13).

Willing to do the work

The destructive pattern of social injustice can be broken. However, it takes individuals who are willing to do the work. Like Jesus, you and I have resources available to us to accomplish amazing things in the name of love.

I’m reminded of the many Adventist medical clinics I’ve visited. Some were in jungle clearings, some tucked away in small towns, others housed in grand hospitals. I was born in a missionary medical facility on a windswept hill outside of the city of Seoul, Korea. I lived next door to the Manila Sanitarium and Hospital in the Philippines and spent a year living on the second floor of a one-doctor clinic while serving as a student missionary in Kobe, Japan. Patients who came to these wonderful establishments had faith in the medical staff. Their question wasn’t “Can you help me?” It was, “Are you willing to help me?”

Today, you and I face a world filled with sick Today, you and I face a world filled with sick people. Some are victims of their own choices. But many— possibly most—are victims of something just as damaging.

people. Some are victims of their own choices. But many—possibly most—are victims of something just as damaging. Their mental and physical conditions are often the result of overt or hidden racism, discrimination, and social injustice. The blessings so many of us enjoy are withheld from them. They’re considered outcasts, undesirables, or even dangerous. They’ve been abandoned and scorned by society.

Then they come to us, not asking, “Can you help me?” No. Their question is, “Are you willing to help me?” We’re able. They know that. We have the resources, skills, knowledge, and tools they desperately need.

How we answer their plea is a clear demonstration of how eager we are to reflect the God we worship. Are we willing to reach out and touch them?