«While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. 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.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.»
—Luke 5:12-13
I could literally preach practically the entire Gospel from just these two verses, because it looks SO clear, that it illustrates itself.
Jesus does accepts you, the real question is: Do you accept Him?
Jesus was always surrounded by many people, many of them considered scum by society. And this is just one more example of it.
Let's dive a little bit into the context of the verse:
Lepers were totally marginalized from society, separated and isolated from everyone. They lived outside the cities until they either died or were healed, no one touched them because they were considered unclean.
At that time, it was thought that their condition was because of their sins, that they were cursed and that God had turned his back on them. Even religious leaders treated and considered them that way.
I can imagine this poor man, in fear, approaching Jesus after having heard and seen everything He does and says; saying, "Lord, if you are willing, you can cleanse me."
Notice the "If you are willing" part. It denotes doubt, because no one ever wanted or had ever been interested in him and even after seeing and knowing everything Jesus did, he came to believe all those lies and deceptions that people had told him all his life about him and about how God saw him.
Surely throughout his life he had felt inferior, different, despised, insufficient, hurt, misunderstood, not heard. As many of us feel or have ever felt.
But Jesus…
Not a single moment looks at him with disdain nor does it disgust him or take him away from himself. Jesus did not treat him as everyone else had done up to that point. But instead, feeling compassion for him and the pain in his words; for the first time in his life, that man receives a look of affection and not of disgust, fear or contempt and then, Jesus answers: "Yes, I am willing to. It is clean."
I would like to pause here and address two groups of people:
• The first group are all those who believe that they are not worthy enough for God to accept them, those who think that their past is too way dark and plenty of mistakes, faults and sins.
• The second one is made up of all those who have been told and made to believe that God sees them with the same eyes that the others saw the leper. Many times the church itself is the culprit and cause of this – as it already happened in the time of Jesus.
You may belong or have belonged to one of these two groups, you may be someone who has always thought that you cannot approach God, and that He could never accept you for who you are or who you have been, or perhaps, someone who has been led to believe that God rejects you.
But let me tell you something, what disgusts others and what others dare not to touch does not disturb God, He is willing to touch it and transform it just like He did with the leper. Don't be afraid to come with all the leprosy you have. God is not going to condemn you for it; He is going to chage it, to change you.
And this leads to another very important aspect.…
In who is your attention on??
You see, it's true, on multiple occasions it has been the church, those who claimed to follow and represent God the ones that have crushed and done horrible things in His name, making us lose hope.
Many people have grown up thinking that they are an abomination to God maybe because of their sexual orientation when the real message of the Gospel is totally different. There's no such thing as better or worse when it comes to us and sin. I am certainly not better that anyone and I need God just as much as a gay person. In that respect the church has often failed. Moreover, a lot of christians are struggling with this feeling.
Perhaps one the most knonws christians influencers who talk about this topic and who has left the queer world is @samuelabrahamp. He talks on social media about his personal experience to raise awareness among the church members about the need of examination of their attitude, encourage others, talks on things lgbtq+ people deal with from traumas to mental health and creates a safe space for those believers who struggle with same sex attraction.
Come as you are.
That´s the whole point of the Gospel.
Jesus died for us when non of us were worthy of such sacrifice. That is! God accepted you despite everything long ago before you even thought about it: with your virtues and your flaws, with your mistakes and your successes, with your impulses and your fears, with your insecurities and your strengths... with the deepest part of you that no one else knows. So, way before accepting Him and in the midst of our disaster, our rebellion, our filth, our rejection, our crooked, perverse and selfish desires and our moral decay he gave himself up and loved us.
Today we can be sure that we can come to Him calmly as what we are and not as what we are not yet.
Stop asking yourself and doubting whether God accepts you or not, stop thinking that He rejects you because of your condition, your ideology, your past or your present struggles. Truth is we all struggle with something but God wants to work on it, you can come wherever point of the road you are and He will renew you and welcome you regardless what others may think or say.
''God accepts me as I am'' is not an invitation to stay the same.
Stop fixing your gaze and your attention on men.
Humans as humans are subject to failure and certainly throughout history we have shown it by committing real barbarities. And that does not exempt or exclude the church because the church is also made up of people and many people have done things in the name of God that had nothing to do with Him or His Word. But there are also many others who sacrifice their lives to carry His Word, those who follow Him in truth and spirit, those who keep His commandments, teach and demonstrate their love day by day.
So... point number one.
1. Don't expect perfect people or churches, expect a perfect God !!
Do not turn away from Him for the sake of men because then who you were following was men and not God.
2. God does not see you with different eyes.
Don't get it twisted, is NOT the one who goes to church the most saved or holy, but the one who seeks Him the most, the one who draws near to Him.
I do not presume to be better or worse than anyone, nor are you less or more than anyone else. We all have things to change and for God there are no major or minor sins, all of them are equally offensive to His Holiness.
Click here! Isaiah 55:6-9
«“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.»
— Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28
God is at a level that is impossible for us to reach. He does not measure in the same way as we do, sometimes we believe we are good when we are just being fair.
We like to say very often that God is love and He is but we seem to forget that He is also holy and that therefore, He must do justice to every act and unless we turn to Him our own sin condemns and sentences us.
«In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.»
— Acts 17:30
God has provided a way out of our transgression. In our freedom we decide to live without taking into account God and do things our way, from it we have obtained wars, corruption, death, hunger, selfishness and a long etc. He cannot force us to accept him because He has made us free and with the capacity for thought and self-decision, but sin implies death and eternal separation from God...
He knows that we are not able to do and fulfill all that He demands, to follow and keep His precepts in perfect condition, and to reach the moral standard because of the weakness of our flesh. This is why He came and took our place, because He was the only one who could fulfill all of it perfectly and sacrifice himself in our place so that we could be absolved of our own consequences. This reflects His infinite goodness and mercy.
«Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death.»
— Hebrews 2:14
He received the punishment for our insults in himself to show His righteousness, to restore our relationship, to put to death the sin that causes corruption in the world and in people and separates and distances us from God; and give us the gift of eternal life.
It is up to us to accept it or not, to believe or not, to be saved or not.
We all need to be cleaned up and changed.
For Him there are also no favorites. He does not listen to me more than you for spending more time in His Presence, rather, I listen more to Him for spending more time in His Presence.
The distance line is marked by us, it is not He who moves away.
It gives us free will because love cannot be forced, it must be free, if not we would only be robots obeying orders.
We are the ones that decide:
«(...) The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you..»
— 2 Chronicles 15:2
«for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (...)»
— Romans 3:23-24
No one can stand before God as just and perfect because no one is. Jesus is the one who perfects us, He begins a work of redemption in us as we draw near. Just as He did with the leper.
Perhaps you have been told that in order to come to Jesus you have to come clean already but here is clearly seen how it is not so; Jesus was the one who restored him.
Do you take a bath before showering? No, nobody does that, it´s nonsense.
The leper came and stood before God without being clean, fell face on the ground and begged Him. He recognized His sovereignty and the fact that he could not do it by himself, he was repented and acknowledge that he needed him. He probably have tried other things before and came to the realisation that none of that worked and he needed something else. Because this is necessary, without regret it is impossible to be transformed and be clean, you have to realize that no matter how hard you have tried and tried to clean yourself you get dirty again. You have to turn from those paths that dirty you and follow theirs that are decontaminating you.
Understand. It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, or what you're going through right now; Jesus answer to you remains the same: "Yes, I am willing."
So.. the conclusion remains the same: God accepts you, do you accept Him?
«For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!»
— Ezekiel 18:32
Comments