"If Thou Wilt": Jesus Healing the Leper

Lately, we have been discussing the miracles of Jesus in my New Testament class.  One of the stories that stuck out to me is about a leper who comes to Jesus wanting to be healed.  As many are aware, leprosy was a gruesome flesh-eating disease that was basically a death sentence for many in the ancient world.  Those who caught the disease were rendered “unclean” by the Law of Moses and were ostracized from society for fear that others might catch the disease.

In this context, it is striking that in Matthew 8, Jesus doesn’t back away from him or shun him.  In fact, in response to his pleas, Christ “touched him, saying I will; be thou clean.”  (8:3).  This scripture shows that despite the taboo and fear in that era, Christ reached out to all who needed him, no matter how far gone they may have seemed or how desperate their condition.  

It is a really comforting thing to me to recognize that no matter what mistakes we have made, sins we have committed, or trials we may face, Christ has power to help us through all of it.  He won’t shun us; he will do what he can to help us as soon as we are ready to turn to him in faith and are willing to do what he asks of us.  And just as the leper was cured of his leprosy “immediately” (vs. 3) as Christ healed him, Christ has power to heal us in whatever challenge we may face.

The other thing that struck me about this story, that my instructor pointed out in class, is how the leper asks Jesus for a blessing.  He simply asks Jesus: “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean”  (Matthew 8:3).  In this verse, the leper clearly demonstrates trust that Christ has the power to heal him, but he doesn’t demand it -- he lets the Lord decide what course is best.  My instructor posed the question:

“What if in Jesus’s best wisdom, he felt it was best that the leper not be healed?”

Remarkably, it seems that this desperate man came humbly to the master, seeking for any relief but also willing to accept his fate and continue having faith in Christ even if it wasn’t his will.

This stuck out to me because sometimes, I feel like my prayers seem more like demands than requests, and that I come to God insisting that he help me with my specific challenge in the way that I want it rather than seeking to know His will for me.

“Please help me with this exam now,“ I have prayed.  “Please help me feel better now.”  “Please help me through this difficult trial I am facing.”  

We sometimes pray to God expecting or even insisting that He help us, but what if he knows that the best thing for us right now is to struggle and to work through our trials in order to grow, rather than having our burdens taken away?  Are we ready to accept Christ’s will for us then?  Are we prepared to stay faithful, keep working, and keep trusting in Christ, even when things don’t go the way we want them to or when we don’t receive the blessings we are seeking?

This scripture motivates me, and it can motivate all of us, to come to the feet of the master, putting our trust in him that if it is his will, he can heal us and he can help us with our different challenges.  

As we do so, we can have confidence that if it is Christ’s will that we receive the blessing that we seek, we can receive it -- but we can also have assurance that if it is not his will, or even if it is not his will for us at the moment, Christ still loves us, and whatever happens instead will ultimately be “for [our] good” (D&C 122: 7) as we keep moving forward with trust in Him.

What is faith?

What is faith?

I thought I knew the answer to this question.  After all, I believe that Jesus Christ is my Savior, I have a testimony and knowledge of His teachings in the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and other books of scripture, and I was trying to live the standards I had been taught.  Isn't that enough?

However, the past couple of weeks, I have become overwhelmed trying to do everything that I have been expected to do that I finally broke down and turned to the Lord, asking what He would have me do.  One thought that came to mind was to read in Preach My Gospel, the teaching manual for Latter-day Saint missionaries, on the topic of faith.  A one passage stuck out to me in particular:


"Faith in [Christ] means that you trust Him and are confident that He loves you" (Preach My Gospel, 116)

As I read this, I realized that although I have desires to follow God and I certainly believe that He exists, I often doubt that I can do all that He asks me to do, and sometimes I lose hope that I can meet His expectations for me.  However, as we learn about the Savior, we realize that He is not an arbitrary monarch waiting for us to fail, nor is he a distant deity who has little conception of our struggles.  He is our loving Savior, who knows all things and who was willing to suffer and die for our sins.  He doesn't want us to fail -- He wants to help us to succeed.

Now in doing so, He doesn't expect us to sit back and let us do all of the work.  As I stated in my last blog post, Christ expects us to do what we can do and then put our trust in Him to make up for where we lack.  However, our faith in Christ, which as Preach My Gospel later says, "motivates us to act" (p. 116) should be based not only on our belief that Christ lived and that He died for us, but on our trust that He really has our best interests at heart and that He is willing to help us today, as soon as we put our trust in Him and make efforts to do His will.

I also found a scripture in Alma 32 of the Book of Mormon that helped me to better see how I can put this into practice.  In this scripture, the prophet Alma states that faith " is when we "believe in things which are not seen which are true" (vs. 21), explaining that when we have faith, we put our hope and trust in something that we can't see or understand right away.

From this scripture, I realized  that we not only exercise  faith that a God exists and that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, but whenever we work to achieve a goal or try to accomplish something worthwhile.  We can't see the end result, but God can, and as we strive to learn God's will for us and then act to accomplish it with faith in Him, he can help us to accomplish our righteous goals.

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"Diligently" Act and then "Stand Still"

I have a confession.  I am a worrier.  I constantly am concerned about how I will accomplish all that I am expected to do or about what will happen next, and that sometimes keeps me from doing what needs to be done and being all that I could be.

The last couple of weeks especially, I have felt overwhelmed by all that is expected in school and in otheraread in my life and often wonder how I can reach all the goals that I have set.

As I was thinking about this, I remembered the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 123:7.  It reads:
cripture from Doctrine and Covenants 123:7, which really stuck out to me.  It reads:

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren (and sisters), let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed."

To me, this scripture means that God expects us to do all that we came do and to willingly give our best efforts to accomplish our goals and do his will.  He doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he does expect us to show Him that we are willing to do all we can to accomplish our righteous goals.

However, despite our best efforts. we all fall short.  In addition, there are many things that are not completely in our control, such as what the girl (or guy) you want to ask on a date will think of you, or if we have a conflict that keeps us from finishing all of our assignments on time, or how that person will respond to your efforts to share your beliefs.  All we can do is act on our faith in Christ by doing all "that is in our power", and then to "put it in the Lord's hands" and trust that God will help things work out in a way that is best for us.

This scripture motivates me to work harder and to keep trying to accomplish the goals I have set, even if they seem distant for me right now or difficult to accomplish.  I know that I cannot "sit still" and do nothing, but I also know that I don't have to do it alone, and that when I have expended my best efforts, He will help things work out in a way that He know is best and will guide me in ways that will help me draw nearer to Him.  I know that truly, as we act in faith the best we can with trust in God and then let God take care of the rest , we can "see the salvation of God" and recognize God's hand working in our lives for our good and for the good of others.

“Condemn Me Not Because of Mine Imperfection” (Mormon 9:31)

In my New Testament class this past week, we have been discussing the distinct accounts of the four gospel writers.  As we were discussing their similarities and differences, we consistently discussed how God was able to work through individuals despite their weaknesses and imperfections.  

For instance, my professor Brother Griffin discussed how at one point in their ministry (to use modern-day speech), Paul had a disagreement with John Mark, traditionally one of the gospel writers, about which way that they should go to do missionary work.  

Apparently, this disagreement was so intense that John Mark chose to leave his mission for Jerusalem and that later on, Paul refused to even take John Mark on their travels to share the gospel and ended up picking a new missionary companion.  However, despite their weakness, God was still able to work through them to accomplish His work, with Paul writing powerful epistles and testifying boldly of Christ, and with John Mark traditionally going on to write one of the Gospel accounts of the ministry of Christ (The Gospel of Mark).

This struck me because I feel like we don’t always approach problems or questions today in the same way.  It is easy to read an opinion or notice a perceived or actual weakness in somebody and then refuse to associate with them because of that blemish or weakness.

For instance, someone may read something in the scriptures, such as the Book of Mormon, that doesn’t seem to make sense or doesn’t seem right at the time and if they continue to fixate on it, they may determine that the scriptures are untrue.  However, in doing so, they miss out on the powerful truths that the scriptures can provide and the power they have to bring people to salvation.

One thing I feel can help with this problem is, like my teacher mentioned, to “look at people [and scriptural texts] in their context”, to try to understand them before judging them, and by striving to recognize the good that God can do through weak and striving individuals.  

Especially in cases where we don’t understand something, to give them the benefit of the doubt and recognize the good that God can do through them can help us to find greater good in them and discover truths we may not have otherwise discovered.  

As we accept and allow individuals, even church leaders, to be imperfect, as we seek to understand them from their perspective and context rather than from our own, and as we seek from God to know what we can learn from them, we can not only come to a better understanding of truth, but can come to see how God can work through us to do his work, despite our weaknesses and our imperfections.  

As Moroni, an ancient prophet, stated near the close of the Book of Mormon, “condemn me not because of mine imperfection, … neither them who have written before…, but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been” (Mormon 9:30).  

Through doing so, we can come to recognize, as Lehi and as my Doctrine and Covenants teacher taught, that in the end, we are all human, imperfect, and rely on Christ, and we can better recognize how God can work through others and through us to accomplish His will.