Without Knowing It

I am not sure he really understood what he was asking for. He was just in pain, both physically and emotionally. The reality of the leprosy had taken its toil and he probably just wanted relief…

Who could blame him… I would have wanted relief too.

But to us, and to Jesus, it is a story of restoration. Possibly, without knowing it fully, the leper in the opening verses of Matthew 8:1-4 was really asking Jesus to restore him.

He was asking…

Are you willing to restore my health, restore my status in society, restore me to village life again so my relationships can be restored?

If you just take this leprosy from me, restoration will take place… naturally.

This is what he was asking of Jesus, even though it might not have been the “thing” on the forefront of his mind.

And Jesus touched Him.

His touch would have shocked the crowd, shivers would have gone through peoples spines, and mouths would have dropped open. You probably could have heard a pin drop. You never touch people like this and if you do, you become unclean.

But Jesus touched him anyway and it was the touch he needed.

…without it He would have never been restored.

This is a picture of salvation, of restoration. When we cried out to Jesus to save our souls, we did not completely understand what we were asking for… we just knew we needed saving… we knew our sins needed forgiving… we needed Jesus to touch our heart and make it whole.

It is shocking that Jesus would save us… that He would want to touch us… that He would want to restore us.

But He did… upon our request… and we asked without fully knowing what it all meant.

Thats Awesome.