The Man with Leprosy

Matthew 8: 1-3 (NIV)
"When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. a man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "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!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

This passage offers, in my opinion, a very simple summation of the christian faith. The man with leprosy comes before Jesus, and before speaking a single word, kneels before him. He submits to Jesus, acknowledges his superiority. He knows that he is powerless to save himself. Then he addresses Jesus by the title Lord, most likely stating his belief that Jesus is in fact divine. Finally, the leper makes his plea, "if you are willing, you can make me clean." He does not offer any reason for Jesus to heal him, no claim of merit or goodness. He lays himself on Jesus' mercy, in full knowledge that Jesus' will is the only thing that can save him. The leper also recognizes Jesus' ultimate power over death, and his ability to give life. This man walks away healed, his body alive and well where once it was dying.

Jesus responds to the leper as he responds to all those who seek him. "I am willing." With no more required of us than to simply and sincerely ask, Jesus heals the man. The saviors touch makes him clean. Jesus then instructs the now clean man to go to the temple and follow the required laws for such an event, indicating that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, to bring it to completion. In him the law is satisfied, freeing us to join him in his father's kingdom.