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.

An open door policy

I did something tonight that I haven't done all quarter. I opened my door. Now I've opened my door hundreds of times before, but this time I didn't walk through it. I just opened it, and stayed in my room. I'd like to say that from now on, I'm going to live my life transparently, with nothing to hide. I'd like for that to be true. But the truth is, that's only my plan, and too often in my life things don't go according to my plan. I say too often, but really I mean that it happens more than I want it too. For all I know things not going according to my plan could be a very good thing. In this case, however, I don't think so.

To live transparently. It sounds pretty enough, deep and thoughtful enough to make me sound all reflective and introspective and whatnot. That's what makes us cool, right, makes us better people because there's apparently something going on beneath the surface, we're not just about appearances and such. It's part of the reason I'm writing this online instead of on paper, because if it's online other people can read it and think better of me for my deep thoughts. I don't know if that's good or bad.

So what does it mean to be transparent? Actually, no, what I really intend to answer is what do I, Kyle Johnson, mean when I say I want to be transparent? And to answer that question as succinctly as possible, I would say that it means to hide nothing. Noble, right? Maybe. I'd like to think that it's a better way to live than what I'm doing right now. The main crux of this is not, however, to be blatantly obvious and open with everyone, revealing to the person you're sitting next to on the bus that which you are most ashamed of. That might be fun though. What I'm trying to accomplish with this is living with nothing to hide. Engaging and partaking in nothing that I wouldn't want to tell my parents, my friends, my God about. I figure if you've got nothing to be ashamed of, then there's no reason to hide anything.

So that's what I'm going to try. I'm somewhat optimistic about it, though the high of embarking on a new life direction has waned a bit. Only God knows the full outcome, but I'd like to think He's happy with me even trying.