Luke 5:12-16 "I am willing"

Luke 5:12-16

Who is willing?
When I saw this passage. What beautiful words.
Instead of moving away, he moves closer.
To proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18-19
*In the previous verses his omniscience was seen in almost breaking Peters nets, but now we see a picture of his omnipotence in healing disease.
Before we look at the first verse, we should recall that Jesus had recently called Peter, Andrew, James, and John a third time. We were told in Luke 5:11 that these men left everything and followed Him. When we come to verse 12, time has elapsed. It appears that a lot of time has passed, because we are told that He enters “one of the cities.” We are not told which city, but it appears that Jesus had been traveling from one city to another in the “white space” in our Bible between verse 11 and 12.

V 12. While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered in leprosy.
The Hebrew words in Isaiah 53:4, stricken (naka) and smitten (nakkay) are interpreted as referring to a leprous condition. Either word can refer to being stricken with a disease, yet they need not be understood in that way, much like our English work "stricken" can refer to stricken with disease or just simply stricken, as with a fist. Either way, Jesus was stricken. He was certainly made sick by the Roman floggings and beatings and the tortuous ordeal of crucifixion. He was certainly stricken with the Roman lash.
As a leper was despised and rejected of men, so also was the Messiah despised and rejected. And still today there are many who see Jesus as being as repugnant as leprosy and his followers as those who should be isolated and shunned.
Leprosy- (The Bibles term for leprosy covers a broad range of skin diseases and not necessarily was is known in modern times as Hansen’s disease. Psoriasis, lupus, ringworm. Nevertheless it was a horrible condition, not only on the surface of the skin but causing bone rotting and blood clotting.
The condition was a living death
a. Implications regarding the law- Leviticus 13-14 banished a leper from all human contact, banished from the markets and public worship, completely cast out of the city.
“The person must wear torn clothing, let his hair be unkept, cover his face with cloth and yell unclean, unclean. He must live outside the camp.
In the case of the Old Testament lepers were physically impure as well as ceremonially impure.
b. In the Old Testament we see leprosy given as a result of divine judgment. Moses’ sister, Miriam received it as a result of racism, Elishas wayward servant got it as well as King Uzziah when he transgressed the temple laws.
The leper had no mirror to gaze in mercifully, but he had the hands corrupted and spotted, the aching bones and the stares of the people. Most of all he felt the pain of loneliness and it must have been years or decades before someone had touched him. (Jesus went out of his way to make sure he felt the contact of another human being.)
The bottom line – This man was utterly hopeless. Luke goes out of his way to remind us that this man was “Full” of leprosy.
How many of us are hopeless? Hopeless, in our sin, hopeless in our lives, hopeless in our situation.
“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.
This man had no hope at all. Nobody who was willing
LEARNING FROM THE LEPER
1. He came to Jesus without precedent. Rabbi’s don’t heal lepers, they don’t even touch them. If he even came near the Rabbi he would have defiled him. What is dirty will contaminate what is clean and the dirty will remain dirty still but the clean will no longer remain in a clean state.
2. He came with no promises. – The leper had no promises that Jesus would heal him, but on faith alone.
3. The leper came without full invitation.

a. We have in God’s revealed word precedent. Many who have been saved before us and Christ remains sinless, he remains clean even when we touch him.
b. We have Promises, covenant promises and fulfilled promises in Jesus Christ.
c. We have invitations. –
“Come to me, all who are weary an burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “
The Lepers Faith

This passage is much more than power, in my opinion it goes beyond just power. Jesus is willing. Compassionate, loving, willing.

Why did the leper come?

Think with me back to the Old Testament case of Namaan the Syrian. Namaan was a high ranking general who heard from his Israelite slave girl about a prophet in Israel who could cure leprosy. Namaan sent a letter to the king of Israel asking to heal him, but as soon as the King read this letter he tore his clothing saying “Am I god? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me so I might cure his leprosy?

Eventually Elisha healed Namaan but the ancients knew that kings can’t heal leprosy.

But when the leper comes he is struggling, he does not say I know you can make me clean, but “If you are willing”.

V 12 B. And when he saw Jesus he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

1. When “he saw Jesus”-
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
He stared at Jesus right in the face and begged him. Utterly hopeless, he begged him and asked him if he was willing. Faith.
I know Jesus is able. I have seen him heal. Is he willing?
h ere are two basic Greek words for “will.” Th e fi rst one has the sense of
a rational decision, but the second one has the sense of an “emotional choice.” Th is last one is the word that the leper used. He appealed to Jesus’ emotions. He appealed to Jesus’
passion, and Jesus responded with emotion.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us that Jesus stretched out His hand and as He touched him said, “I am willing.”

The Greek mind would understand this because instead of a eulogy they asked if a man has passion.

Jesus was filled with compassion (Mark 1:41).

V 13. And Jesus stretched out his hand- and touched him saying, I will, be clean.
The compassion corresponds to the leopers disease, he is completely filled with it. It consumes him, just as the leprosy is in the lepor’s bones, compassion is in the bones of Christ, just as the disease is in the leopars blood, compassion is in the blood of Jesus.




We must identify with the leper. Our sin and lawlessness is worse than the leper, it is horrible debilitating and paralyzing.

1. Jesus saves us based on who he is not our condition. Psalm 18:35 “They gentleness hath made me great. Our greatness is ascribed to Gods goodness, the lepers cleanliness was attributed to God’s compassion alone. His humility, his condescension has made us great. God who bows to see the affairs of angels looks lower to man and even lower to this leper. Gratitude, Humility and Love.
2. Jesus is life so he can touch death, he is light, and so he can shine amongst the darkness.
Be clean-
The Christian message is that there is a cleansing despite the sickness.
I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more. Heb 8:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far he has removed our transgressions from us.
Restored to fellowship
No other name –
Acts 4:12- Salvation is found in noone else, for there is no other name under heaven by which men may be saved.
Jesus invites us from heaven in Revelation 22:17. “ The Spirit and the Bride say Come, and let him who hears say Come, Whoever is thirsty. let him come, and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”
He became a serpent, a leper for us and he was Willing to do it!
I am willing to lay down my life for the broken and the battered church
I am willing to lay down my life and to be be betrayed and denied for the church. I am willing to be mocked and to be crucified for my beloved church. There is nothing that I am not willing to do for them, greater love has no man than to lie down his life for his friends. Because of my love for you, I will suffer for you.
When we lose hope remember two things
1. The hopeless leper finds hope in Jesus alone
V 14. – 15. ( the joy of the priest sacrifice) Set free indeed. Freedom from a sick body, freedom from the burden of sin that decays the bones and corrupts the blood, freedom from the sin that makes us unbearable to look at
16. But he would withdraw to desolate places to pray-
The verb indicates that this was a regular practice of Jesus.
Jesus was being led through a world that was dark and groaning under the pain of sin. I think this interaction was a lot for Jesus, I think it shook him up a little bit, in his humanity that is. What a terrible thing it is to have this disease in the world, the groaning pains of creation, it was not supposed to be like this.
This incident was a reminder of the suffering he would undergo for not only the cleansing of this leper, but of the whole church. It is one thing to clean a leper, but he would soon clean his people, and he withdrew to pray and regroup.
It is the cross and only the corss that provides a constant point of reference in the chaos of our world, because there is all our poverty and helplessness and pain
The cross he knew he had to go to, it is his cross that gives us hope, thank you Lord for the cross, the cross that makes us clean.
The Jeruslem Council speaking of us Gentiles
Acts 15:9 Having cleansed their hearts with faith
Salvation is not found on Sinai or Tabor, but at Gethsemane, and Golgotha. Those of us who have had troubles know that we find rest at Golgotha’s foot, not in the law.
Cleansing for our leprous condition is found at the cross, the willing man of sorrows at the cross, Risen victorious to give us hope.
Healing the leprosy of death