Heal thyself

Luke 4:23-27 NIV

Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ ”     “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.  I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.  And there were many in Israel with leprosy  in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

I heard this verse tonight, and I considered an application I hadn't considered before. The message of Jesus. The Truth of His Grace, is one that those of us responsible for spreading it so often forget to apply to ourselves. We can tell others that "those who are lost can now be found," but we so often forget to think of ourselves as both "lost" and also "found."

Jesus, at His core, is about forgiveness. Or rather, about a peace in knowing who we really are. We are flawed, we are imperfect, but we are also God's. He made us in His image. Granted, we have flawed the original design, but in the end, He still calls us home.

I am not only so far from perfect, I'm often far from even being "good."  I have hurt so many over people over the years. I have disappointed those who cared about me. I have lied, I have cheated, I have stolen. Worse yet, I have taken some for granted. I have placed my own desires and pleasures above others. I have disrespected those who most deserved respect, and I have failed to keep the faith if friendship.

What's more, I cannot claim these all to be in the past. I cannot say, "Oh, what a woeful sinner was I," because I am a sinner still. I am in many ways still broken. I will fail someone tomorrow. I will disappoint someone next week. I will have to beg someone's forgiveness, and I will most assuredly not deserve it.

And yet, I am chosen. I am loved. I am one for whom Christ died, and I am one in whom He is working to build a new creation still. I will not be "good," tomorrow. In fact, I will revel in my "un-goodness." I will be weak, because He is strong, I will boast about my failings because He will give me successes. I will grow. I will develop. And it will be solely because of Him. He is my rest and my Redeemer, because goodness knows I need one