Most of us are familiar with the sober, yet impressive description, given in the first three Gospels, of the Master's healing of the "man full of leprosy." This man, because of the dread disease, was debarred from all social contact with his fellow beings and shunned by all. Notwithstanding this, he may have heard of Jesus and his wonderful works, or perchance he was attracted by the love and compassion which Jesus manifested, and which he had perceived or felt. We read in Luke's Gospel that, seeing Jesus, he knelt down before him and said, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Words of faith and hope, indeed, but also of some perhaps intuitive recognition of the Master's divinely bestowed power to express Truth and good, the power to see as God sees and know only what God knows!
The Gospel narrative goes on: "And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him." There is ample food for thought in these lines. That Jesus put forth his hand and touched him showed clearly to the sufferer that here was one who was not afraid of defilement, felt no repugnance, had no fear of disease. Jesus' action may have given the leper the first faint concept of a Love so great, omnipotent, and all-inclusive that it wipes out all semblance of evil by the fact of its own allness.
After touching him, Jesus spoke those memorable words, "I will: be thou clean." What does this "I will" mean? It certainly does not imply any exercise of the human will; it does not point to will power or hypnotism. Jesus was fully aware of the fact that man, as the image or reflection of the one Mind, God, can have no intelligence of his own, no will of his own, because he is the full expression of the Father. Man's individuality reflects God. His complete oneness with God includes the fact that the real man expresses the will of God. Jesus prayed, "Thy will be done," knowing that there is no other will than the will of God.
