THE ONE WHO CAN HELP

When He (Jesus) came down
from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And behold,
a leper came to Him and knelt before Him, saying, "Lord, if
You will, You can make me clean." And Jesus stretched
out His hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean."
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Matthew 8:1-3

It was good number of years ago that a 1 a.m. phone call
was made to the bedroom of Dr. Leo Winters.

The respected Chicago surgeon was quickly awake. "A
young boy has been severely hurt in an accident" was what
the voice on the other end of the line said. A few questions
convinced the doctor his sleep for the night was at an end.
His skilled hands might be able to save the boy. Dr. Winters
got out of bed, quickly dressed, and was soon plotting his
route to the hospital.

Time was short, so he decided to risk taking a shortcut, a
shortcut which had him driving through one of the meaner
areas of town. He almost made it too. But, at a red light, his
door was jerked open by a man wearing a gray hat and a
worn flannel shirt.

"Give me your car!" the man demanded, dragging Winters from
his seat. Winters tried to explain.

Winters's words of warning were drowned out by the roar of the
car's engine speeding down the street.

Looking for a phone, the doctor wandered for close to an hour.
Another hour passed by before a taxi arrived and delivered him
to the hospital. At the nurse's station the doctor was told the boy
had died 30 minutes earlier. Indeed, the lad's own father had
arrived, only a short time before his son's death.

The nurse suggested the good doctor might want to see the father.
She added, "He's awfully confused. He doesn't understand why
you didn't come earlier."

The doctor went down the hall to make the visit no doctor ever
wants to make.

Entering the dimly lit chapel, the physician went to the only person
there, a dejected, weeping man. The doctor went to the man who
was still dressed in the same gray hat and old flannel shirt he had
worn when he had pulled the life-saving doctor from his car.

Too many people do that to Jesus.

Confronted by difficult times and tragic situations, they try to take
matters into their own hands. In doing so, they push Jesus to the
side. I can't think of a bigger mistake. In Jesus, we have been given
the only Person who cares enough about us and has the credentials
to do something about our difficulties.

Rather than trying to take command of our lives, we would do better
to kneel in front of the Savior, and like the leper, make the humble
request: "Lord, if You want, You can help me." Then, if the Holy
Spirit has given us faith, we can wait to hear the Savior, say, "Most
certainly, I am willing to help you."

Indeed. To help us, to save us is why Jesus came into this world. His
every act, thought and word were an expression of His love and desire
to complete His mission, which would rescue us. Indeed, so strong
was Jesus' commitment to save us from sin, death and the devil, the
Savior allowed His enemies to nail Him to the cross. There, on
Calvary's cruel gibbet, the Son of God disposed of our sins and --
three days later -- conquered death.

By faith we should know the Redeemer, who has taken care of our big
problems, will do the same with our small ones.

THE PRAYER:

Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for having had mercy on me. In Your Name.
Amen.

Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries