This morning's PAYG focused on Luke 5: 12 - 16

Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ Then Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I do choose. Be made clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him. And he ordered him to tell no one. ‘Go’, he said, ‘and show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, for a testimony to them.’ But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.

The thing that struck me - which was not what the guided reflection suggested, was the role of choice in the story. 

The man chose to go to Jesus.  Maybe he was desperate.  Maybe he was hopeful.  Maybe he felt he had nothing left to lose.  Maybe he was angry.  Maybe he was sad. Maybe he was... well I don't know.  But he made a choice to enter the city and seek out a wandering rabbi-thaumaturgist and make his plea, "if you are willing, if you so choose, you can heal me..."

Jesus chose not only to respond, but how to respond.  He could have said no. He could have used this as an occasion for some kind of object lesson on faith or sin or whatever.  He could have sent the man far away to wash in a foreign river.  He could have said or done all manner of things, but he made his choice... I do choose, be clean.  Then he instructs the man to tell no-one, though he is to also get his cure confirmed by those qualified to assess his health and to fulfil the rituals that will restore him to the faith community (bit of a contradiction there Jesus!!).

When word gets out, Jesus is innundated with people wanting to be made well... his choice has consquences, which he maybe anticipated in the command to tell no-one, and so he makes another choice - to withdraw and be with God.  I think it is this last bit that probably spoke to me the most.  How easy it is to be overwhelmed by doing good stuff, Godly stuff that arises out of one particular incident, event or activity.  If I'm honest, I suppose I quite like being in demand, it makes me feel valued and wanted, but my it isn't always the wisest course of action to extend or expand on the one-offs.

I do wonder whether Jesus fully anticipated the impact this healing would have.  Certainly it seems that he found the need to hide away sometimes, in order to re-focus on what God's priorities were (or to put it another way, to pray).  If there is an 'object lesson' in this story (and there doesn't have to be, in general that's poor approach to scripture) then for me it is something about choices and consequences, and permission to back off or hide away in order to re-focus.  Whether I will remember the lesson tomorrow, never mind the next time I find myself in a self-made 'bind' is another thing altogether!!