Matthew 25:35–40: “For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I was naked and you gave Me clothing, I was sick and you took care of Me, I was in prison and you visited Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did this for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’”

I am talking about this passage, focused specifically on the fact that Jesus Christ is the One who did all these things for us. I have talked about hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked. But my, oh my—were we sick. “I was sick and you took care of Me.” We were sick, and He took care of us.

When Isaiah talks about the sin of Israel, he often uses the picture of wounds. “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). We were healed of our wounds—the wounds of departure from God, the endless trauma of having been chased out of the garden of Eden. We were healed of that. He becomes our healer.

Many times Jesus uses physical healings as signs, to give you a picture of something spiritual. Look at John and the healing of the man who was born blind (John 9). Are we not born blind? Look at the man at the pool of Bethesda whom He healed (John 5). Are we not paralyzed, with no one to help us and no ability to help ourselves—unless God sends Jesus to us?

That man by the pool said, “I have no one.” That is our reality. There is no one who will help us. No “ascended master” will help you. No righteous man will help you, because all have sinned (Romans 3:23). No one will help you. The only help you have is coming from the one and only Jesus.

How did that man exercise faith? Even the faith to be saved has to be the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8–9). We criticize the man, analyze the man—“maybe he did not have faith.” But in both stories there is not really a discussion about the man’s faith. That, to me, speaks a powerful truth about our spiritual situation: Jesus Christ alone can take care of it. Only He can resolve it.

We were paralyzed. We could not help ourselves, and it had been going on “forever”—until the Lord Jesus had mercy on us, showed us mercy, and came to save us. Then you start wondering, “Why am I saved and that person is not saved?” You were chosen from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). As for that person, we do not yet know what God will do, but you were chosen. You were special in the mind of God.

As far as that man by the pool was concerned, he did not even know who Jesus was (John 5:13). But Jesus came to him and performed His act in his life. That is what I am talking about. We were sick, and He took care of us. He took care of us. He touched us, and we were made whole.

Look at the story of the man who was born blind. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and the ones who see may become blind” (John 9:39). In that passage, He is clearly talking about His work of spiritual salvation—opening blind eyes. Our eyes were blind to God. We could not even see our way out. But God came and gave us spiritual sight.

Paul puts it this way: “The eyes of your heart having been enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18). And when he talks about those who are unsaved, he says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

So the light, the healing—we were sick, we could not help ourselves, but He came and healed us. Now we are transformed. Look at the powerful transformation that came to the man at the pool of Bethesda. Look at the powerful transformation that came to the man who was born blind, who said, “I was blind, but now I see” (John 9:25).

God bless you. See you later.