The Right Touch
Mark 1:40-45
5/18/08
PSCOC
Introduction: Sayonara!
We have increasingly become a culture of less touching. We are likely to greet one another here with handshakes and mild side-hugs! Yet, in culture at large there is uneasiness about touching in general. Maybe that is because of an increased awareness of germs or because it might be misread in our sexually charged culture as something other than a greeting and warm gesture. Yet we are still a far more touchy society than Japan.
I heard the story of one of our LST teams and a male team member with his relatively young female Japanese reader. When you meet with someone over a period of six weeks, sharing the story of Jesus, and your own life with others you feel very close to them. It is certainly not uncommon for people of both cultures to cry when it comes to time to say goodbye. This LST male team member knew that it was not customary for a man to hug a woman in Japan, even during emotional goodbyes. But he felt awkward saying goodbye with a polite bow or even a brief handshake (not common in Japan, but understood). So, he reached out with his arms and hugged the woman simply to say “Sayonara!” He released her from his embrace and she said with a shocked expression on her face, “Oh, first time, not my husband.”
Those are words that you do not want to hear in your cross-cultural experiences! There is the question of touch. How much touch is appropriate? What will it communicate? Sometimes in our social settings we struggle with what is the right touch. In the same way we struggle to believe in a Savior whom we cannot physically touch or see. Thomas had a hard time with that and Jesus said those that believe who have not seen are more blessed. We are not so sure. If only Jesus, would “reach out and touch us.”
In today’s text, we will read a story where the wrong touch turned out to be the right touch. And we will gain insight into what it means for Jesus to touch us. Read Text.
Trouble in the Text: A man is alienated from society by his leprosy.
Jesus has just called his disciples and they are traveling all around Galilee, preaching in the Synagogues. Jesus has to stay on the move, so that he will not be consumed by the people in any one place. There is also this issue that Jesus has come primarily to preach and not just to work miracles, which naturally the people are seeking more than his words (38).
While Jesus is about this mission a man with leprosy gets very close and personal by falling at Jesus’ knees and begging to be made clean. It is helpful for us, if we have some background to understand why this is a shocking scene. Read Lev. 13:45, 46. Leprosy could refer to any infectious skin disease. The problem was not primarily the spread of the disease, but the ritual uncleanness associated with it. A priest could declare a person unclean or clean, but could not heal it. Only God could, and so most people believed the disease was God’s way of bringing out hidden sin.
So, this man is living a miserable existence. He is not allowed to touch or to be touched. It is clear he ignores the proper etiquette of the right touch here, as he walks right up to Jesus. Furthermore, he is asking Jesus to do what no priest could do. He is asking Jesus to do what only God could do…make him clean by healing him. The priest could not declare him clean until the disease was removed. This man wants his life back. Who knows how long it has been since anyone has touched him. Somehow he has heard of Jesus and his deeds. He pushes through all of the religious and social barriers to throw himself before Jesus as his only hope.
His faith is astounding. Yet, Jesus could simply rebuke him as the unclean man he is and tell him not to touch him! There would have been tension surrounding Jesus and his companions and all that witnessed this moment. How would Jesus respond? How do we respond in these cases?
Trouble in Our World: We live in a world of untouchables.
In the summer of 2000, my LST team decided to stop in Bangkok for a few days before continuing on to Japan for our project. Thailand is a poor place and the beggars and the cripples are everywhere. I might be similar of what it would have been like to walk the streets of ancient Galilee. There are no disability checks or health insurance for the poor, no social safety net. If you are a cripple and without resources, then you are on the streets, hoping for the mercy of a few passerbys.
I remember walking through a crowded area of Bangkok, following our Thai guides. I saw this man on the sidewalk. He was relatively older and his legs and arms were gnarled up underneath him. He had no shoes or clean clothes. He literally laid face down on the concrete all day. He could not get up to relieve himself. He couldn’t go buy a meal or get a drink. He couldn’t reach shade. He just lay in hot Bangkok sun all day with a small plate beside him that he hoped would collect a few precious coins of survival. As we approached him it was if our Thai guides, who were Christian did not even see the man. They just stepped right over him.
I remember as we approached I felt I should do something, but we were in a hurry, and I didn’t know what to do. So, I stepped around him like everyone else. In my heart, I felt convicted, that there is no way we should see someone in such a condition and not do anything for them. I know there are many issues involved when you are in another country, but he was a human being, and he just laid there every day.
In this man, I see the story of people who still don’t touch what they see is unclean. We see people as unfortunate, but we think; “Better them than us.” In many cases, we believe they are simply getting what they deserve. That person is homeless, because they won’t work. That person has AIDS because of their lifestyle. We are so busy playing judge that we have no room left for compassion.
Who will be there for us when we are sick? When we need healing? When we need the right touch? Will we be judged with the same measure we have judged others? Will Jesus be there to touch us when and where we need it most? Or will we always be unclean? How Jesus responds to the leper tells us a lot about how Jesus responds to us and how we should respond to others.
Grace in the Text: Jesus reaches out to touch and heal the leper.
If it was shocking when the leper approached Jesus, how shocking do you think it when Jesus reached out to touch him! The word compassion here probably originally was anger. It isn’t that Jesus was angry at the man for approaching him, but rather the ravages of disease that drive people into such desperate situations. Jesus is willing, but he is also able. “Be clean!” And the result was immediate the man was clean. Presumably those present are only Jesus, the man, and his disciples. But they had just witnessed Jesus do what only God could do.
Jesus did not come to leave the barriers between people and God and between people and people in place. He came to give healing and salvation where the Law of Moses could not. The Law could declare you clean, if you were in fact clean, but it could not make you clean. Jesus, acting with the authority of God, not only declares him clean, but with his declaration makes him clean. The impact this would have had on this man is beyond words.
The rest of the story is bewildering too. Jesus warns him strongly not to tell anyone and to instead present himself to the priests as a testimony. The effect here would be so that he could resume his life as a part of the community. The law required this final step. Jesus may transcend the Law, but doesn’t break it or ask others to break it. This presumably would have to take place in Jerusalem, so this is a quite a requirement, but small compared to what he just received.
We don’t know if the man ever did what Jesus told him to do, but we do know he did what he wasn’t supposed to do. He told everyone. This is probably out of joy and not malice, but it causes problems for Jesus in his ministry. He can no longer go around openly and into the synagogues. Even when he hides out people find him.
Jesus isn’t seeking solitude, but he is concerned with the purpose of his mission. Jesus’ compassion leads him to perform a miracle in this case, but it wasn’t what he had come to do. Jesus isn’t seeking the masses, but must go the way of the cross. He isn’t seeking people to follow him for miracles, but he is seeking disciples who will follow on the way of the cross. It is instructive to us today that we are still about the way of the cross not simply appealing to the masses, and this is a world and religious climate where bigger is better. Interestingly, Jesus seemed to take the opposite approach.
But perhaps it is ironic that a man told to keep silent can’t keep his mouth shut and we are told to tell it and we have a hard time opening our mouths. Maybe it is because we have forgotten how Jesus has touched us.
Grace in Our World: Jesus is willing to heal us where it truly matters.
A good friend of mine’s father was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer a couple of years ago. He wasn’t supposed to make it. We all prayed for his healing and he was healed. One of his good friend’s father got cancer about the same time. He died shortly thereafter. This weekend the two men are together to support and share with each other.
This story is common. We can’t explain why God heals some and not others. Sometimes we approach Jesus like the man in this story and say, “If you are willing, you can make me or my loved one well.” Yet that is often a guise for giving Jesus an out. We don’t really believe he can heal us or our loved one, so we say, “If you are willing.” OTOH, sometimes we pray as if we don’t really care what his will is. Jesus has to heal us or else. So, we say, “If you are willing,” but we are really only interested if the answer is the one we want. Either we don’t think Jesus is able or we don’t care if he wills it. There is something powerful in this man’s confession that simply says; “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus is more than willing. He might not heal our every disease today, but he will heal our every disease ultimately. In fact, he already provided the antidote with his own blood. Jesus went the way of the cross, so we could have assurance of a future with him where there is no sickness, disease, or death. He touches us in the most personal way. He touches us with his own blood that we might have life in him.
God does not look on this world of sin, disease, and death with indifference. If he had, he never would have sent his son. Instead, God became flesh that he might touch the human race to change our destiny. Every person on this planet can be healed, if they come to Jesus. He is both willing and able, and he reaches out to touch everyone who seeks him.
That does not mean that we will not suffer in this life. It means we won’t suffer alone, if we walk the way with Jesus. If we walk the way with Jesus, we will also experience the resurrection with him. He has assured our complete and total healing.
Those that follow Jesus will naturally not keep silent about how he has touched us. We will want others to be touched by Jesus so that they too may be made clean not only from sin, but all the effect of sin in this dying world.
What a great example we have in Kim Raul and his family, living in the jungles of Panama. They preach the gospel, and they reach out with the touch of Jesus. They treat snake bites, sew up bullet wounds, plant farms, engineer safe water, and build homes and churches. They expose themselves to danger that others might be touched with the love of Jesus. So, let’s not be afraid to touch others, always remembering that Jesus has touched all of us.
Invitation: Be touched today.
If you have never been touched by Jesus, it isn’t because he isn’t willing. It is because you haven’t come to him. Not even leprosy could keep the man from being touched and healed by Jesus. Don’t let your past, your sins, your illness, or whatever keep you from experiencing his healing touch. If you want to be touched by the blood of Jesus, today, come forward at this time.
