How many of you remember the first time that you held hands with a significant other person in your life.
Maybe it was your first girlfriend - the girl at school who was going out with Jeff all week, but dumped him on Friday morning.
By lunch time on Friday you’re sitting her and your hands touch and she held on.
You think this is it. You were in love and it was going to last forever.
Until Monday when she went back to Jeff.
That is what happens when you are 10 isn’t it.
But you remember that touch.
How many of you can think of a time like that?
Maybe it was the first time you held hands with the person who would become your spouse.
I was 17 at the time and Corianna was … 16 … she was very mature!
I could drive and after youth group I would usually drive a car load of people home because I had an EH Holden with a bench seat in the front.
It turned out that one Sunday there were three of us in the front me, Corianna and another person in the front, and three in the back.
The most direct route to drop of the passengers would mean Corianna was the third to drop off.
As we were driving I noticed her hand, her right hand, was on the seat next to me as I was driving. This is great … so, I came up with a new plan.
I was change gears
For those who don’t know the gear shift on an EH Holden is on the column.
So I was changing gears and not putting my hand on steering wheel but put it on the seat.
Change gears … hand on seat.
Sometimes our pinkies touched. Sometimes a couple of fingers.
There was this spark.
By the time I had dropped her off the signals were very clear.
The power of touch.
In one way or another we all long for touch don’t we.
By nature we are designed for touch. We are designed to give touch and we are designed to receive touch.
But the thing about touch is that if you want to receive touch we often need to take a risk and make ourselves vulnerable.
I know there are people in this world that if you want touch or a hug you just go to them and you can guarantee they will give you a good hug, or a welcome that involves an embrace of some time. And those people are great to be around … unless you are a person who doesn’t like that sort of physical contact.
But I’m talking here about more intimate touch … that vulnerability touch.
The part of your life where you come out of your space into the space of another person.
That is a different space.
It is the sort of touch which is unplanned, unrehearsed, that is unannounced … moments which lead to a transformed relationship.
Can you think of those times in your life? The power of touch.
So, because it has such power, we know and we understand that God is also a God of touch.
So the question is, “How is God a God of touch?”
Now, last week, when we looked at the sense of sight we read this Scripture. In John 14:9 we read “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
So if we want to understand how God is a God of touch we first have a look at what Jesus - what did Jesus do in terms of using touch in his ministry - when we see what Jesus did we understand what God is doing.
And there is a really powerful section of Scripture that gives us a huge insight into the power of touch.
Luke 5:12-16 (read)
The power of touch
Let me give you a bit of a context so you can appreciate the significance of what is happening here.
There is a man, let’s picture him being in his mid-thirties.
A Jewish man.
He is just getting on with life.
He has got four children. He has gotten himself to a point in his life where has established his home.
He finally has a good job and a solid home. And he is starting to get ahead.
He comes home one day and there is this spot on the back of his hand.
It doesn’t hurt and doesn’t itch - but it is there.
So he just ignores it.
Then one day he comes home from work and shows his wife a small sore that developed on his hand from using a certain tool too much. It’s not real painful, but it does keep him from working on his house that evening.
So he takes it easy for a couple of days.
But the spots get larger even though they still don’t hurt.
Eventually his wife persuades him to go and see an expert …
… the expert is not a doctor.
… the expert is a priest.
The priest s an expert in identifying skin infections.
At the end of the consultation with this expert what he fears is true.
The priest says “You have leprosy. You are going to have to leave your wife and children, your land, your home, your job, and go off to live with the other lepers out behind the town.”
Why did this happen?
Because of what we read in Leviticus 13:45-46
45 ‘Anyone with such a defiling disease (these disease are described earlier in the passage, not just leprosy but this that ooze and puss) … anyone who has such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” 46 As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.
This is what life is like in the days of Jesus for a leper.
So you can imagine straight away social isolation that would result and the impact of walking around the streets shouting, ”Unclean. Unclean.”
Then there is the future isolation of living away in an area with other leprous people - who are in all sorts of stages of having the disease.
When they came to town to get food they would be identified straight away.
You would hear them shouting … but visually they were unkempt and wearing torn clothes.
Everyone would separate.
People would walk on the other side of the street.
Mothers would be dragging their kids out of the way.
It was a socially isolating disease.
No-one would touch them for fear of catching the disease.
Touching a leper was also a huge inconvenience. Anyone who touched a leper would be unclean until evening … and only after they had been through a ceremonial washing.
You would also be unclean till the next day.
Socially no-one will touch him because it is too inconvenient.
But there is more going on.
Most people think that leprosy causes your skin to rot and fall off your body, but this is not really the case. The most common form of leprosy causes damage to the body’s nervous system.
When you have leprosy you cannot feel anything.
Leprosy may eventually cause your whole body to go numb.
When someone is blind, they cannot see; when someone is deaf, they cannot hear; when someone has leprosy, they cannot feel touch.
Think about that for a moment.
You can’t feel touch.
I stand here I can feel the breeze coming from the fan.
I can feel the heat coming off the data projector.
When you have leprosy you can’t feel these things.
Technically it is not the leprosy that kills - it is the lack of feeling.
You could be cutting vegetables for dinner and accidentally cut off a finger and not even know.
You could be sleeping by a fire roll too close to the fire and burn off their foot in the night without ever waking up.
In the cold you don’t know your fingers are freezing off.
It is very dangerous to have leprosy.
Leprosy doesn’t kill you it is everything around you that is dangerous.
When you have leprosy no-one touches you.
When you have leprosy you don’t feel anything.
Now take all of that and focus on the moment when the man says to Jesus if you are willing you can make me clean.
Why does he say, “IF you are willing?”
Because, if Jesus touches this man, Jesus is going to be unclean.
I’m not wanting to impose on you Lord.
I’m not wanting to presume you want to help.
But, IF YOU are willing this is what I want.
Then Jesus touches the man.
How long has it been since he was touched?
How many years has it been since someone had hugged this man?
How many years had it been since someone had done something as simple as give his shoulder a loving squeeze?
Here is the great truth.
Jesus could have healed the man without touching him. He does it all the time in the Gospels. He can heal with just a word. He can heal from a great distance
Lord if you command then my servant will be healed … and that is what happened.
Sometimes Jesus heals without a word.
Often he heals without any touch.
Jesus didn’t need to touch him, but he does.
Jesus does that to remind us of what sort of God we have.
In fact when you have a closer look at the Greek it does just say, “Jesus touched him by putting his hand or a finger … but keeping as much as possible away.”
The Greek could literally be translated, “Jesus took hold of him”.
Maybe he put his arm around his shoulders.
Maybe Jesus embraced him.
Maybe Jesus took his hand.
It could have been a range of things but, whatever the case, it is a radical gesture.
I am deliberately reaching out to you.
As Jesus reaches out - you can imagine this situation - the hand gets placed on the man and he is healed.
Remember, leprosy stops you free feeling touch.
He is healed and the first thing the leper feels as he is healed is the hand of Jesus.
I think this is a powerful picture of the God … a God of touch.
A touch which says, “I am here with you. I sympathize with you when no one else does. I see you sin but I am still reaching out. I will bring healing into your life. I will become unclean for your sake because I love you.”
Jesus came into this world to touch and to be touched.
If you see this and acknowledge this and acknowledge this you see it again and again.
In Mark 5 Jairus the leader of a synagogue, approached Jesus and begged him to heal his daughter, “Please come and put your hands on her” is the plea (Mark 5:23).
While they are going to the house of Jairus another unclean person, a woman who has continually been bleeding for 12 years, comes to Jesus “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." (Mark 5:28). Jesus senses that touch … and calls her daughter.
She reaches out she touches Jesus - because she knows the power of the touch.
When they get to the house of Jairus the daughter has passed away. Jesus “took her by the hand and said to 'Little girl, get up.'" (Mark 5:41).
Just in that short space we see Jesus touch again and again.
During the ministry of Jesus parents wanted Jesus to bless the children.
The disciples didn’t want it and sent them away. But Jesus is indignant.
He spends time with the children. He blessed them. To bless them he places his hand on them.
The power of touch.
After the resurrection: Jesus “said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’”. That touch leads to faith as Thomas proclaims, ‘My Lord and my God!’ (John 20:27-28).
Touch me and know that I am real.
Later, in a declaration of the importance of faith, John writes in one of his letters, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” (1 John 1:1)
As we watch the actions of Jesus here we need to know that God wants us to know that he reaches out to us and touches us.
Sometimes we feel it don’t we.
There are those moments in life when we are going through heartache and pain and grief and difficulty.
Our world is upside down.
We may feel isolated. We may wonder if society will every really accept us. We wonder if we have a place.
And we may have even wondered if God wants us as well.
Then we get to the place where we are like the man with leprosy.
Is this Jesus really willing.
Is he willing to come into my world? The world of uncleanliness and isolation?
Is he willing to enter my space, where I feel so unworthy and useless?
Are you will to make a sacrifice big enough that will deal with my failings and short-comings?
Are you really willing Jesus?
And Jesus says, “Yes”.
Of course I am willing.
I am willing to hold you and embrace you and remind you of my love.
That is Jesus. Stepping into our world and reminding us of that touch.
We need that touch of Jesus don’t we.
For we don’t have leprosy, but we have a disease that goes all the way from our skin, to our heart. It’s called sin.
And sin makes us unworthy, isolated, separated, unclean.
In the middle of that sin we wonder - Jesus are you really willing to help me and save me?
The answer is always “yes”.
Jesus always says yes.
Isn’t it then that we feel the touch of God - the Spirit washing over us renewing and reviving us. Reminding us of his grace and love.
Sometimes we feel that hand. And sometimes we don’t.
Little Mary called from her bedroom on a stormy night. “Mummy” calling across from the hallway, “Mum, I’m scared!”
Mum is sympathetic “Honey, don’t be afraid. Close your eyes and pray. And remember that Jesus is always with you.”
After the next big thunder-clap little Mary is standing next to Mum’s bed.
“Can I get in bed with you and Daddy? I know Jesus is always with me, but right now I need Jesus with skin on.”
Jesus is always with us.
But sometimes we don’t feel it, or notice it. Sometimes we really need Jesus with skin on.
Who is Jesus with skin on?
Isn’t it us.
Are we not called the bride of Christ? His co-heirs?
Isn’t the description in the bible of Jesus being the head and we are the body.
Isn’t it the body which reaches out?
Are we not called to go out and touch the world so that people can, through us, sense the touch of God.
To show the love and mercy and the embrace of Jesus.
To touch the world in the way that no one else can because we are touching them with the hand of Jesus.
Never under-estimate the power of touch as God works through you.
Sometimes we visit people in hospital and we don’t know what to say. What can we say to help. In those times holding a patient's hand in a hospital room, says more than 10,000 words of comfort.
Sometimes embracing someone who has experienced a loss, is of greater comfort than a raft of consoling words.
Sometimes a warm hand on the shoulder, or a warm hug, can speak greater volumes of welcome than anything else.
When it comes to spreading the love of God sometimes we don’t know what to say.
What am I going to say?
How am I going to make a difference?
But every single one of us can spread the love of God with a touch.
We can come along and without saying anything, we can say everything.
Reminding the world, our friends, our loved, ourselves, that God is a God who touches us.
It is though that touch that Jesus brings about healing.
In the case of the leper it wasn’t just a transformation from leprosy, it was a transformation of life.
Friends, in our capacity to express love, we must never underestimate the power of touch.
For through the touch Jesus didn’t just heal the man … he changed the man.
Touch is a powerful sense in our relationship with God.
Knowing that God has reached out to us … then touching others as his hands.
Letting the world know of the unconditional love of God that he has for them.
Prayer.
