I'm reminded of a song that we used to sing in my church entitled, "He Touched Me."
He touched me; He touched me,
And, O, what joy o'ercame my soul
Something happened and now I know
He touched me and made me whole.
When I was a child, I couldn't really understand why the older folks in church would cry when they sang this song. As The years passed and I had experiences where I had been touched by Him, I began to realize why. There is something about the touch of Jesus that overwhelms.
Many of us already have heard about how lepers were the UNCLEAN of Jewish society...
How they were the outcasts who had to announce their uncleaness in public so that people would not mistakenly approach them or touch them, or else they would be unclean like the leper...
How lepers not only had to deal with the painful disease but also with the separation from community, worship, having jobs...
We have heard about it and we hear about it whenever this passage is discussed.
One thing stood out to me when I read this passage this time around..."Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him." If you read Matthew 8, you'll see this same story of the leprous man and the story of Jesus healing the centurion's servant immediately following. If you recall, Jesus never went to the centurion's house to heal the servant. He simply announced the servant's healing never having touched him. Why did Jesus touch this leper? He didn't have to do it. He could have just said, "Be clean." My brother Rico helped me to imagine the disciples and the crowd with Jesus even standing afar off as Jesus talked with and touched this man. They didn't want to be unclean and cut off from the community. They were probably thinking, "Jesus, you're going to far! Don't do it! Don't.........He touched him." But, rather than the leprosy having power to make him unclean, Jesus' healing power makes the leper clean.
I was the leper in this account at different points in my life. Jesus has touched me when others stood afar off and His loving touch invested with divine power has cleansed me. I've been like Jesus in this account, where He has helped me to reach out to those who no one cares for to touch them and welcome them to a new life. All too often, however, I have been the crowd, not wanting to get involved, thinking more about the implications for me rather than how a loving touch, a smile, a helping hand, a word of encouragement, or a prayer for divine healing could transform a life.
Questions
Who are you today?
Who do you want to be?
How does this change your prayers and your living today?
"Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these..." John 14:12
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