Do Not Touch

August 11, 2021
Midweek study with Pastor Edith
Text: Matthew 8:1-4

(The Message). Jesus came down the mountain with the cheers of the crowd ringing in his ears. Then a leper appeared and went to his knees before Jesus, praying, ‘Master, if you want to, you can heal my body.’
Jesus reached out and touched him, saying, "I want to. Now, be clean."

Then and there, all signs of the leprosy were gone.

Jesus said, "Don’t talk about this all over town. Just quietly present your healed body to the priest, along with the appropriate expressions of thanks to God. Your cleansed and grateful life, not your words, will bear witness to what I have done."

The context of these verses put us in a time and place where the disease of leprosy was not uncommon, and the social consequences of this disease made the leper an outcast. Not even family could be around them. They would be considered untouchable. Max Lucado writes; “In scripture the leper is symbolic of the ultimate outcast; infected by a condition he did not seek, rejected by those he knew, avoided by people he did not know, condemned to a future he could not bear. And in the memory of each outcast must have been a day he was forced to face the truth: Life would never be the same.”

When I was young, the phrase “What Would Jesus Do” became popular, It was inspired by a book written in the late 1940’s or early 50’s by a man named Charles Sheldon; In His Steps. If you have never read this marvelous story, I highly recommend it to you. It makes for great evening family reading, and gives everyone something to consider when thinking about living the Christian life. So, what did Jesus do in the scripture for today? Answer – He healed the Leper. But how? Did Jesus touch him, like he did in other healing accounts in the bible? Here is Max’s answer; “ The touch did not heal the disease…the infection was banished by a word from Jesus. The loneliness, however, was treated by a touch from Jesus…Can we offer the same? Many of you already do. Some of you have the master touch of the Physician himself. You use your hands to pray over the sick and minister to the weak.

If you haven’t been touching them personally, your hands are writing letters, dialing phones, baking goodies. You have learned the power of a touch” (page 36 Just Like Jesus). My husband and I read an article this morning from the Upper Room devotional for today’s date and in it the author, Shelly Graf, addresses this very idea of being willing or unwilling to share the Masters touch; “It can be uncomfortable, and we may feel tempted to withdraw in fear of saying or doing the wrong thing. But when we are willing simply to be present, we join God who is already at work. We leave the situation more connected to God and more connected to one another from our shared experience” There is someone who feels “untouchable” near all of us. Don’t be afraid “The Lord your God is with you”.

AMEN