Jesus Touched the Untouchables

[MajestyJo]

Jesus Touched the Untouchables
by Max Lucado


When Jesus came down from the hill,
great crowds followed him.
Then a man with a skin disease came to Jesus.
The man bowed down before him and said,
"Lord, you can heal me if you will."
Jesus reached out his hand
and touched the man and said,
"I will. Be healed!"
And immediately the man
was healed from his disease.
Matthew 8:1-3


I wonder… about the man who felt
Jesus' compassionate touch.
He makes one appearance,
has one request,
and receives one touch.
But that one touch
changed his life forever….


I wonder about this man because
in New Testament times leprosy
was the most dreaded disease.
The condition rendered the body
a mass of ulcers and decay.
Fingers would curl and gnarl.
Blotches of skin would discolor and stink.
Certain types of leprosy
would numb nerve endings,
leading to a loss of fingers, toes,
even a whole foot or hand.
Leprosy was death by inches.


The social consequences were
as severe as the physical.
Considered contagious,
the leper was quarantined,
banished to a leper colony.

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…


The touch did not heal the disease, you know.
Matthew is careful to mention that it was
the pronouncement and not the touch
of Christ that cured the condition.
"Jesus reached out his hand
and touched the man and said,
'I will. Be healed!'
And immediately the man was
healed from his disease" (Matt. 8:3).

The infection was banished
by a word from Jesus.

The loneliness, however, was treated
by a touch from Jesus.

Jesus touched the untouchables of the world.

From
His Name is Jesus