The touch of Jesus !

26.05.2021

Wednesday 26 May 2021

“Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him.” Mark 1. 41

During His earthly ministry, Jesus encountered lepers several times. Because of their disease, which was wrongly considered until the beginning of the 20th century as highly infectious, lepers had to live in isolation from others, as outcasts of society. Either they camped outside city walls, exposed and vulnerable, or they organized themselves into closed communities. In Crete such a community still existed, on the island of Spinalonga, until 1957. Out of fear and also out of superstition, few people dared to touch leprosy patients. Now we read, from Mark's pen : “A leper came to him (Jesus) and, falling on his knees, said to him begging : If you will, you can make me clean. Filled with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said: I will, be clean. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was purified ”. Jesus could have healed him with just a word, but He takes the time to touch him first. Have you wondered how many years this man had lived without anyone touching him ? Being touched by Jesus must have shaken this man even before he was healed. Why did Jesus do this ? Because His gesture foreshadowed the Cross on which He would bear our sins. By making physical contact with the leper, Jesus took on the man's disease, transferred it, so to speak, to His own skin. David McGee explains : “Sin isolates you like leprosy the leper. If you have sinned during the week, do not isolate yourself from your brothers and sisters in the faith. Jesus can and wants to forgive and heal you. You no longer need to lock yourself in your corner. Draw near to Him for healing and draw near to those who want to encourage you and surround you with their love and compassion”. Think about it !

Source (His Word for Today)