Daring to Hope, Daring to Touch

What Did Jesus Do?

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him…
Mark 1.41

There are things that it is simply dangerous, sometimes even deadly, to come in contact with. There are things that can hurt us and kill us. “Don’t’ touch!” is one of the first lessons parents teach their young children. Some of us probably remember painful lessons from our toddler-hood when we found out why mom told us not to go near the stove, and never to touch it. There is a good chance that more than a few of us are likely to carry scars as reminders of times when we touched when we shouldn’t have. From avoiding the stove, to never petting a stray dog, to keeping away from strangers, no few lives have been saved by the lesson, “Do not touch!”

When we grow up we may learn other lessons about using potholders, putting on gloves and goggles, wearing masks, and handling such safety equipment as to be able to approach something dangerous with a barrier of protection to keep us from coming into direct contact with that which could harm us. Important lessons; lifesaving lessons. It can be costly to touch.

When Jesus was a boy I am sure he was taught about the danger of getting too near things that could hurt him. When he was little I am certain that Joseph and Mary would have taught Jesus about the danger of fire. And stray dogs were no doubt as much a danger back then as they are now, and Jesus would have been taught to stay away from them. Jesus would also have learned at an early age about avoiding someone who was “unclean,” specifically the pitiful creatures who were stricken with leprosy. “Give them a wide berth, Jesus. And whatever you do, never, ever touch a leper!” And Jesus would have undoubtedly grown up seeing how scrupulously everyone, including his own parents, stayed clear of lepers. In fact, the Lord would have surely observed that lepers were outcasts, forbidden to actually enter Nazareth; condemned to remove themselves to desolate places to live out their miserable and tragic existence beyond the boundary of human society.

Of course, the lepers were taught the same lessons. “You are unclean. You must stay away from all villages and towns, never entering in to the sphere of human society except for the company of other wretches like yourself. And never, ever touch anyone who is not a leper!”

But when you are the Son of God, and word gets around that you can exorcise demons, and remove fevers with the touch of your hand, and heal many diseases, well, you are going to attract all kinds of desperate people. Mark tells of one such man, a leper, who, daring to hope that Jesus was able to cure even his incurable condition, came to the Lord and begged him, if he would, to make him clean.

Now, Jesus had surely not forgotten all he had been taught about never touching a leper. Furthermore, as the Son of God he had sufficient authority and power to simply speak a word of healing, and the leper would have been cleansed without any need of touching him. But Mark tells us that, moved by pity, Jesus dared to stretch out his own hand, to cross any and all barriers, and touch the man who had dared to hope, and with a command, “Be clean!” the leprosy left the man instantly. That touch crossed a forbidden boundary to not only cleanse the man, but to restore him to human society.

Then an interesting role reversal occurred. Though Jesus directed the man to keep secret how he had come to be cured, the man nevertheless went about telling everybody what Jesus had done for him. And, for the first time in many years, the man did not have to shout at people from a distance, but was able to freely enter into the midst villages and throngs of people to share his good news with them. The outcast was an outcast no more. Daring to hope had restored the man to human society.

But Jesus, who had dared to touch an untouchable, was forced to avoid villages, and to skirt towns, and to keep to desolate places for the crush of people who now sought him had become overwhelming. Daring to touch had forced Jesus to distance himself from human society.

There are no few people today who exist on the margins, whose lives, for many reasons, place them, if not entirely out of bounds, at the very boundaries of human society. Economics, health, race and ethnicity, even age, can be reasons people are strictly segregated today, and, overtly or covertly, lessons are still taught and learned about who to avoid, and who not to touch.

But those who are desperate still today often continue to dare to hope. And their hope often rests with those of us who seek to follow Jesus, and who have a choice whether or not to feel pity and act compassionately, and dare to “stretch out our hand” and touch one who needs nothing so much as that contact to be restored to fuller participation in human society. The challenge is to dare to touch. That’s what Jesus did.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4