Revd David Jebb’s Pastoral Reflection – June 2023
‘Let us be like Jesus, and reach out and touch the untouchable.’
Luke 4:13. Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
I love this about Jesus. Do you see it? Jesus put out His hand and touched him.
How many years had it been since someone had hugged this man? How many years had it been since someone had done something as simple as give his shoulder a loving squeeze? How many years do you think it had been since this man had been touched? He couldn’t even pet a dog without it being killed. Jesus knows this and so he put out his hand and touched him. In fact, the word is much stronger than just a touch. The Greek could literally be translated, Jesus took hold of him. Maybe he put his arm around his shoulders. Maybe Jesus embraced him. Jesus could have healed the man without touching him. He does it all the time in the Gospels. He can heal with just a word. He can heal from a great distance, without a word and without any touch. But Jesus knows that this leper needs love just as much if not more than he needs healing. Oh, the healing will be wonderful, but what he really needs is love.
Why does Jesus do this? It was a radical thing for him to do. According to Jewish law, if a person touched someone who was unclean, they became unclean also. So why did Jesus do this? First of all, he did it for the sake of the leper. Christ never heals anybody just to show others that He can heal. Christ never heals anybody to attract attention or gain public fame. No, he simply wanted to show love to the leper. Christ was not scared of his sores, or put off by his rotting flesh. The touch said, “I am here with you. I sympathize with you when no one else does. I understand. I love you.”
Do you ever feel like a leper? Jesus is saying the same thing to you. “I am here with you. I sympathize with you when no one else does. I understand. I love you.” Jesus touched the leper to show him that He loved him.
But beyond this, I believe Jesus shows love to the leper for another reason. Remember, he has just called four men to be his disciples and told them that if they followed Him, he would teach them how to become fishers of men. This is their first fishing lesson. Jesus is telling them that if they want to catch men, they first need to love them. Jesus is showing them how to become fishers of men: reach out and touch someone. Look past the scars and the wounds and the rotting flesh, the missing fingers and toes, and just love them. If you want your neighbor to become a Christian, the first thing to do is to show them Christian love. Go mow their lawn, or stack their wood. Invite them over for dinner. Find out what they need, and then meet that need.
Too often, we as Christians do our best to avoid non-Christians. Rather than seek them out, we often run from them because are scared of the situations that might arise if we befriend them. And you know what? Awkward situations will arise. But if we are going to be effective in our evangelism, we must reach out to touch the unsaved, because they certainly are not going to come into the church. This man needed to be touched, and so Jesus touched him. He didn’t tell the man to come to the synagogue on Saturday to listen to the sermon. The man never would have come. He was not accepted there. He was not allowed even to come there. And so Jesus met him where he was at, and touched him. Who in your life needs to be touched? Who in your neighbourhood needs a loving word said to them, or a kind deed performed for them? We all need to make attempts to love those who often go unloved. That is what Jesus modelled here for his disciples. If we are his disciples, we will do the same thing.