Tuesday, March 15, 2011

49. He Touched People

Luke 4:40


There is a dispenser of hand sanitizer in the lobby of the Anderson County jail and the guards there strongly encourage us to use it after we visit Unit 2 for our weekly Bible Study. The jail is such a closed system that I imagine the spread of sickness in that place is pretty fast and furious. This past winter they got the stomach flu and apparently it wiped the whole place out for about a week as it quickly took down most of the 300 or so inmates. You know, one of the things that stands out about Jesus as you read the Gospels is the fact that He was always touching people. In Mark 10, little children were brought to Jesus and He touched them and blessed them. In Luke 4, every sick person in Capernaum was brought to Jesus and He touched every one of them and healed them. The thing is, Jesus didn’t need to touch them to heal them. He was and is Almighty God. Many times He healed people with a word who weren’t even there with Him. Jesus was the only man in the world at that time who knew about germs and yet, He wasn’t afraid to touch diseased people. He could have spoken a word and healed every sickness in the world, but He didn’t. You see, Jesus’ mission in the world wasn’t just a campaign against disease and illness. His was a mission of love to individual hearts, some of whom happened to have a disease. That’s why He came. That’s why He looked people in the eye and touched them. I love Jesus because He wanted individuals to know Him one by one, including me.

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