Touch

I remember watching People in the News on CNN once. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were traveling around parts of West Africa enduring a famine. Pitt was filmed visiting an orphanage where undersized babies lie in their cribs abandoned for most of the day. The babies craved touch. When Brad spoke they would turn their little heads towards the sound of a human voice. I remember him holding a little boy’s head and a faint smile cross the orphan's face. Pitt choked back tears as he spoke of the innate desire for human contact, the need deep in our bones to be held, to be loved, to be touched.

Babies will literally wither and die without touch. A therapist friend of mine stated to me recently that the majority of her cases involve lonely people. They are isolated. They are frightened and they are alone. They just want someone to come and hug them, to wrap their arms around them and say, "I love you. You are special to me. You matter." Oh the power of a hug.

I have witnessed this myself many times on my own, during service work and on mission trips. One location jumps right to mind. I was working at a kids club, like a summer long vacation bible school for disadvantaged kids in West Virginia. These kids there were so needy for attention. They were sponges for our touch. They would soak up the love we gave them. They would hang from your neck and cling to your legs and no amount of attention could quench the thirst in their souls for possitive human contact. The kids were just hungry for touch.


What about Jesus? What was the Living Lord's policy on touch? I'll just toss out a few stories right off the top of my head.

Jesus heals the blind man at Bethsaida. Lets look at how Jesus chooses to heal this man. He could have gone about it many ways. But very purposely Jesus chooses to reach out and touch the broken, the needy, the crippled and the blind and restore them. This touch makes whole.

22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"
24He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."
25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Mark 8:22-25

Jesus encounters a man with leprosy. Now remember in this day, lepers were social outcasts. They lived outside of town, called out when they approached and often lived off trash and scavenging to survive. It was against the code of the day to touch or even talk to a leper. What does Jesus do? Does He follow societal mores? Or does He go against the grain and give the man what he desperately needs?

1When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
3Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. 4Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

Matthew 8:1-4

Finally let's look at the woman with gynecological problems. She had been sick for so long and she had followed all the normal ways to get well. Nothing worked. Finally, in desperation she reached out for Jesus! She knew she needed only to touch but the edge of his cloak and it would be enough to set her free. How does Jesus respond to this touch? Does He rebuke her? Does He send her away for violating the rules about women touching men they aren’t' married to?

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. 44She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
45"Who touched me?" Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, "Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you."
46But Jesus said, "Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me."
47Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48Then he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace."

Luke 8:42b-48

Jesus wasn't afraid of touch. It was the essence of what He did on earth. He reached out and touched people. He wasn't afraid of tradition or laws or policies. He saw that innate human need to be touched, and He reached out and restored them in a very intimate, very personal way. A person touch from a personal Savior.

Today, many people have become terrified of touch. They have replaced brotherly hugs with firm handshakes, tearful embraces for A-hugs and a pat on the back. Imagine Jesus entering today's church. Image His expression when He'd hear the rules about touch. He'd shake His head and walk out and hug someone.