HIS TOUCH

KJV Luke 5:12-13

Jesus Cleanses a Leper And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.

The Bible tells us that the man was FULL of leprosy. Leprosy is a crippling disease and sometimes it can just attack your fingers, legs but when your entire body is covered by leprosy that's on another level. During Jesus' times it was unlawful for anyone to interact with someone that had leprosy because they followed the commandments of Moses. So if you ever touched them or anything they had touched you would also become unclean and the reason was because Leprosy was a very contagious disease. So death was swallowing life and there was nothing they could do to stop it.

The solution that they gave was to isolate that leprous man and they would throw food at him. That's a painful place to be at, you can't hug or touch your children for fear of infecting them. So you had to be isolated to die alone. So since this man discovered that he had leprosy he had never felt any human touch. Such a sad story and it's similar to what is happening in 2020. We have an outbreak of a disease called COVID-19 and it's almost similar to leprosy. If you have its symptoms you are isolated and quarantined alone. No one can touch you or else they will risk contracting the disease. Amazing times we are living in.

Jesus steps into the scene and the leprous man hears about His healing miracles and decides to track Him down. So to move from where He was to where Jesus was, he must have come into contact with other people. He broke the quarantine rules stipulated in the laws of Moses. He risked his life to meet Jesus. When Jesus saw Him, He did something that touched me at the core. As the leprous man begs Jesus for healing, even before Jesus spoke He stretched out His hand and TOUCHED him. You need to know that those leprous guys smelt, it was not the nicest smell. But that never bothered Jesus, He didn't care how bad He smelt. To Him that didn't natter, He knew that this man had not felt a loving human touch because everyone avoided him like he was a plague. Overcome with compassion and love He stretched forth His hand and touched Him.

I don't know what was going on in this man's mind when Jesus touched him. I know he wasn't expecting a touch from Him because when you see how he begged Jesus to heal him you could tell that he wasn't sure about Jesus' willingness. He was sure that He had power to heal but He wasn't Sure about His willingness. This is also what happens to most of us, Yes we know that God has the power to heal, deliver and prosper us But is He willing to do it for us? We hear testimonies of what He did for others and we know that we can have the same testimony but is God willing to do it for me?

This is one thing that paralyses our faith. We are like that leprous guy, "Lord I know you can do this for me But are you willing?" This worsens when we pray for a miracle and it takes longer than expected for us to see the answer. Immediately our minds rush to God's willingness, nobody doubts if God can do anything but people do have faith issues when it comes to God's willingness. Brother Bornnie if God is willing then why is it taking long?

Jesus is not offended by that thought though because He understands us But He prefers that we grow. The only way we can get to clear this troubling thought on God's willingness is by studying His character in the word. How He handled similar situations. Look at what He says here:

NKJV 1 Peter 2:2

as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

This is God's desire for us, that as we take His word and get to learn from Him we will get to understand His true nature. As we grow the crippling doubtful thoughts about God's willingness will continue to diminish. As you grow through the word I want to comfort you by letting you know that God understands where you are and that's why it never bothered Jesus that the leprous man questioned His willingness.

Our beautiful saviour, our eternal priest with love in His eyes moved closer to the leprous guy and even before responding to his cry He touched him. He knew that this man hadn't felt a human touch for such a long time and He didn't want it to continue. God created us to be social beings and touch is one of main ways of communicating love and showing care. This is why, Covid-19 is devastating many people because it's making us behave differently from who we are. Kids are being told to stay away from each other and not touch each other. They can't play together and we are raising them wrongly. I don't think they fully understand what Covid-19 is but am pretty sure they hate it because it's messing up with who they are.

Jesus fully knowing this went ahead and touched him. This was worth more than the healing itself. He first addressed a deeper need this man had; loneliness. Ever been in a situation where things are happening all around you and no one seems to recognize you? You are just alone in your own world. Yes you are receiving services and being given money but there is a deeper cry within you that isn't being attended to. Ever heard someone say "I feel like I am not being noticed?" This is why most people commit suicide, they feel that they don't matter and so no need to continue living.

Jesus understood this and He immediately addressed it first. He touched him and gave him all His attention. Jesus was a master at service delivery. Yes the service the man needed was healing but Jesus cared more than just delivering the service. I know some in the crowd thought, "This guy just needs healing why is He wasting time touching him and talking to him? Just heal him and let's go" Thankfully this is not our Jesus. Our Jesus wraps the service beautifully with grace and excellence. He doesn't treat us as objects but as a person. He indeed understood the meaning of being human or human being. Instead of just delivering service, whether it be healing, prayer or service at our places of work why not add a beautiful experience to it?

After making Him feel wanted then Jesus releases His healing through His words. There was war between life and death and life won. Most people were afraid of touching someone that had leprosy because they would also become leprous but not with Jesus. When He touched him instead of Jesus becoming unclean, the man became clean. Life swallowed death. This is God's principle, not avoiding death but bringing life out of death.

The same Jesus that walked on the earth is still on earth today but in a different form. The character is exactly the same just the shape is different. Look at this:

NKJV John 14:16

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

Before Jesus left the earth He let them know that God was going to send them another person. Now the word there Another it's a Greek word "Allos" which means another but of the same kind. For example, if you had one apple and you sent someone to go and get you another apple but of the same kind. There are different types of apples but you want one that's of the same kind that you had. This is what Jesus meant, the Holy Spirit would have the exactly same character as the one Jesus had. The Holy Spirit is Jesus unlimited.

If then you are born again you have His Spirit living inside of you and He is WILLING to answer all those prayers. He sees you, He recognises you and when you worship He is the one that touches you. The life that He is, is consuming your entire being. You can trust Him, He is willing to touch you. He sees you!

God bless you