A Touchy Subject

Saturday   11-21-15    Modesto, California

Scripture reading:   Matt 8 - 10

S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  Matt 8:3  Jesus touched him. "I want to," he said. "Be healed!" And instantly the leprosy disappeared.

Matt 8:15  But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her.

Matt 9:21 she thought, "If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed."

Matt 9:29-30  Then he touched their eyes and said, "Because of your faith, it will happen."  And suddenly they could see!

Matt 9:25-26  Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and she stood up! NLT

O.  Jesus was a toucher.  It was against the Jewish rules to touch a leper.  Nobody in that crowd following Jesus that day had ever witnessed a person touching a leper.  As Jesus reached down toward the leper worshipping at his feet someone in the crowd may have yelled.  “Jesus, don’t touch him!  He’s a leper!”  Later he was on His way to touch a dead girl when an “unclean woman” (according to Jewish law) broke the rules and reached out to touch the hem of his garment... and He blessed her with healing.  It was also against the Jewish law to touch a dead body, unless it was your family member.  But Jesus shooed out the mourners and walked up to the dead girl, took her cold hand and she came to life and stood up.

A.  I notice that according to the records that we have, Jesus never touched a demon possessed person.  He commanded demons to leave and they fled.  But he often touched the sick and especially the beggars and untouchables.  Maybe they needed a caring touch of love more than any others. 

P.  Lord, You know I was not like this before.  You made a toucher out of me.  You sent me to the street to place an arm around the shoulders of a drunken beggar.  Somehow I could envision him as Your redeemed, healthy servant.  You called me to reach out to an addict and armed robber named Nito and love him as though he was my son.  You called me to love a screaming atheist named Carlos and watch him melt humbly and accept Your gift of grace.  You sent me to dead men and women... dead in their sinful life-styles... to take them by the hand and in Your strength to lift them into life with a capital L.  And if their names are written in Your “Book of Life” today, it is because of the touch of Your hand, not mine.  Amen.

Ralph