Touching The Untouchable!

Rev. George R. Dillahunty
Freedom Fellowship (COG)
685 Grant Avenue
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23452-3047

June 29, 2009

Text: Luke 5:12-16 (King James Version)

"And it came to pass, when He was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought Him, saying, ’Lord, if you wilt, thou canst make me clean.’ (v. 13) And he put forth His hand and touched him, saying, ’I will" be thou clean.’ And immediately the leprosy departed from him. (v. 14) And He charged him to ’tell no man: but go, and shew himself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.’ (v. 15) But so much the more went there a fame abroad of Him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. (v. 16) And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed."

Topic: Touching The Untouchable!

What happens when we, as children of Almighty God, reach out to Jesus, the Christ? What happens when we come to Almighty God in faith? While the result is not always the same, I believe it would be helpful for us, today, to engage our text and examine one instance where Jesus, the Christ, interrupted the life of a man of faith and changed his life forever! In our Holy Scripture text, for today, Jesus, the Christ, did something that nobody else, at the time, was willing to do - He reached out and touched the untouchable - the physically and ceremonially "unclean!"

The physcially and ceremonially "unclean" were people with leprosy, people who according to Jewish Law and observing Jewish people were untouchable; yet, Jesus, the Christ, was willing to touch the untouchable! I believe that this passage of Holy Scripture has a powerful application to each and every one of us - an application that we do not want to miss! Let’s make a couple of observations ourselves - some things that we can learn from this healing event and apply to our own lives - is that alright?

First of all, our hope is found in Jesus, the Christ, alone! This leper does a courageous thing! He had heard about Jesus, the Christ, so he fought his way through the crowd to find Him. He fell on his face and begged Jesus, the Christ, to heal him. Without a doubt, that was the most important decision this man ever made. He found himself in a hopeless and helpless condition; yet, he did not give up hope! As the African-American clergyman and political activist, Rev. Jesse Louis Jackson (Born: 1841), would say, "He kept hope alive!" He sought the right help! This leper serves as a good model to us on how we should seek Jesus, the Christ! He demonstrated two (2) qualities that I believe are required before an individual can be changed by Jesus, the Christ: (1) Humility and (2) Faith!

This leper approached Jesus, the Christ, with a willingness to humble himself! The Holy Bible - the written Word of Almighty God - says that this leper fell on his face before Jesus, the Christ! If we really and truly desire to seek Jesus, the Christ, we must be willing to fall on our face before Him - if not literally, at least in our hearts!

In Proverbs 3:34 (NLT), we read: The Lord mocks at mockers, but He shows favor to the humble." I am absolutely convinced that the reason some people will never be saved is because they are too proud to even admit that they need help - they deny that they