Note: This sermon was introduced with the Michael Card song "The Gentle Healer."
Think about the words to the song we just sang: "Your touch is all I need, and when your hands are on this child, your healing I receive." Today we’re going to talk about the touch of Jesus. We’ve been in a series through the New Testament book of Mark called FOLLOWING JESUS IN THE REAL WORLD.
Last week we looked at the voice of Jesus, and how his voice breaks the allure of temptation and brings us back into reality. We looked at Jesus’ announcement of God’s Kingdom, his calling of people to follow him, his teaching, and his rebuking of the forces of evil. Each time Jesus spoke his words broke through people’s lives. Today we’re going to talk about his touch. Specifically we’re going to talk about three touches of Jesus: his healing touch, his Father’s touch, and his cleansing touch.
But before we start, let me talk a minute about how I’m going to suggest we apply this section today. When we talk about Jesus touching people, it’s hard to relate that to today because Jesus isn’t physically present with us today. Although Jesus rose from the grave on Easter Sunday, according to the Bible his physical presence is in heaven at the Father’s right hand as our advocate. So how can people experience the touch of Jesus today if he’s not physically present? Well one way, perhaps the primary way, is through Jesus Christ’s Church. You see, the Bible calls the Christian Church "the body of Christ." That means that although Jesus’ physical body is in heaven, the Christian Church fills the void created by his physical absence. So one way Jesus touches people is through his community, his gathered people who seek to love and follow Jesus. So although his touch certainly isn’t limited to the Church, I believe the gathered Christian community is one of the primary ways people experience the touch of Jesus in their lives today.
So as we apply this section of Mark to our lives, I’ll be suggesting that we apply it to ourselves as a church community, not just to ourselves individually. It’s in our life together, as a church community, that we embody the touch of Jesus for other people.
Now let’s look at three touches of Jesus. Turn to Mark 1:29 and take out your outline.
1. His Healing Touch (Mark 1:29-34)
We’re going to start by talking about Jesus’ healing touch in vv. 29-34. This is one of about three dozen different healings Jesus performs that are recorded for us in the New Testament.
Now there were lots of self-proclaimed "healers" in the ancient world, and most of them were similar to the faith healers we see on TV. Most of them were charlatans and quacks, people who put on a show and tried to line their pockets at the expense of desperate and hurting people. Ancient faith healers were quick to call attention to their exploits, making sure everyone knew of their supposed healings. But this first healing in Mark’s story doesn’t fit the pattern of ancient faith healers. This healing comes in private, witnessed by just a few people.
The setting is Jesus’ visit at the home of Simon and Andrew. Archeologists have actually uncovered a ruins of a home in the ancient city of Capernaum that they believe to be the home spoken of here. They believe it to be Peter’s home because it has graffiti and drawings on the walls with Christian symbolism dating back to the time of Jesus.
Simon’s mother-in-law is home, sick in bed with a fever. Now technically, a fever isn’t an illness, but it’s a symptom. But for whatever reason-maybe she had the flu-she was so feverish that she couldn’t even get up out of bed. So Jesus heals her, but he heals her without saying a word. Most self-proclaimed faith healers in the ancient world would use incantations, elaborate rituals, or special potions to try to heal people. But what Jesus does is very different. He simply takes her hand, helps her up, and as he does, the fever breaks. Jesus doesn’t say a word. His touch is all she needs, and when his hands are on her, his healing she receives.
This woman’s immediate response to the touch of Jesus is to begin waiting on them. Now some have thought that this section to be teaching that a woman’s place is serving men, cooking food, cleaning house, and so forth. But the word for "wait on" here in v. 31 means "serve," and it’s the same word Jesus will use in chapter 10, when he says that he didn’t come to the earth to be served, but to serve. The point of this event isn’t that a woman’s place is serving men; the point is that a Christian’s place is serving others. When Jesus touches a person to heal them, the natural response is to serve God’s people, to use the opportunity of being restored to health as an opportunity to serve.
I thought about this during the week. As some of you know, we used to have people after our worship services available to pray with others. After each of our four weekend worship services we’d give an opportunity for people to come forward to receive prayer for any burden they might be carrying. But haven’t done that for several months because we didn’t have enough volunteers to staff all four of our worship services. Well at our Ministry Faire last month, we had 18 people come forward to help with that. Many of those who came forward to volunteer had themselves received prayer after the worship services during times of need, and they wanted to give back. They wanted to share what they’d received from others. Just like Simon’s mother-in-law, after being touched by Jesus, they wanted to serve God’s people. I’m happy to share with you that starting today, we’re going to have people once again available after each worship service to pray with those in need.
Now this miracle isn’t very spectacular. It’s in the privacy of a home, witnessed only by Simon, Andrew, James and John, and of course, Simon’s mother-in-law. Yet by that evening, the entire community gathers at the doorway to Simon’s home for healing and prayer. Imagine the scene, with people having every possible kind of sickness, limping, walking, being carried or dragged to this miracle worker named Jesus. Amputees who lost limbs in battles, epileptics, people with birth defects and abnormalities, people feverish with deadly viruses. There’s nothing that’s quite so humiliating as being seriously sick. When you’re really sick, you can’t control your bodily functions, you smell bad, people poke and prod you trying to figure out what’s wrong with you. Picture the scene as a multitude of sick and diseased people gather in front of the house for help. What a sight it must’ve been.
The town also brought the demon-possessed, people who were oppressed by demonic spirits. Jesus heals many of the sick and diseased people, restoring them to physical health. When he drives out demons, Jesus silences the evil spirits so they don’t announce who Jesus is. Most likely, Jesus’ reason for this is because he doesn’t want the truth about who he is announced by a demonic spirit.
Here in this section we find Jesus’ HEALING TOUCH. By touching others to heal them, Jesus shows us his AUTHORITY.
Jesus’ healing miracles are another sign that God’s Kingdom has invaded human history. So the miracles point to something else, to God’s intervention in human history in a special way. The rule and reign of God has broken through our rule and reign on earth.
Now Jesus didn’t heal every sick person he came in contact with. And even those he did heal eventually got sick again and eventually died. So Jesus’ healings here are partial, a mere foretaste of future life in God’s Kingdom. Physical healing merely points us forward to our eventually resurrection and enjoyment of immortality in God’s presence.
And Jesus’ healing touch still comes to people, and it often comes through his Church. As we gather and worship together, as we pray for each other and follow Jesus together, the healing touch of Jesus comes to people.
I remember a Men’s Retreat many years ago. There was a man at our Men’s Retreat who, due to a number of chronic illnesses, could no longer had bladder control. He had to wear adult diapers because of his lack of bladder control. And during the worship at this retreat, Jesus touched him and he was healed. From that day onward, he had renewed control of his bladder.
Early on my wife and I were told by a doctor that we wouldn’t be able to have children without fertility treatment. Yet the elders of the church prayed for us, for the touch of Jesus to come, and four kids later I guess we can say his touch came.
As an elder board, we often pray for healing in the lives of sick people, and we’ve seen a lot of people touched by Jesus.
Yet Jesus still doesn’t heal everyone. One of my closest friends and his wife also have problems with infertility, and we’ve prayed for them again and again, and they’ve been unable to have kids. Why did God heal us, but not them? I remember our elder board praying for a woman who had a cancerous tumor several years ago. When she went in to have another scan done, the tumor was completely gone, a miracle. But then several years later she developed early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and she hasn’t been healed of that.
Why does the healing touch of Jesus come to some people and not others? I don’t know. I think it’s just a mystery, a mystery we can’t explain and shouldn’t try to explain. I certainly don’t think it’s because we don’t have enough faith or that there’s hidden sin in the sick person’s life. I think it’s cruel to blame a sick person for their own lack of healing.
We need to constantly remember that physical healing in this life is only a foretaste of the real thing. When healing does come we should rejoice and thank God. But when it doesn’t come we shouldn’t beat ourselves up or try to figure out just the right formula. We simply keep walking, keep following Jesus,. Full and final healing will come at the resurrection, and until them, the healing touch of Jesus is mysterious.
2. His Father’s Touch (Mark 1:35-39)
Now let’s look at another touch. Now although the word "touch" isn’t used here, I think this section is speaking about Jesus’ need for his Father’s touch.
After a busy day of healing, Jesus gets up before anyone else in the house. He slips out while it’s still dark to find a lonely, solitary place, a place where he can be alone with his thoughts, a place where he can seek his Father without distractions. Once he finds that place he prays, lifting up his heart to his Father, seeking direction and guidance from God.
Simon and the other disciples interrupt Jesus’ time of solitude. They say, "Everyone’s looking for you!" The whole town is now speaking the praises of Jesus, celebrating this hometown hero who can suddenly heal and teach with authority. This Greek word translated "look" here is used throughout Mark’s story in a negative way. The word is literally "seek" and in Mark’s story it usually implies an attempt to dominate and control Jesus (Edwards 67). In other words, people who "look" for Jesus in this sense are people who have an agenda and want to manipulate Jesus into fulfilling that agenda.
So Jesus says, "Let’s go to other towns." You see, Jesus isn’t a faith healer. His primary mission is to proclaim the good news of God’s rule and reign. He heals because he sees needs, and he heals as a sign of the coming Kingdom of God, to point to God’s rule. But his primary mission isn’t to heal or impress, it’s not to have healing campaigns or to hold tent revival services. His primary mission is to preach, to announce the good news of the in breaking of God’s rule and reign. "That is why I have come," he says.
I believe that decision of Jesus to leave Capernaum to travel to the other villages in Galilee is directly related to his time of prayer in solitude. It’s only because of that time seeking the Father’s touch that Jesus knows it’s time to move on. He can see the hidden agendas people have beneath the popularity, the attempts to distract him from his main mission.
So here we find THE FATHER’S TOUCH, not a touch from Jesus, but a touch to Jesus from the Father. By seeking the Father in solitude, Jesus shows us his NEED for the Father’s touch.
In solitude and prayer, Jesus experienced a centering and focusing of his life. Of all the good things he could do, his time in solitude and prayer provided him with knowledge of the best thing to do, the one thing that fulfilled his calling. He also experienced guidance and direction about what to do next.
And all I can say is that if Jesus needed this and he was the Son of God, how much more do we need the Father’s touch in our own lives. We need this as individuals, so we can be centered and focused in our own decision making. We need the Father’s touch in solitary prayer so we can know who we are, what we were made to do, and what the next step is in accomplishing what God wants us to do. This knowledge only comes when we seek the Father’s touch in times of quiet solitude.
I know one guy in our church who does this during his commute on the freeway, purposefully turning off the radio and spending time seeking the Father’s touch while he navigates traffic on the 57 freeway. I often find the Father’s touch when I’m riding my motorcycle, especially when I’m riding in the mountains. As I smell the trees and feel the wind in my face, as I navigate turns and downshift, I find myself focused and open to the Father’s touch. In fact, one day I was out riding to spend time in prayer, and God brought to my mind someone in the church to start praying for. And as I prayed for this person, that very person drove right past me, so I took that as the Father’s touch, caught up with him, and we pulled over and talked for a few minutes about his relationship with God.
Our high school pastor often finds the Father’s touch at a special place of prayer half way up Old Mt. Baldy road. In fact, I go by at lunchtime on my ride up the hill and see his truck parked in his special place, as each week he goes there to spend a few hours in prayer and solitude.
When her kids were young, Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, used to put her apron over her head, so she could get that brief moment to seek the Father’s touch.
However you seek it, you need the Father’s touch, just like Jesus did.
But we as a congregation also need the Father’s touch. Of all the good things we could do, we need the Father’s touch to show us the best thing to do. I thought about this as we we’ve been looking to hire a college and singles pastor the last few months. There were several promising candidates who expressed interest in the position; in fact, at one point we had eight people express interest. So we knew we needed the Father’s touch to find the right candidate, out of several good candidates. So part of our search process was seeking the Father’s touch in prayer and solitude.
If Jesus needed the Father’s touch, so do we, both as individuals and as a church community.
3. His Cleansing Touch (Mark 1:40-45)
But in addition to his healing touch and his need for the Father’s touch, we also see Jesus’ cleansing touch. Look at vv. 40-45.
We need to understand the scandal associated with this event. The Greek word for "leprosy" actually refers to 72 different skin afflictions, not just Hansen’s disease, what we think of as leprosy (Edwards 69). A person afflicted with one of these dreaded skin diseases was not only physically sick, but they were excluded from all social life in the community. They had to keep at least 50 feet away from people, they had to stay out of cities and villages. They weren’t permitted to attend worship at the synagogue or the temple in Jerusalem. They lived in constant in quarantine from their families and friends, living in the fringes of society as social outcasts. It was a horrible life, a life of exclusion and humiliation, a life of stigma and shame. If you touched a leper, you became ceremonially unclean for a period of time, and you also had to stay out of town until you went through a purification ritual. So for this guy to approach Jesus was scandalous. If you saw a leper approaching you, your natural reaction would be to run, so you didn’t catch whatever they had and so you didn’t have to stay out of town as well.
Yet this man presents himself to Jesus, and requests cleansing. Notice he asks for cleansing, not just healing, because this guy isn’t just sick. Society views this man as defiled, filthy, and tarnished. He not only needs healing; he needs cleansing, restoration to the community.
Also notice that he has no doubts about whether Jesus can make him clean; it’s just a matter of whether Jesus wants to.
Jesus responds with compassion. Instead of feeling repulsed, Jesus feels tender affection and concern for this man. Instead of recoiling back, he reaches out and touches him. Jesus breaks all the social rules by touching him. Yet as Jesus touches this man, instead of the contact defiling Jesus, it cleanses the leper.
Jesus sternly tells the man to keep his experience quiet and to go to the temple in Jerusalem to get a clean bill of health. You see, to reenter society a leper had to be assessed by a Jewish priest. And although a priest could declare someone to be clean, only Jesus could make a person clean.
The man is disobedient to Christ’s request, and instead spreads the news of his cleansing to whoever will listen. In fact, the Greek word for "spreading the news" in v. 45 is the word for "preaching." This guy preached to whoever would listen, so much so that Jesus couldn’t enter into a town freely.
Notice how the tables have turned in this story. Before this miracle, it was the leper who had to stay outside of town in the lonely places, it was he who couldn’t enter a town openly. But because of his cleansing, now Jesus is the exile, the outcast, the one who has to stay in lonely places. Jesus takes the burden of the leper upon himself when he heals him.
This story illustrates the CLEANSING TOUCH of Jesus. By touching others to cleanse them, Jesus shows us his COMPASSION.
Jesus gave this man far more than physical healing. He showed him compassion, concern, and love. He gave this man the ability to reenter society, to move back into his house with his family, to support himself in the marketplace, to worship in the synagogue and the temple once again. Jesus gave this man back his life with his cleansing touch.
Who are the modern day lepers who need our compassion? Scott Allen was a youth pastor at a church in Colorado. Scott’s father Jimmy Allen tells Scott’s story in his book, Burden of a Secret: A Family’s Journey through the Shadow of AIDS. Scott’s wife Lydia became infected with the AIDS virus during a blood transfusion, though it would be several years before they discovered that she was HIV positive. Scott and Lydia had two children, first Matthew and then Bryan. When Bryan was born, doctors finally discovered that Lydia had HIV. When Scott told the church, he was fired on the spot. Their son Bryan died of AIDS as an infant, and soon after Scott’s wife Lydia also died. They tried to find a church home, a community of worship to attend, but no church would accept them. Eventually Matthew also died of AIDS, leaving Scott Allen, former youth pastor, a widower and childless. It also left him bitter, bitter because he didn’t experience the cleansing touch of Jesus in the Christian community.
Who are the modern day lepers who need the cleansing touch of Jesus through us? Are they the former sexually immoral who our culture looks at as spoiled goods? Are they people with a criminal record, people with a past? Who are the outcasts and the ostracized, the neglected and the marginalized?
Friends we as a congregation are part of the body of Jesus Christ on this earth. That means that Jesus’ cleansing touch of compassion comes through us, through our touch, through our love, through our caring. I thought about this when we had a drama few weeks ago, and one of our church members was dressed as a homeless guy. When Craig walked up to the platform during the song before the sermon, I could see some people getting uneasy. But I also know that some people went out of their way to reach out to him, to talk to him, because they thought he might feel like an outcast and they wanted to show the compassionate cleansing touch of Jesus.
The cleansing touch of Jesus shows his compassion, still today through us.
Conclusion
Three touches of Jesus. Which touch do you need to the most today? Which touch does the person next to you need? Could it be that the way we both give and receive the touch of Jesus is through our life together?
