Willing to Touch

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “I will. Be healed!” And immediately the man was healed from his disease.” Matthew 8:1-3

The incident quoted above happened when a leprous man approached Jesus for healing. If you read the above verse carefully, you will observe that it is not Jesus' touch that healed the man but his words. “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man and said, “I will. Be healed!’ And immediately the man was healed from his disease”.

Wonderwhy Jesus bothered to touch the man if it is His words that healed the man?

Leprosy renders the body a mass of ulcers and decay. Fingers would curl and gnarl. Blotches of skin would discolor and stink. It would numb nerve endings, leading to a loss of fingers, toes, even a whole foot or hand. Leprosy was death by inches. The social consequences were as severe as the physical one. A leper was an outcast in the Jewish society.

Jesus healed the disease with a word. However, he healed the man’s loneliness by his touch. Are we willing to touch the untouchables of the world like Jesus?