Mark 1:40-45

William F. Schnell

February 15, 2009

The title of our message this morning is, "The Touch." According to my Grandpa Sandusky, you either had the touch or you didn’t. Some times when there was a rabbit playing in his front yard he would hand me a salt shaker and tell me to go sprinkle some on the rabbit’s tail which was, according to Grandpa, the preferred way to catch a rabbit. I’d chase rabbits all over creation trying to sprinkle salt on their tails but I never did catch up to any. And do you know why? Because, as Grandpa put it, I didn’t have the touch—at least as far as catching rabbits with a saltshaker was concerned.

Well then, Grandpa thought, maybe there was some other skill where I did have the touch. "How about this," he said, and with that he made a funny face and took out his teeth. After he put them back in I asked him to do it again so that I could watch very carefully how he did it. He made the same funny face and out they came. So I tried to make the same funny face, but my teeth wouldn’t budge a bit. I guess I didn’t have the touch when it came to taking out my teeth either.

When I grew into a teenager and was helping enclose a porch on Grandpa’s house, I slammed a hammer into my thumb and let out a howl. Grandpa was standing by, leaning on his cane and shaking his head. "Boy," he said, "you’ve got to have the touch." About the time I didn’t think I had the touch with anything, I got some hand-me-down clothes from a neighbor boy—a black suit and some black wingtip shoes and a black tie. When Gram and Gramp stopped by one night, Mom had me model my new outfit. Grandpa raised his eyebrows and said, "Why, he looks just like a preacher. I believe that boy’s got the touch."

Everybody has the touch when it comes to something. Paula Messner has the touch when it comes to twirling batons. I just found out Paula was the Midwest Champion flaming baton twirler. When you are twirling burning batons, you better have the touch. Betsy Poe has the touch when it comes to figure skating, as attested by her many trophies and awards. Her kids have the touch when it comes to playing musical instruments. Stephen Wong has the touch when it comes to swimming. Everybody has the touch when it comes to something.

There is one special way everybody can have the touch, and we are going to explore that in our message for this morning. Indeed, if you could only have the touch in one way, it wouldn’t be shaking salt on a rabbit’s tail. It would be this way—the way Jesus touched people’s lives. When I do a private baptism I often read the following text: People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them. Jesus was always quick to oblige. And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them (Mark 10:13 & 16).

Bringing our babies for holy baptism is a good first step in allowing Jesus to touch their lives. As the babies grow into children who attend Church School and Vacation Bible School, they learn the story of Jesus—God’s Son and our Savior. As they grow into adolescents who confront an uncertain world, they discover a safe place that embraces them for who they are—who God created them to be--at youth group or church camp or workcamp. As they grow into adulthood--getting married and having children of their own, becoming grandparents and, ultimately, being laid to rest—Jesus is holding their hand all the way.

Jesus seeks to touch our lives in a positive and powerful way through all the ages and stages of life. In our text for this morning Jesus not only demonstrates how he touches lives in a positive and powerful way, but how he may reach out through us to continue touching the lives of others today (and touching our own in the process). In other words, we are going to learn how we can have the touch that blesses others and that brings healing and wholeness. Not everybody can have the touch when it comes to ice skating or twirling flaming batons, but everybody can have the touch of Jesus.

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean" (Verse 40). In biblical times leprosy covered a wide variety of skin ailments, from temporary and relatively mild conditions to incurable and highly contagious diseases. Because diagnostic procedures were not so developed in those days, one was not always sure what disease one had, how long it might last or whether it could be contagious.

As a result people with skin ailments were quarantined from the general population, and this by biblical decree. As it is written: "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, `Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp (Leviticus 13:45-46). I presume that the torn clothes and unkempt hair were visual cues to "stay away," the cover on the lower part of the face strikes me as a mask to protect others from contagion (although I am not sure how much was known about airborne contagions in those days), and if there was any doubt remaining, the verbal warning of "Unclean! Unclean!" should have been sufficient to keep others at a distance.

While all of these measures seem socially prudent when it comes to reducing the risk of spreading a contagious disease, they also seem to add insult to injury for the poor infected people. If being sick was not bad enough, they now have to face the humiliating prospect of social marginalization and, perhaps, ostracism. Lepers were considered ritually unclean, and anyone who touched an infected person became ritually unclean as well.

This makes Jesus’ response to the leper all the more shocking. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man (Verse 4). By doing so Jesus risked becoming contaminated with a contagious disease, violated the religious rules and regulations of his day (again), and rendered himself ritually unclean; all of which should have made Jesus definitely off limits as far as the general population was concerned. Except that Jesus’ touch of compassion made all of the social conventions of his day null and void and moot.

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured (Verses 41-42). If the man was cured he was no longer ritually unclean. If he was no longer ritually unclean, then Jesus was not ritually unclean for touching him. This reasoning probably did not make much sense to the religious leaders because they tended to see everything in black and white. The Mosaic Law says, "Don’t touch a leper." Jesus touched a leper. Guilty.

There were lots of things about Jesus that did not make sense to the religious leaders. Jesus was completely blind to the social stereotypes that served to marginalize the people of his day. Here he touches the untouchable—a leper. Elsewhere he called a social outcast to be his disciple—a tax collector no less. He fellowshipped with Samaritans, he stood up for wayward women and he helps a Roman soldier. Jesus consistently ignores the labels and deals with each person as a child of God whether a rich young ruler or a poor down and out nobody. Everybody was somebody to Jesus.

Jesus did not just make the leper whole; he made everyone whole who was made to feel like less than a whole person because of any number of things. At one time slaves in America were counted as three fifths of a person. Some women today who do not receive equal pay for equal work might consider themselves somewhat less than a whole person. Underprivileged folks may not feel that they count as much as "overprivileged" folks. Overweight folks may have noticed that it is the trim person who gets the guy or the gal. And so it goes for sick and the mentally ill and for the aged.

When I go to visit my mom or mother-in-law, I always rub their backs and ask, "Has anyone scratched your back today? You’ve got to have your back scratched everyday." I give them a total back scratch and they hunch up and lean into it. They love the human touch. It reminds them that they are whole persons despite the social isolation of the advancing years and the declining health and the failing minds and the assisted living environments and such. Everybody has the touch when it comes to making elderly folk whole--and not elderly folk alone.

So often we add insult to injury when we no longer include recently widowed folks in our couples’ plans, or when we neglect to visit our friends in the hospital, or when those who have recently fallen on hard times become persona non grata in our social circles. It is not bad enough to suffer misfortune without adding social isolation or ostracism? Whoever the lepers are in our midst, we have the touch of Jesus that can reach beyond every social stereotype to see each person as a child of God and that can make that person whole.