By Josh Arrington
contributor/THE NEWS
I love the story found in the Bible in the Book of Matthew (Chapter 8), where Jesus heals a man that has the disease of leprosy.
Jesus has just finished teaching his disciples up on a mountainside and as they are coming down the mountain a huge crowd begins to follow him.
A man with leprosy runs up to Jesus and kneels before him and says: “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
This man was taking an incredible risk because, in his condition, he was seen as an outcast in society. And if a Jewish person were to touch him, they would be labeled as an unclean person, as well. They would then have to go to the Jewish temple to begin the process of purification to become clean again.
And so this man dared to walk into a crowd and expose himself like this.
He was desperate and he knew if anyone could make him clean, it would be Jesus.
He was willing to take that risk because he knew the reward would be greater if Jesus would just be willing to make him clean again.
I can imagine at this point in the story a hush came over the crowd and everyone stopped in their tracks to see what Jesus would do next.
Then what Jesus did next was unbelievable, unthinkable, and unimaginable, at least to everyone else in the crowd.
He reached out and touched the man and said: “I am willing. Be clean.”
Why would he touch the man when the power to heal him was in his words alone?
Why would he risk touching a leper when there really was no need to do it?
I think the touch of Jesus is the beauty of this story. There is no one on our planet that Jesus is not willing to reach out and touch today. It does not matter who you are, what you have done, where you have been, what our society says about you, or what your situation is. Jesus is ready to reach out and touch you and make you clean.
The words of Jesus have power and authority over all things, but it is the touch of Jesus that will meet you right where you are at no matter what your circumstances are.
What we have to do is be willing to come and kneel at the feet of Jesus and call him Lord just like the man with leprosy did in the story and let Jesus touch us.
Jesus will never be your good luck charm to get you what you want and fix all your problems on your terms.
If he is truly Lord, then we come and lay our lives down and surrender to his terms and allow his healing touch and his voice of truth to set us free from the things of this world that cause us to be unclean, as well.
Are we desperate enough to take that risk even if it means kneeling alone in a crowd of people?
Josh Arrington, lead pastor Church on the Rock, Pitt Meadows.