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He Touched Me

Mark 1:40-41 "A leper came to him, begging on his knees, 'If you want to, you can cleanse me.' Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, 'I want to. Be clean.'" (The Message)

In the time of Jesus, leprosy was a curse in more ways than one. Certainly, the primitive medical knowlege that they had did not contain the information that a simple antibiotic was the cure. Once you had it, you were sentenced to a long, disfiguring and painful death. It also made those who bore it to be social outcasts. Because of the contagious nature of the disease, those afflicted were considered "unclean", sent to live outside the city, they were ostracized from any kind of social setting. Everywhere they went, they had to cry out, "Unclean! Unclean!" to prevent others from coming into contact with them. Often, people would throw stones or other objects to keep them from coming too close.

I don't know how long the man in the first chapter of Mark had been sick. However long it was, it was too long. For him to approach Jesus so directly indicates his desperation. He was willing to break the laws of the day in an attempt to be healed. He didn't ask Jesus for healing - he stated it. You CAN heal me...if you want to.

I absolutely love the next picture that the scripture gives us of our Saviour. He was "deeply moved". It hurt him to see the suffering of this man and his desperation for healing. He touched him. This was a move completely off the charts! This man had leprosy. He was unclean. Jesus TOUCHED him. I wonder how long it had been since he had felt the touch of another human being? Days? Weeks? Months? Then Jesus said, "I want to." He wanted to heal him - wanted to see him whole.

All of us are spiritual lepers. We all should have been running around crying, "Unclean! Unclean!".

"But God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

In the midst of our sin and depravity - our uncleaness - God was deeply moved. "For God SO loved the world..." (John 3:16) He sees our desperation for healing and it MOVES Him. He reached out and touched us in our sin. "He became flesh and dwelt among us". And what is more, He wanted to do all of this.

When was the last time you pictured God being moved to tears over YOU? The last time you thought that He wanted to make you whole? The last time you fell at His feet and asked Him to touch you? He will, you know....He wants to.

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