A Compassionate Touch

It was Henry David Thoreau who said, "The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation." Those words echo in the ears of many as they walk quietly through back alleys of the inner city, or stand in line at the unemployment office. Every day seniors sit alone waiting for someone to call, or pay them a visit as minutes feel like hours and days feel like years.

It was just another day along the dusty streets of Galilee. Merchants were moving from town to town, servants were filling their buckets at the well, but our Lord had just completed fourty days of fasting in the wilderness. He understood how it felt to be tempted, hungry and weary to the bone. As he moved through the region he healed many of the diseased, cast out demons and made time for his own need of solitude and prayer (Mark 1:34, 35).

Preaching and teaching as he moved from town to town, a beggeredly looking man approaches Jesus. Sickly, tired and teetering on the brink of hopelessness the leper falls down at Jesus' feet, "If you will, you can make me clean" (Mark 1:40). How many times had he presented himself to the priests in hopes of purification? How many doctors sent him back to the leper colonies to waste away like the others? Jesus was moved with compassion as he reached out and touched the man and said, "I will."

An outcast, a leper, a man with the most feared contagious disease of his day and Jesus touched him. He didn't say, "stand back and I will make you clean," or "go dip in the Jordan river." Jesus touched this man. This was likely the first act of tenderness he had known for years. Our Lord did more than restore his body, he returned his dignity.

In studying the teachings of Christ we need to spend more time studying his actions along with his words. How many times do we read, "and he was moved with compassion?" Ministry isn't just providing groceries to someone who is out of work, or providing classes to improve your marriage - ministry involves empathy, getting our hands dirty, loving the unloveable and embracing the ugly and profane in our society.

As Jesus prepared for his public ministry he walked along the sea of Galilee with common fisherman, he fasted in the wilderness so he could understand our hunger, temptation and trails, he ate with tax collectors and sinners. Jesus didn't preach to us from his ivory tower, he served us from the foot of the table (John 13).

The world is crying out to see the real Jesus live in us. The compassionate, empathetic Savior who will reach out his hand to a leper, break bread with sinners, rescue a woman caught in adultery and forgive his enemies as they spat on him, torture and deny him. Our ministry begins when we reach out our hand to the sick and sinful and care for them with the Master's touch.