Touch Me, Lord

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said, “Be clean.” (Mk 1:41)

A couple of weeks ago I encountered this thought in the Old Testament. Here it is a again in the New. When Jesus touched the leper he was immediately clean. Normally, if something that is dirty touches something that is clean, the thing that is clean becomes dirty, but the thing that is dirty doesn’t become clean. In the law, if you touched a leper you became ceremonially unclean. And in fact, if a well person touches a sick person they may become sick, but the sick person does not become well. Jesus took this well-established principle and turned it on its head. When he touched the sick they became well! When he touches the sinner we become clean! In the same way that light drives out darkness, his purity drives out impurity. Lord, you have washed away my sins in salvation. I pray by your cleansing touch you would sanctify me as well. Touched by your purity may I become pure. As I continue to seek you I pray that you would continue to mold me into your likeness. Amen.

The Cleansing Touch of Jesus

You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whoever touches them will be holy. (Ex 30:29)

In the Mosaic Law, normally when something clean touches something unclean, the clean thing is defiled. Sin ordinarily spreads the same way. Here, though, when the Tabernacle and its articles are consecrated to the Lord it is their holiness that spreads by touch, not defilement. This reminds me of, and seems to prefigure, how Jesus cleanses us. When Jesus touched a man with leprosy (which no one else would do!) it is not Jesus who is defiled but the leper who is made clean. In the same way, when we meet Jesus our sins are washed away by the power of his blood. Among the lost, sin is “infectious”, but among the saved, God’s righteousness is, instead.