Touching the Untouchables

Well, good morning, everyone. Blessings to all of you. Good to see you all here. Really appreciate your presence here with us.

Thank you for your prayers. Last evening, toward bedtime, I could tell that something was getting in my throat. I suppose it's somewhat of a cold, and I thought, "Oh boy, what's going to happen here?" And that's why I wasn't here this morning at the sunrise service is because I thought I would nurse it a little bit and try to keep it functional.

And it seems as though God answered your prayers and my prayers on that. So if I sound a little heavy, a little bit funny, well, bear with me on that.

I really did want to be here this morning early for the sunrise service, but I really was here with you in spirit.

I stood at my living room window and watched that sun come up just like Jung's did. That was just something else, the way that sun of course, we know the sun's not moving. It's the earth that's turning, but still, it just slowly but surely come up across that horizon and just shone so full and so beautiful. I'm sure you all realize that. So in a sense, I was here with you.

Just a note on Brother John's question about voting. I would encourage you to look at history and especially I don't know how many of you get plain news on your computer or whatever. This past week, there was an article by Dean Taylor about the Mennonite Nazis.

And I would really encourage you to read that article. I think it'll answer a lot of questions as to this thing of voting and being involved in politics. Dean does a very good job of that. Of course, we know he was in the military and all of that. So that's just a sideline there for you.

I don't know if you're expecting a resurrection message or not.

I'm not going to call it a resurrection message, but yet it is because of what I'm going to look at. The account tells of a man being raised from the dead at the touch of Jesus.

The title of the message is Touching the Untouchables.

Turn with me to Matthew 8.

The first three gospels all give this account. It's just a short all are very basically short accounts.

The man has no name. It doesn't say where he was from, but he was what?

A leper.

Matthew 8:1-4. When he had come down from the mountain and this is Jesus right after the sermon on the mountain. When he had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped him, saying, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

Then Jesus put out his hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing. Be cleansed." Immediately, his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one, but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them." Go to Mark chapter 1,

verse 40. Now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him and saying to him, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand, and touched him and said to him, "I am willing. Be cleansed." As soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And he strictly warned him and sent him away at once and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone, but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded as a testimony to them." However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the matter so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places, and they came to him from every direction.

And then in Luke 5,

verse 12.

And it happened when he was in a certain city, behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus, and he fell on his face and implored him, saying, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Then he put out his hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing. Be cleansed." Immediately, the leprosy left him, and he charged him to tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as a testimony to them, just as Moses commanded. However, the report went around concerning him all the more, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by him of their infirmities. So he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.

John does not record this account in his gospel, but there's one thing that all three of these gospels mentions. What is it?

He touched him.

Why? Why did Jesus touch him? I'm sure he touched other people. Don't get me wrong, but this seems to be a specific thing that the writers brought out here is that Jesus touched him. And why did he touch him? And we'll hopefully look at that a little bit later as to why.

I have this account in story form, not original with me, but I'm going to read it to you. Someone thought that we just don't know hardly anything about this man. What took place? What happened in his life?

So I'm going to read it.

It might give us a little different perspective on this man's life.

For five years, no one touched me. No one, not one person, not my wife, not my child, not my friends. No one touched me. They saw me. They spoke to me. I heard love in their voices. I saw concern in their eyes, but I didn't feel their touch.

There was no touch, not once. No one touched me. What you take for granted, I longed for: handshakes, warm embraces, a tap on the shoulder to get my attention. Such moments were taken from my world. No one touched me. No one bumped into me.

What I would have given to be bumped into, to be caught in a crowd, for my shoulder to brush against another's. But for five years, it has not happened. How could it? I was not allowed on the streets. I was not permitted in my synagogue, not even welcome in my own house.

I was untouchable. I was a leper, and no one touched me until today.

One year during harvest, my grip on the sides seemed weak. The tips of my fingers lost feeling. First one, then another. Soon I could grip the tool, but scarcely felt it. By the end of the season, I felt nothing at all. I said nothing to my wife, but I knew she suspected something.

One afternoon, I plunged my hands into a basin of water to wash. The water turned red. My finger was bleeding badly, but I didn't even know. I was wounded. I felt nothing. And it wasn't just my hand. "It's on your clothes too," my wife said softly from behind me. I looked down at the bloody spots on my robe. I must have had other unfelt wounds. For the longest time, I stood over the basin, staring at my hand. Somehow, I knew my life was forever. I'm sorry, was being forever changed. "Shall I go with you to tell the priest?" she asked, knowing what the law required. "No," I sighed, "I'll go alone."

I turned and looked into her tear-filled eyes. Then I bent down and stroked our little daughter's cheeks, saying nothing. What could I say? I looked again at my wife. She touched my shoulder, and with my good hand, I touched hers. It would be our last touch.

The priest didn't touch me. He looked at my hand, now wrapped in a rag. He looked at my face, now shattered in sorrow. I've never blamed him for what he said. He was only doing as he was taught.

He covered his mouth and extended his hand, palm forward, "You are unclean," he told me. With one pronouncement, I lost my family, my farm, my future, my friends.

Five years have passed, and no one has touched me since until today. Oh, how horrified those who saw me. I'm sorry. Oh, how I horrified those who saw me. Five years of leprosy had done terrible things to my body. At the sight of me, fathers grabbed their children. Mothers covered their faces. Children pointed and stared.

And always the shouts of, "Unclean, unclean, unclean." I was no longer a person. I was a disease. The rags on my body couldn't hide my sores, nor could the wrap on my face hide the rage in my eyes and heart. I didn't even try to hide it. How many nights did I shake my crippled fist at the silent sky? What did I do to deserve this? But never a reply.

Oh yes, I was angry, angry and desperate. And I think that's what made me take the step I took today. Of course, it was risky, but what did I have to lose? He calls himself God's Son. Either he will hear my complaint and kill me, or accept my demands and heal me. Those were my thoughts. I came to him as a defiant man, moved not by faith, but by a desperate anger.

But then I saw him. And when I saw him, I was changed.

I'm a farmer, not a poet, so I cannot find the words to describe what I saw. All I can say is that all I can say is that Judean mornings are sometimes so fresh and the sunrise so glorious that to look at them is to forget the heat of the day before and the hurt of times past. When I looked at his face, I saw a Judean morning.

Before he spoke, I knew he cared. Somehow, I knew he hated this disease as much as, no, more than I hate it. My rage became trust, and my anger became hope. I waited until he was only paces away. Then I stepped out, "Master."

He stopped and looked in my direction as did dozens of others. Fear swept across the crowd. Arms flew in front of faces. "Unclean," someone shouted, but I scarcely noticed them. Their panic I'd seen a thousand times. His compassion, however, I'd never before beheld before. Everyone stepped back except him. He stepped toward me, toward me. I did not move.

I just spoke, "Lord, you can heal me if you will." He had healed me with the word, I would have been thrilled. Had he cursed me, I'm sorry, had he cured me with a prayer, I would have rejoiced. But he wasn't satisfied with just speaking to me. He drew near me. He touched me. No one had touched me in five years until today. "I will," his words were as tender as his touch, "be healed." And I was. I was.

And I will never forget the one who dared to touch me. He could have healed me with a word, but he wanted to do more than heal me. He wanted to honor me, to make me real again, to christen me. Imagine that.

Unworthy of the touch of a man. Unworthy of the touch of a man, yet worthy of the touch of God.

Whoever wrote that really brings out what leprosy will do to you.

Leprosy makes you untouchable in society. You are delegated to a life of seclusion, rejection, hatred, verbal abuse, and so on. But Jesus very explicitly showed us by example that no one is untouchable. No one, but no one is untouchable.

Why did Jesus touch him? Why did he?

He wanted all people to know that he created every person that lived or ever will live and that every person has great value to him. You are worth something. By touching this leper, Jesus was telling him, "I have something important for you to do, and you are very valuable to me."

I did go online and could see some they showed some pictures of people with leprosy. And it is not a pretty picture.

It is not a pretty picture. But Jesus was willing to touch him because you still have value.

You still have value. To me, that's why all three of these writers mentioned the fact that he touched him.

Studies have found that people who engage in regular physical touch are less likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression and report higher levels of satisfaction. Physical touch can also promote feelings of trust, security, and self-esteem, helping to build stronger, healthier relationships.

Now, I do want it understood that I am talking about proper touching.

Laying a hand on the shoulder, and this should be man to man or woman to woman, unless it's your wife or your husband.

But I'm sort of convinced as far as between the genders, one way that we can touch anyone is a hearty handshake. It is amazing what that will do for someone that is down and out, that is depressed or whatever. But that touch is, I mean, they've proven it, that that touch will do amazing things for someone who is down and out and low and in trouble. And so don't be afraid to touch in the proper way.

You probably will never know what you have done for people down through the years that you have touched. You probably will never, maybe ever know what that did for them.

But Jesus saw the importance of doing it, and I just encouraging it for us as well. I think of our anointing services. And whenever we have an anointing service for someone, we lay our hands on the person. If it's a lady, we make sure that the husband is putting his hand on the lady first, and then we lay our hands on the husband or that type of thing.

Why? Why do we do it?

Well, the Bible scripture tells us to do it, obviously. But to me, it's a channel of God's grace, God's healing power. And we have evidence here right before us this morning that the laying on of hands and anointing brings healing.

Okay, I'd like to look at another aspect of leprosy.

What is leprosy likened to in the Bible?

Sin. Sin. Yes.

And as I thought about that, I sort of tried to make some comparisons with leprosy and sin.

As we know that leprosy causes deformity. It deforms the body, especially the hands and the feet more so than other parts of the body. But what does sin do? Same thing. It causes mind deformity. Sin causes us to think wrongly. It sounds like we have a deformed mind. It can't think right.

Leprosy numbs the nerves, as in the story we had there about that. He couldn't even, he didn't even know his fingers were bleeding. And he didn't know about some of the other places on his body that were, until his, excuse me, his wife pointed them out. But sin numbs us to the effects of sin.

It numbs us to the effects of sin whenever we allow sin to take over our life, our heart.

It breaks up, leprosy breaks up relationships. That man, and there are leper colonies in different parts of the world. The United States has very few cases of leprosy at this point. But you go over into probably India, mainly, a lot of places like that, they have to stick together. Nobody wants them.

Well, what does sin do? The same thing. Breaks up relationships.

Causes relationships to go sour because of sin.

Leprosy causes a person's body to decay. And sin decays our spirit and our soul.

Leprosy is death by inches.

And sin is death the same way.

You know, when you sin, you know, say for the first time, of course, we're all sinner. We were born that way. But if you continue in that, slowly but surely, you are going to experience death spiritually. You are going to die. And leprosy also, you become, makes you become an outcast. And I found it, I thought it interesting.

If you are living in sin and whatnot, you become an outcast even with the world. If you follow what I'm saying, in other words, the world even doesn't look too kindly on people that just insist on doing evil and wrong and wicked things. They don't look too kindly on that, even though they might do some things themselves.

But you know, in order to be healed from leprosy, it takes the touch of God, Christ. And you know what it takes to be healed of that sin nature, of that sinfulness that we all deal with? Same thing, the touch of Christ. The question is, will you allow him to touch you and heal you? If you are dealing with a sin in your life, how quick are you going to be to step out like that man did and say, "Master"?

Well, am I, are you willing to be the hands that will give that touch to some sin-sick person? Jesus is no longer walking on this earth. And yet he is through his spirit and people that have fully surrendered to his lordship.

That is how Christ is touching people, you and I, as we have become dedicated our life to Christ, you and I. He is using us to touch people and to bring healing and strength to them.

Yes. He wants us to reach out and touch someone with his touch so that they can experience healing from their sin and experience the resurrection of being raised to a new life in Christ. That man was raised from the dead.

He may as well have been dead.

But Jesus' touch, I don't know if it was the touch necessarily that healed him. It was Jesus' word, probably that healed him. But I think Jesus realized that this man also needed emotional healing. And I think that's what the touch did. I think the touch really brought him fulfillment and understanding.

I was thinking of some present-day examples of reaching out and touching someone. And first thing I wrote down was the children's ministry.

I'm not involved with the children's ministry, but I've been there several times to have a lesson. And I don't know how many of you young people are going to the children's ministry. But if you are, I want to really, really bless you because I know what some of those children can be like.

I know where the families that some of them come from. And you are willing to touch them. You're willing to, especially the girls, you're willing to take those young girls and sit them on your lap and hug them and touch them. Probably something many of them don't get anywhere else.

So don't ever quit touching these children that who knows what their home life is like. And I'm sure some of them have lice and they have all kinds of things that they bring with them. But you're still willing to touch them. Don't make them untouchables.

And I happen to think of those that live in and will live in Shippensburg.

You will have many opportunities to reach out and touch someone. And I'm thinking about the university students especially.

Brandon is, that ain't right. Brandon is going to live right on one of the streets that are just stacked full of university students. And you know what they do on the weekends especially.

And they're going to need a touch from a person of God. And with Roxanne, and I always forget his name. But anyway, yeah, you're not very far away either. And you will have many, many opportunities to reach out and touch. Don't make these people untouchables.

I have to think of the room.

Most of you have probably been there.

Some of those people that come in there aren't too touchable, are they? Harvey.

Are you willing to go in there and touch them, sit beside them, put your arm around them?

I think of Brent and Lauren going to Jordan.

I can probably rest assured that there's going to be a lot of people there that will need the touch of God. I know Brent's already been over there. Is it Iraq or Iran? Iraq. Iraq, yes.

And he's probably already been doing that. How about our neighbors? How many neighbors do you have that probably need a touch? Or do you consider them untouchable?

Or do you consider them on, I was thinking of our singing at Celebration Villa. Those folks, I don't think they can hardly wait till the singing's over so you can go walk around and shake their hand. They just love it. Are you willing to do it?

Or are they untouchable to you?

Small groups. You can have many opportunities there to reach out and touch someone. Clothes sorting. What do you mean clothes sorting?

Do you think possibly just you touching those clothes and sorting them? When someone puts them on, you think maybe they might feel your touch? Do you think God could do that? I think he can. I think he could. Billboard evangelism. Brother John, just multitudes of people calling in there, wanting a touch. And John can give that through his voice, I believe, through his manner of speaking to them.

And then I, excuse me, had to think of all of CAM's programs.

Every one of you sitting here can be involved in touching someone by sharing your plenty with those people. Just right now on the emails, there's a picture of this dear lady that's sitting. She can't walk. She drags herself from place to place.

Are you willing to touch her? Are you willing to give of your so that CAM can go over there and help meet her needs? Maybe I should be willing to actually go and do it.

But these are all these different ways that we can reach out and touch. Folks this morning, do not make anyone untouchable. Why? Because they belong to God. They were created by God. And to think that we would put them over here somewhere, don't you get near to me. I don't want you close to me.

Probably in school and different places, you've probably heard of the untouchables in India. Hinduism has a caste system. And sorry be to the person that is cleared down here at the bottom of that caste system. You are history in a way.

You are untouchable. I think Mother Teresa tried to make some changes there in that. And we'll let her with God there. But yes.

But you know, I don't think we have to go to India to see this type of thing. It's here. It's here.

And God forbid that it would be here in this congregation. I don't see any reason to say that it is. But if you are struggling with someone, have they become untouchable to you? Or are you willing to walk up to them and touch them and say, you know, I can see that there's an issue here that needs to be remedied, taken care of. Put your arm around them and touch them and let them know that you care and you do not want any untouchables in our midst.

Again, are you one of those willing to reach out and touch the untouchables? And in closing, I'd like to read Colossians 3:12 to 17. I'm going to read it out of the Amplified.

Verses 12 through 17.

"Clothe yourselves therefore as God's own picked representatives, his own chosen ones, who are purified and holy and well beloved by God himself, by putting on behavior marked by tender-hearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways and patience, which is tireless, long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes with good temper. Be gentle and forbearing with one another. And if one has a difference, a grievance, or complaint against another, readily pardoning each other, even as the Lord has freely forgiven you, so must you also forgive. And above all these, put on love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness, which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony. And let the peace, soul harmony, which comes from the Christ rule, act as an empower continually in your hearts, deciding and settling with finality all of the questions that arise in your minds in that peaceful state to which, as members of Christ's one body, you were also called to live.

And be thankful, appreciative, giving praise to God always. Let the word spoken by the Christ, the Messiah, have its home in your hearts and minds and dwell in you and dwell in you all. I'm sorry. And dwell in you in all its richness as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom in spiritual things and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody with God, with his grace in your hearts. And whatever you do, no matter what it is in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in dependence upon his person, giving praise to God the Father through him."

I thought that those verses were a very good closing to what I've been trying to say this morning. Anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you. I appreciate the child.