Untouchable?
Healing of the Ten Lepers, by J. Tissot (1886-94).
What makes someone untouchable?
Is it their personal hygiene that makes them untouchable? Is it their social status? Is it their religious observation or lack thereof?
When we think of the untouchable, we may think of someone with a communicable disease. We may think of how we just spent the last two years trying not to touch one another due to the pandemic. We may even consider someone untouchable because of something they did.
In the first century, leprosy was the number one condition that made someone untouchable. There were other issues that rendered someone ritually impure, but leprosy was one of the worst, because the diagnosis would often be a death sentence. This is why when Jesus reached out his hand and touched a man with leprosy, it shocked those who witnessed it.
The gospel of Luke tells us, "While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, 'Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.' And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately the leprosy left him." (Luke 5:12-13, ESV)
In his book "Making Disciples Jesus Way," Doug Greenwold wrote, "In seemingly always being “unclean” by those He either associated with or touched, Jesus was also pointing forward toward the Cross. As He repeatedly became unclean by interacting with and touching these outcasts, He left them healed, clean, and restored. In doing so, the purpose of the Cross is foreshadowed as Jesus became “impure” on our behalf so that we might be presented “clean” to His Father. What a remarkable rabbi! So different from all the others. No wonder the crowds began to seek Him out." (Making Disciples Jesus Way. P. 28 and 29., © Douglas J. Greenwold 2005, 2007, 2012)
May we receive God’s loving touch through his Son Jesus Christ.
A Prayer in Time of Great Sickness and Mortality: “O Most mighty and merciful God, in this time of grievous sickness, we flee to you for comfort. Deliver us, we beseech you, from our peril; give strength and skill to all those who minister to the sick; prosper the means made use of for their cure; and grant that, perceiving how frail and uncertain our life is, we may apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 1928, U.S.)
Begin the month with a #dailydevotional. I have created a #devotional book for each month, a devotional for every day of the year, and offering them for #free by subscribing. Get a link to #Grow365: #July2022—A #Daily Devotional here: robbiepruitt.com.
Healing of the Ten Lepers, by J. Tissot (1886-94)
