When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "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 his leprosy was cleansed. (Matt 8:1-3 ESV)Since the basic protocol was to not touch someone with a contagious skin disease (for medical, as well as religious, reasons, surely), Jesus touching him showed a striking courage, or else disdain for the fear that others had of touching social outcasts, people who might give you sickness and/or the religiously impure.
Immediately afterward, Matthew recounts the healing of a centurion's servant:
When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly." And he said to him, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, "Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; let it be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment. (Matt 8:5-13 ESV)Here Jesus shows that he has the power to heal, without even touching the sick person (OK, it sounds like he didn't even see him...). The above two stories juxtaposed are an interesting display that Jesus isn't afraid to touch people we wouldn't touch, and He isn't limited to doing things as we might expect, when we might think they would require physical presence, and at least a touch. So Jesus is less afraid of physical and/or social disease, and less limited by distance, than we are.
After this, we read:
And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. (Matt 8:14-15 ESV)There is a potentially different scenario here; I don't want to presume that Jesus knew Peter's mother-in-law very well, but certainly better than the last two people he healed. His touch, therefore, may well have meant something here; he was caring for a loved one who was sick, and removing her sickness.
To top off that section of healings, we have the following summary of what happened after Peter's mother-in-law was healed:
That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." (Matt 8:16-17 ESV)Touching isn't mentioned -- just that the demon oppressed came, and he cast them out ('with a word' -- no touch there?). In any case, it is clearly understood that this was God removing our sorrows, as had been promised.
Then today we looked at the next chapter, and saw, among other things, the resurrection of a ruler's daughter:
While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples.... And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. (Matt 9:18,19,23-25 ESV)I think that usually I'm so enamored of Jesus in these scenes, to not see the radicalness of his touching this dead body. The people laugh at Jesus when He says she is sleeping, so certainly they knew better, and he was talking in metaphor -- death being that which remains, and sleep being that from which we awake. So here Jesus is, doing the act, which above all others, would make someone unclean. There are rules for the priests about who they can touch and become unclean for -- their family only, and it certainly makes them unclean. Yet Jesus isn't afraid here, either, like with the leper, though this is a case even more serious.
And it got me thinking about the transmission of holiness and defilement. There was a passage that was tickling at my memory, but I couldn't find it until later:
On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 'If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?'" The priests answered and said, "No." Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered and said, "It does become unclean." Then Haggai answered and said, "So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the LORD, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. (Haggai 2:10-14 ESV)So, the normal way for holiness to be transmitted is that a holy piece of meat does NOT make something else holy by touching it. Uncleanness, on the other hand, does get transmitted this way. That is, something that is holy does not make other things holy by contact, but something that is unclean does make things unclean by contact. That is to say, touch makes uncleanness transfer, but not holiness. Which is why holy people don't touch dead bodies. Rather than them making the dead bodies holy, they would be made unclean.
But not so with Jesus. He, the only Holy One among us all, touches a dead body. And rather than His holiness being defiled, He removes the uncleanliness of the body, bringing her back to life. So apparently Jesus really is something New, as He said in three ways in vv 14-17 (He is the bridegroom with whom no one can fast, the new cloth, and the new wine). He is the One who can make even the dead clean, not fearing their defilement.
Good thing for us, eh? Let us bring our rotten, defiled bodies and our dead spirits to Him for cleansing.
