Can you think of a moment where another human’s touch lifted your heart? Maybe a meaningful hug or the wiping away of a tear. For me I remember that first moment after Maisie had been born. Months of planning, hours of panic and pain and gore and then the quiet. A little baby put on my chest. I remember that moment, I remember how important that first touch was to me.
Human touch is important to us. It means something. In fact there was a study done several decades ago in which they tested monkeys by taking some away from their parent’s at a young age and feeding them through a tube. All the babies were kept healthy and kept near to their families, but the ones that were allowed to touch their parents grew up confident, whereas the others grew up afraid. It’s like being close to people matters.
That is one of the reasons that leprosy was such a terrible disease in the ancient world. Of course these days its treatable so we don’t really think about how horrible it would be. Just imagine, you get a boil, a spot, so you go to the local medicine person and they say “you’ve got leprosy”, these days you’d get treated and you’d be fine but back then it meant that you would never get to go home. You could see your family at a distance and wave goodbye but you couldn’t risk getting them ill.
You’d go off into the desert to live alone as boils cover your body and disfigure you, as your nerves fail to function so you start to hurt yourself by accident, burning or breaking limbs. It gets worse as parts of your body begin to lose circulation and you lose your fingers and toes. You look like a walking monsters and you can never risk giving it to anyone else, so you can never come close to your friends and family again. You can never touch. You can never hold your kids or carry them. You can never kiss your spouse or hold their hands.
This is a fate worse than death. It was a slow, painful, exiled, death.
And as it started unseen, as it was something that came from within and then showed outwardly. As it was something which meant you couldn’t come into the temple, leprosy was seen as a mark of someone sinful. You were unclean on the outside, so you must be unclean inside too.
You know those important moments of touch that I mentioned earlier? Not only were they all a distant memory but so too was the touch of God. Or that’s how they thought about it back then. Can you imagine getting that diagnosis?
The closest I can think of today is going to the doctor and getting a terminal diagnosis. But even then at least your family could be around you. This would be far more lonely, far more isolating, from everyone you’ve ever known and damning to your walk with God.
This is one of the great themes of Mark’s gospel by the way. That the religious leaders of the time looked down on those who weren’t ‘in’. the non-Jewish, the women, the sick, the poor. But when it comes to lepers, this goes deep.
In our reading from Leviticus we are told that those with skin diseases were to be brought before the high priest – so we see Jesus taking up the role of High Priest – this was a part of the law. But what we miss in our reading this morning is what comes later, that those with a skin disease if it is leprosy (starting at verse 45) “shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
But in our Gospel reading, this leper ignores the public health laws. He ignores the Old Testament command. In famous story in Luke’s Gospel, when Jesus heals the ten lepers, they stand at a distance and shout to him and he heals them. This man comes to Jesus and kneels before him, begging.
And does Jesus chastise him for breaking the law? No. He heals him and sends him away, asking him not to reveal what has happened, because in Mark’s Gospel Jesus is trying to wait until the right moment to show who he is.
But what I want you to think about is that Jesus, the Holy One, didn’t shy away or recall like the priests at the time did from the leper. In fact in verse 41 we read that Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. This leper probably hadn’t been touched by anyone clean in years. This man had been starved of human contact, not seen his family or friends up close, not held his children or kissed his wife, in years. Certainly, he hadn’t been allowed to go into the temple or to worship God freely. He had been on a path towards lonely death and Jesus, the Holy One, reaches out his hand and touched him.
Brothers and sisters. Who do you want to be like? The priests of that time or Jesus?
When we drive through the roughest housing estates, what do we do? Do we wind up our windows, or do we help? When we see the homeless at our doorstep, what do we do? Do we lock our doors or feed them? When strangers turn up at church, or an age group that we don’t feel comfortable with, do we welcome them in or do we hope they’ll leave?
Like Jesus, maybe we should seek to touch the untouchables. Maybe we should seek to reach out and bring them back into a relationship with God. Maybe we should try to have a meaningful relationship with those that everyone else despises or is afraid of.
Jesus touched the untouchables. And so should we.
Think now, brothers and sisters about someone that you have failed to reach out to. Think about what you could do to show love to them, whether by caring for them or by committing yourself to show God’s love to them. Either way, let love drive you forward to touch the hearts of those that the world hates, to hold them as your brothers and sisters, and to reach out with the healing love of Christ. Amen.
All Saints Church Chorley 