Daily Devotions

Matt 8: 3Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.

This is the account where a leper came to Jesus and asked Jesus to heal him. In response Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. Why was this act so significant and highlighted in the gospel?

In the 1^st century there was no healing available for lepers and  unless God heals them, they would just have to live with the body destroying disease until they die. Their face will be eaten away by the disease, their fingers and toes will also be eaten away and the lepers will be very repulsive to even see let alone being touched.

As for the lepers, they live a life of being rejected and excluded from society. They would have such emotional hurt of being rejected by everyone and being excluding away from the community. Their hearts and emotion would be very broken.

Similarly there are also others in some nations where a certain community is being rejected because they are the people who are set apart to do the dirtiest jobs in the community. In India, these are called the untouchable and they belong to the lowest caste in the community. They too would suffer rejection and exclusion all their lives. The whole community would grow up feeling insecure and unwanted.

When Jesus came, His mission was to draw all men back to God. In God’s eyes all men are His children and God sees the heart and not the outward appearance. The person may be lepers with very deformed, decayed bodies or they may be the very lowest caste in the community.

God does not see all these, God sees the souls of the people and in heaven there is no more sickness and disease. Everyone would enjoy perfect health and perfect bodies. Everyone will be a child of God in heaven.

This tells us that as Jesus did not reject the sick, the lame and the blind and He treated everyone the same, we to in the Church must treat everyone as equal. There must be no colour prejudice, no cultural prejudice, and no caste prejudice. All must be treated as equal and as brothers and sisters in Christ.

All forms of rejection and prejudice in Church must be removed and never to be brought in at all. As leaders, we must lead by example and be like Jesus, reaching out to the hurting and sick. We need to love and care for them and ensure that they would also share the kingdom of God with us.