We all love to tread
paths that are well-trod. However, Jesus was different. He trod paths
people dread to tread.
In most cases Jesus
healed people by his word, without touching their body or the
affected area. However, there were some exceptions. in the case of
the deaf and the dumb man he touched his ears and his lips (Mark
7:33). In another case be touched the eyes of a blind man to heal him
(John 9:7). These except in most of the cases the people touched him
and were healed or he commanded the sickness or demons to go or
pronounced healing.
However, he deviated from
this in some cases. In the case of lepers he touched them to heal
them (Mark 1:41). In the case of the dead he touched the bier or the
dead body and raised them. In the case of the son of the widow who
was dead and was being taken to the graveyard. He stopped them,
touched the bier and the young man sprang up to life (Luke 7:14). In
the case of the daughter of Jairus he held the hand of the dead body
to raise her back to life (Mark 5:40 and Luke 8:54).
According to the Law of
Moses, those who have leprosy should live outside the camp so that
they don’t pollute others. Touching a leper made a person unclean.
Anyone who touches the dead body should also become unclean and
should live outside the camp. People feared the dead and the lepers
and avoided both. However, Jesus did not.
In the story of Jesus
healing a leper (Mark 1:40), the Gospel writer says that the leper
came to Jesus. However, it is impossible for the leper to come to
Jesus unless Jesus had ventured in to the territory where the leper
lived with others from the rest of the people who considered
themselves clean. In the healing of the ten lepers in Luke (Luke 17),
Jesus was passing through the colony of lepers. This area designated
for lepers between the two provinces (Galilee and Samaria) is a place
that everyone who wished to be clean avoided. However, Jesus ventured
through this land. Those who touched or carried the dead bodies were
unclean. However, Jesus won’t hesitate to touch them. Jesus loved
to do things that others dreaded to do. He trod paths that others
dread to tread.
In recording in detail
the healing of the leper and the raising the dead bodies by
deliberately touching them, the Gospel writers are passing on an
important message to those who want to emulate Jesus. Don’t shy
away from the dreaded paths. Don’t follow the crowds along the
well-trodden paths. The church has to deviate at times and sometimes
stagger through paths the world hate to walk.
The disciples of Jesus
had always followed his example of by treading the unfamiliar,
untrodden, dreaded paths. Philip the evangelist had to move from the
crowded streets of Jerusalem to the path in the wilderness where he
met the Finance Minister of Ethiopia. He had to travel the wilderness
road to meet the Ethiopian to introduce Jesus to him. Peter was
hesitant to take the gospel to Cornelius who was a pagan. He had
never visited a pagan in his house. However, God forced him to make
that trip to Caesarea to take the gospel to a Roman centurion. Paul
had to stray on to the Mars Hill in Athens so that he could tell the
Athenians about the God whom they didn’t know. The history of the
Christian Church all these two thousand years has been a history of
treading the dreaded paths. It is a story of taking the gospel to
lost, neglected, venturing in to unknown lands and it goes on. A
church that remains in its comfort zones dies but the one that
follows her master to the unknown and the unfamiliar thrives.