Compassion is risky business!

This is from my message Sunday. It has hit home with me this week and so I thought I would share. This event occurs following the teaching of the people we call the “Sermon on the Mount.”

When He came down from the mountain, large crowds followed Him. ² Right away a man with a serious skin disease came up and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Matthew 8:1-2 HCSB

In other translations “skin disease” was leprosy. It may have been plaque psoriasis or a host of other skin conditions. Either way a leper lived apart from the community both physically and spiritually. It was thought you could get the disease by touching or being close to one who had it. Imposed both by the community and by the individual separation was their isolation protocol. To walk among the “non-sick” the leper was required to call out “unclean” bringing attention to their situation, isolating themselves even more so in public. It made for a lonely, touchless, solitary life. Can you imagine a mother who could not touch their son or a father who could not hold their wife or daughter? The agony, longing, yearning for contact because we are made for touch. Appropriate contact connects us together and makes us more human. A leper had no such contact, no physical touch. Everyone knew that. Jesus knew that. Spiritually the leper could not worship in the Temple. He could not participate in the ritual activities of the nation because of his obvious “sin.” To touch such a “sinner” risked the same outcast life and consequences of the disease spiritually as well at least for a time. Knowing this risk we see the compassion of the leper as he only asks Jesus to heal him nothing more. This is how Jesus responds to the risk.

³ Reaching out His hand He touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” Immediately his disease was healed. Matthew 8:3 HCSB

Jesus being well Jesus starts with the man’s need and then his request. In spite of the great risk Jesus faced (he was a man) and maybe because of it he touched him and then he healed him. I think a contemporary analogy is an Ebola virus patient. As I have pondered this I saw how we isolate those with other lifestyles, ideas, political passion, the wrong families or backgrounds. It is so easy to isolate those who are not like us or have opposing views or lifestyles by treating them as lepers to be “safe.” Where is our compassion? Jesus didn’t see a leper but a child of God. A hurting, broken child in need of healing and hope.

Who do we see as “lepers” in and around us?

 

How do we isolate them?

 

Do we see them with Jesus eyes?

Who will you “touch” to change this?

 

Will you take the “risk?”

 

Compassion is risky business doing the right thing!

In HIS Service and yours,

Bro G