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The Power of Touch
Mark 1:35=45

April 19, 1970
John M. Buchanan

[ xoroay touched a leper. Not the lawyers, not the Scribes, Pharises, Saducees,
not the Priests nor the tomple functionaries, not the rich people, the poor people,
nor the people in between. Nobody touched a leper, except perhaps another leper.
In fact, all over the ancient eastern world it was considered a very bad omen if
the shadow of a leper happened to fall across one's own shadow. |

When we think about leprosy in Biblical times, we mst first discard the

precise medical vocabularly which you and I have learned to use from watching the
T.V. doctors practice their art. For here we are dealing with a strange combination
of primitive medicine, superstition and mythology. Leprosy had its own mythology:
it was the scourge of the ancient world, drcaded and feared by every culture. But
it wasn't a very precise medical term. Actually the word leprosy was used to
describe a long list of skin diseases which fills two full pages of the Intorpreters'

Dictionary of the Bible,few of which I can pronounce.

A man had leprosy when a priest said he did. It was the law that when any
skin eruption occurred, any darkening of flesh, and discoloration of scalp or
hair, a man went to a priest. The priest then called into play a very complex
list of symptoms and prescribed therapeutic measures. At first a man might be
given a seven day quarantine, at the end of which period the priest would cxamine .
him again and either extend the quarantine another sevon days, declare him perman-
ently a leper, or certify that he was clean.

It is interesting that we now know that some skin disorders may have emotional
derivation. Therefore the person whose rash was a manifestation of stress or
anxiety, well may have been healed by a ritual bathing in the Jordan River. In
any case the word leprosy in the Bible, refers to a large number of different
diseases, some very minor, some extremely severe including authentic loprosy,
or Hansen's Disease as it is known today.

| The significant thing about a leper, hew@wer, is that he was not only a sick

woe
man; he was also an isolated, alienated, cruelly segregated, very lonely man.
line >s socith Lindi ,
Leprosy was not only a medical oendeeion> It was a 1i 3 ; i
oe
plenoggnon.—

Liturgically a lepor had to be certified as a leper by a priest. Liturgically
there were certain prescribed ritualistic bathing procedures. If his symptoms
disappeared it was the priest, alone, who could certify that he was cured. And
beneath it all was the liturgical concept of “uncleaness". A leper was unclean.

He was unacceptable in the Temple or for any kind of social relationship. For

the safety of the community, real or imagined, he was required to identify himself
as a leper by wearing a certain type of baggy clothing, letting his hair hang
loose, and by calling our “lnclean! Unclean!"' whenever anyone else came near.

He was required to live away from the community, the further the better, in a cave
perhaps, or a shack outside the walls of the city. His livelihood was begging.

Legally he was the victim of one of the most deeply entrenched social taboos
of the ancient world. It was against the lew for him to come in contact with
other people. It was equally illegal for others to initiate contact with him.

[ave always wondered why lepers were not simply executed because the socialog-
Doak Sensi of their liturgical and legal predicament were often a fate far worse
than death. Thoy were totally detached from the mainstream; totally alientated,
totally isolated, they mattered to no one. They represent one of the most pathetic
images in human history. They were disgusting to look at, some of them without
noses, or hands; they were, in fact, filthy with open, running sores. Nobody
touched a leper. Who wanted to?

Well, Jesus touched a leper.) And the fact that the touch had power to heal
opens up a veritible reservoir of implications in the area of social taboo,
social restrictions, legal segregation and so on. But, for our purposes this
morning, I would have us channel the implications back ve the act of touching.
Jesus touched the nan.| Wo one else would have, or could have, butJesus aia, |

=<

The importance of that simple act is underscored by the fact that the vast

majority of incidents involving healing in the New Testament, also involve Jesus

-3-
physically touching someone. Sometimes it was only his garmont, as in the case
of the old woman who Wehihed out for his robe and was healed. The carly Christians
siezed on those occasions to prove the divinity of their Lord; even though Jesus
himself apparently was not interested in being known as a miracle worker. The
legitimate point of impact for us, therefore, is in this simple act of touching;
what it meant; the power it transmittod.
| we know a little about the power of touch. We know that an infant depends
on physical touching for his life. We have learned that the odds on survival
are greatly diminished if an infant is isolated and never touched. We know that
there is a real need for fondling, caressing, physical intimacy - and that there
is the power of life in touch. We know that without physical affection the infant
will become an emotional cripple as an adult; perhaps inmabia of any kind of
open intimacy with anyone. |
aaa
We know that, but we have some rather strange rules about touching in our
culture. A man had better not touch a woman, other than his wife or sister, because
it is ianiy assumed that something foul is intended. That, of course, is the
reason why the whole concept of sensitivity training pei some people to distrac-
tion. Some sensitivity training involves touching; for instance the physical touch-
ing of the face of another person. That frightens us, and pathetically there are
some who simply cannot imagine that happening apart from a sexual context.
For men, the social taboos are even more strange. Two women, good friends,
may give cach other a warm hug. But not two men. That is taboo. Russian men who
are good friends hold hands, publically. But I wouldn't sit js that in Lafayette.
One of the incongruities of the taboo in our culture, however, is that it is
lifted on the athletic field. Veno Paraskenas, Purdue's fine linebacker, before
each play walks along the line and pats each 250 pound tackle - in a manner that
would get him expelled from school were he to do it on campus.
Now, I am not, at this point, aetna ate anything. I have no need, no desire,

to hold hands with anyone but my wife ana children. What I am doing is pointing

i

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to the strange taboos regarding touching that have evolved in this particular culture.
~but @ adits

We know the power of touch, amd.we choose to express it negatively in most cases |
The psychological disciplines tell us that our attitude reflects a neurotic eatin:
ity about our own manhood or womanhood. Be that as it may, the cultural results,

I believe, are a social neurosis about intimacy: about people touching each other
physically or figuratively.

[tev been programmed to think of ourselves as eelf-reliant, We've beon
conditioned to regard ourselves of bastions of strength. We don't need others: if
we have problems, we'll take care of them. If we have deep feelings about anything
we keep them to ourselves. We avoid the openness which allows others to get inside
our lives, and we avoid projecting ourselves into anyone else's life, because,
that, — given.oun.neurotrowinseturity - would be evidence of weaimess. |

That is a familiar refrain to anyone who works with people in a supportive,
helping profession. I spend some time working with the Family Service Agency.
The monthly case reports reflect a disproportionate number of women. And the
reason for that is the patently absurd notion that for a man to admit to a personal
or marital problem is to publically admit to weakness or unmanliness. That's a
major social problem, and it will not be resolved until the image of the American
male becomes more than the adolescent parody which it has become. Personally, we
don't want to be touched - physically - or figuratively.

On a bit broader scale we are learning, many times by failure, that nothing
replaces personal contact. A large, madern social service agency may perform
its functions with speed and effecicency and help no one if it does not take into
account personal contact. <A modern clinic may incorporate the fantastic technology
of medical science, but nothing replaces the hand of a concerned physician on
the patients arm. "Marcus Welby, M.D." is the current medical folk-hero because
he has something that is increasingly rare - the "personal touch".

Jesus reached across the vast chasim of social taboo to touch a leper. The
man was healed. Something happened. The walls came tumbling down. Let's call it

reconciliation. The man got everything together: he became a whole man,

ran 4 Wm” P
Who amongyme-doesn't need that? Who amengeus has nover felt quarantined and

isolated, carrying a burden, worrying about a problem, certain that we are alone

in the world? And then someone touched us. Someone broke through and for a
miraculous moment shared that concern with us, and we were no longer alone. The
problem is still there, but something important happened to vs, and somehow the
problem becomes manageable or the burden lighter. There is no oneslmege who doesn't
need that. | And there is no greater goal for a church than for that kind of thing
to be typical of the fellowship of Jesus Christ in this place.

[ ie need to be touched, and our needs as individuals reflect the necds of
people and groups of psople in our community, nation and throughout the world.
There arc a lot of isolated, alienated, lonely and sometimes bitter people out
there. We meet thom every aay. | We work with them and live beside them and walk
right by them. Thoy need us ~ as we need each other. The whole nation became
very concerned with the plight of the Apollo 13 ast <nauts last week. And I think
one of the reasons for this outpouring of concern was the fact that we sensed the
terror of imlation. Lots of men die every day. Lots of young men were killed
in Viet Nam while apollo was threading its hazhardous way home. But those men
were isolated -- completely and totally. And we sensed the difference. We witness—
ed the power of touch.

Well there are a lot of people in life very much like those astronauts.
Racially, socially, economically, politically isolated. \ There are a lot of people
whose suffering repels us -- whose pathos moves us to walk on ey. | And their need
mist be at the top of our agenda -- as individual Christians, and specifically as
a Church.

(iow to touch? How to break throuzh? Who will make the first move? Theodore
Park Ferris tells the story of a man watching a nun dressing the wounds of a leper.
"The wounds wore horrible, loathsome to look at. As he watched her, he said, ‘I
wouldn't do that for a million dollars.' She looked up at him and said,'I
wouldn't either!’ She was not doing it for a millicn dollars: she couldn't.

She was doing it for someone else who had touched her and drawn her into the

Be Ty ; . Se

circlo of those who aro always reaching out to bring others in.“ } [The Things We

Live By] p. 45, Parish of the Air]

[Someone else has made the first nove. | In Jesus Christ God has reached across
the chasim to touch the life of humanity. md the miracle of that is that in
Jesus Christ he touches you and me. La Lawrence - no Christian himself ~ saw
the truth of Gospel in one of his last poems when he said, The future of religion
lies in the mystery of touch. -

The goodness of the Gospel is the power of God's touch in Jesus Christ. And

that goodness is shared and celebrated and lived when ciate eebdebaackiaiiant

ond. learn, inm~thesnreme"Or"ICsls CHYTS%, to touch cach other and nll men.

men.

Our father, we are grateful for the fact that Jesus Christ touched on
untouchable. We are grateful for the knowledge that his grace and love and power
touch us. Help us, 0 God, to stand with cach other, sensitive to the needs of
others, reflecting the love you have expressed to us. ‘Through Jesus Christ

our Lord.

Amen.