Bill Perkins

Bringing Light to Life

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • About
  • Books
  • Speaking
  • Links
  • Updates
  • Topics
    • Issues of Faith
      • Evangelism
      • Faith
      • Tough Questions
    • Personal Growth
      • Anger
      • Family
      • Marriage
      • Personal Growth
      • Pornography
      • Prayer
      • Relationships
    • Spirituality
      • God
      • The Holy Spirit
      • Jesus
      • Leadership
      • Life and Death
      • Sin
      • Spiritual Warfare
    • Culture
      • America
      • Book Review
      • Current Events
  • Freedom Ministries
Home Healing Before Jesus healed he felt this
Before Jesus healed he felt this

January 26, 2017 Leave a Comment

Before Jesus healed he felt this

When two blind men cried out to Jesus, the crowd saw them as intruders–irritants they brushed aside like pesky flies.  Jesus viewed them differently.  Matthew tells us: “Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes.  Immediately they received their sight and followed him.” (Matthew 20:34).

On another occasion a leprous man approached Jesus, fell on his knees, and begged for healing (Mark 1:40-45).  Leprosy destroys the nervous system wiping out the sense of touch and pain. Unaware of an injury a leper wouldn’t protect a wound allowing infection to set in. In advanced stages, the disease covers a man with pus-filled wounds and white shiny spots sometimes resulting in the loss of a hand, arm, or leg. Ceremonial law demanded a leper wear “torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!'” (Leviticus 13:45).  A leper’s touch transferred defilement to the one touched.  Because of this, lepers lived in isolation outside a city.

Instead of keeping his distance from Jesus, or warning that he was unclean, the leper fell on his knees before the Lord–a violation of cultural norms.  At that moment Jesus did the unthinkable.  He touched the leper and then healed him.  Most people would have performed the miracle first and then touched the man.  Upon reading that I wondered why Jesus touched him first?  I suspect, moved by compassion, he realized the man hadn’t felt the warmth of a human touch in decades. He knew the man needed acceptance more than healing.

I sometimes pray the Lord will give me more healing power. And yet, after reading this story maybe I should ask for more compassion. After all, the Lord’s mercy and healing power flowed from compassion.  While we may not encounter a leper, we are surrounded by wounded and hurting people who live in isolation. People who feel like outcasts. Folks we resist touching. For them we need compassion. The kind of compassion that grows as we listen and seek to understand rather than be understood. A compassion that expands as we ask God to help us enter into their pain. This is the emotion that touched Jesus before he touched and then healed a blind man and leper.

Filed Under: Healing

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get my articles emailed to you — and a free copy of my book, Why Naked Women Look So Good!

Recent Posts

  • Ride Out Your Pain
  • A Lesson Learned From Billows of Black Smoke
  • Jesus is The God of the Gap
  • Raise Your Spiritual Expectation for 2023
  • (no title)
  • Why Me? Why Now? Why This?
  • Do This Before Every Decision
  • When You Don’t Know What To Do
  • “I Never Saw It That Way Before”
  • To Serve Others Best, Do This First

Copyright © 2023 Bill Perkins