Devotional *THE MASTER'S TOUCH* _*Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him”*(Mark 1:40–42)._ All throughout the Gospels it is clear that Jesus Christ did not need physical contact in order to heal. In multiple instances Scripture showed that His word alone carried full authority. The same God who spoke the world into existence has authority to speak healing and life. When the centurion asked for help, he did not ask Jesus to come or to touch his servant. He said, “Only say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8). The centurion knew what authority really meant *The Bible records that the servant was healed at that very moment (Matthew 8:13).* In another account, a royal official begged Jesus to come down before his son died, but Jesus did not go. He said only, *“Go; your son will live,”* and the man later learned that the healing had happened at the exact hour Jesus spoke (John 4:50–53). Luke recorded that Jesus rebuked the fever, and it left Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:39). Mark noted that unclean spirits obeyed Him immediately when He spoke (Mark 1:25–27). In several healing accounts, the Gospels took time to say that *Jesus touched the person.* Mark told us that when a leper came to Him and knelt, saying, “If you will, you can make me clean,” Jesus did not only answer with words. “Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him” (Mark 1:40–42). Matthew recorded that when two blind men cried out for mercy, Jesus touched their eyes, and then their sight was restored (Matthew 9:29–30). When Jairus’s daughter had died, Jesus took her by the hand and spoke to her, and she arose (Mark 5:41–42). When children were brought to Him, Mark said that He took them in His arms and laid His hands on them and blessed them (Mark 10:16). The Gospel writers had already shown that Jesus could heal from afar and by command alone. Why does Scripture emphasize the word *TOUCH* multiple times? In the world of first-century Judaism, touch carried great necessary weight. Lepers were required to live apart and warn others to keep their distance (Leviticus 13:45–46). Contact with uncleanness renders a person ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 5:3). Barriers were enforced through separation and shame. Against that background, Mark’s record of events became striking. 1. Jesus did not wait for the leper to be cleansed before touching him. 2. The touch came first, and then the leprosy left (Mark 1:41–42). What Scripture quietly shows through repeated detail was the uniqueness of Jesus’ ministry. - He did not only remove sickness. - He crossed into spaces of isolation before removing the cause of isolation. He restored people not only physically, but by reaching out to people whom others had discarded. The touch revealed His willingness to meet people at the point where their shame and exclusion were already felt. Later in the Gospels the *TOUCH* became more severe. Jesus Himself was seized and struck (Matthew 26:67). He suffered outside the city gate (Hebrews 13:12). He became the one treated as unclean. The One who touched the unclean without being defiled would later bear uncleanness in order to cleanse others. Scripture framed it as Jesus choice to be touched, beaten, whipped, wounded and crucified unto death. This is my Jesus, the perfect lamb, who touched the world and allowed sin and shame to *TOUCH* him, so that we could be saved from The *TOUCH* of sin and destruction. THIS is my God and He is willing to reach out and *TOUCH* you & me to heal and cleanse. WHAT 🅰️ MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE.