"He Touched Me" - Mark 1:40-45 - February 13, 2000

The "unclean" man in our story was sick. He had a tremendous need to be touched since he lived in isolation from the community. He did not have the freedom to go where others went, nor to be in contact with "normal" humans. For most of his life he had never experienced compassion and affection from other people. He could not walk hand in hand with the person he loved. He couldn’t receive a hug, not even a handshake. He was starved to be touched, to be included in society. He wanted to belong, to be loved, but society at that time would not allow it.

It is an act of desperation that led him to approach Jesus and literally begged Jesus to make him clean. "Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him." After that happened the man was clean. Like all other sick persons before him, Jesus is compassionate and makes him clean. The man’s leprosy, the visible and despicable disease that labeled him in the first place disappears. He is now like all others, healthy, and can rejoin the community as a "normal" person.

The primary issue here is not that the man was cured of leprosy. That is simply a result of the more important fact that Jesus reached out and touched someone who by society’s standards was "unclean." The man is clean, not because he was healed but clean because Jesus touched him. This was a man who was hopeless. This was a man who was not included in society. This was a man who was "sick" because society said he was sick.

I suppose this would be similar to a person who has AIDS in today’s world. We are afraid to touch them or be near them because of their disease. However, there are many others who are also isolated from us. There are persons of other races, religions, backgrounds, virtually anyone who is not like us. And when people are different we refrain from touching them for fear of being contaminated.

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) was one of the early contributors to the field of counseling. He believed that people are social creatures and we need interaction with one another to survive. He stressed our responsibility for others and held to the religious principle of "Love they neighbor." Adler believed that the social environment, especially the one that a person is raised in, affects their personality. A lack of human contact and interaction will make it difficult for an individual to have healthy relationships and can result in the person having an inferiority complex.

For Adler, a "malajusted" child is not a sick child, but a very discouraged one. When a person suffers from discouragement, they need love, hope and encouragement. They need to be "touched" by other human beings. In other words, anyone who is isolated from the community in which they live will not only feel inferior but could even develop certain neuroses. Thus they are labled "sick."

I remember as a child playing with the other children during recess at school. When there was someone we didn’t like, or was different than us, they had "cooties." When a person had "cooties", you kept your distance and ostracized them from the group. Unfortunately, we adults still see other persons who are different than us but we don’t think of them as having "cooties." Our ways of dealing with them are far more subtle.

I once knew a woman who would drive 5 miles out of her way to work just to avoid driving through a "poor" section of town. It was perfectly safe. But "those" people were more apt to be walking along the street or sitting on their porches. One way of keeping our distance from people who are different is simply to avoid them all together.

Another way of keeping people at a distance is to make rules that keep people we don’t like from belonging. There is a club in a neighboring county that does not allow minority members to join. Although this is a violation of our modern day discrimination laws no one has ever challenged the rules of the club. Our rules aren’t always so blatant. Other times we just make the process of acceptance so cumbersome that people get frustrated and don’t follow through.

I frequently ride elevators. Often I have observed that people keep their distance from people they don’t know by withdrawing as much as possible. You can almost feel the tension when they rub shoulders. The same is true in public places, such as a restaurant waiting area or shopping mall. People don’t like to be touched. When they are touched just check out the look they give. It is an expression of horror and disgust.

Our society may be prosperous at the moment but there is increasing evidence that we are becoming more and more impersonal. For example; you can order just about anything on the internet and not have to have contact with another human being, like you would in a department store.

People want (and need) to be touched. Not necessarily physically, but to be touched by communicating, acknowledging, with feelings of acceptance and regard. When we are willing to risk crossing the barriers in our community we are extending a hand to those who feel isolated and "unclean."

Jesus showed the people of his day that to touch the unclean is very powerful. It bridges the divide and it fosters a sense of community. It gives hope to those in despair. It is not something we need to fear. We don’t have to be afraid to touch. When Jesus touched the "unclean" man he went against the grain. He challenged the morés and customs of the community. What he did was a threat to their system of traditional values.

We don’t like it when people attempt to change the rules. It is threatening. The more we are used to doing things a certain way the more they are perpetuated. In other words, our traditions become the rule of the land.

One time a university tried an experiment. They placed 5 apes in a cage. A banana was hung on a string and a stairway was placed beneath it. But when one of the apes climbed the stairs to retrieve the banana he was squirted with cold water. After a while, another ape attempted to do the same thing with the same result. This continued with several more attempts. Apes, too are social creatures. They like humans adapt to one another and even look out for each other. More time passed and when one of the apes attempted to climb the stairs the others prevented him.

At this point the students quit spraying cold water. Also one ape was removed from the cage and a new one took his place. The new ape immediately sees the banana and climbs the stairs to retrieve it. To his horror, the other apes attacked him. Another attempt was made, and yet another attack. He now knows if he tries to climb the stairs he will be attacked.

Another ape is removed and he is replaced with a new one. Again, the newcomer goes up the stairs and is attacked. The ape who had been added just prior takes part in the attack with enthusiasm. A third new ape is added and one of the original ones is removed. The new one attempts to go up the stairs but is also attacked. Two of the other four apes have no idea why he was not permitted to climb the stairs and why he is being attacked. Next the other two original apes are replaced with new ones. Then there were no apes in the cage who had been sprayed with cold water. After that, no ape tries to climb the stairs and get the banana because of the "tradition" of being beaten. Now they will all starve as no ape will eat. Why? Because they have always done it that way.

I mentioned earlier that Alfred Adler believed that people needed to be "touched" and included socially to develop healthy lives. His theory was in direct opposition to Sigmund Freud’s, which was popular at that time. But, Adler believed in a different approach and introduced an entirely new concept, one that requires a loving contact between we humans.

You may wonder why this was so important to Adler. When Adler was a small child he was very clumsy and children often made fun of him. He developed "rickets" at an early age, another one of those despicable diseases during the 19th century. As a child he once contracted pneumonia and almost died. He spent much of his early years isolated from his peers. Because of his lack of coordination and weak condition he was run over by a horse and wagon, not once but twice.

Adler understood the need to be touched. Fortunately for him, his parents were extremely supportive and very social people. With their help, not to mention their faith, Adler was able to rise above his situation and encourage his followers to do the same. Like the man in our story, he too could say, "He touched me," and made me whole.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio