If you will, turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter 7.
Mark chapter 7.
And I'm going to be reading from verse 31 to the end of the chapter.
Now when Jan comes home every day, she goes into the back room,
gets on the bicycle, and turns on Gilligan's Island.
Now I have to say I'm not a big Gilligan's Island fan.
I'm more of a happy days or mash.
But there was this one episode.
And in this episode, because of the washing detergent Gilligan was using,
he lost his hair.
Now Mary and Ginger, they faint when they see it.
Mrs. Howe, the professor, could not look at Gilligan.
Why? Because he had changed, you could say in a certain sense, out of disability.
But isn't that the way we often treat people who have some sort of disability or illness?
Don't want to look at them.
Don't want to touch them.
Today we're going to look at a story about Jesus Christ, who touched someone who had a great disability.
And it is in his touch that we find something of the glory of Jesus Christ.
Let me read that scripture to you this morning.
Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre.
And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know it.
Yet he could not keep his present secret.
Now that's verse 24.
So we know that Jesus is off and he is doing his ministry.
But then let's go to verse 31.
And then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.
And there some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk.
And they begged Jesus to place his hands on him.
And after he took him aside away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears.
Then he spit and touched the man's tongue.
He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him,
Apaphatim, which means be open.
And at this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly.
Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone, but the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it.
People were overwhelmed with amazement.
He has done everything well, they said.
He even makes the death hear and the mute speak.
Let's pray and ask God to bless the reading of his holy word.
Our Heavenly Father, please be with us now as we listen.
And may we see the glory of Jesus Christ in his touch.
And may we also glory in Jesus for the touch he has had upon us, but also what is going to happen in the future.
I make this prayer in his name, amen.
Are you a touchy person?
I mean, if you go into a room and let's say you see some people, are you the type of person who's got to go over and give people a bare heart?
How are you doing, buddy?
Or if you see someone who is down, are you the type of person who goes over, puts your arm around their shoulder, and you try to encourage them with your words?
Or if you've seen somebody who is suffering bereavement, loss of a family member, are you the type of person who will put your hands on their hands
to let them know that everything is all right?
Or if you're a male, perhaps your type of touching is the fist bump or what we used to do, the handshake or the high five.
Those are all forms of human contact, and as humans, touching is very good for us.
What we know from orphans who are in orphanages, if those babies don't have human contact, if they are not being cuddled and held, they have developmental problems.
It is also good for our health if we have human contact, especially in a world that is very lonely and is full of trouble.
But is there glory in a touch?
Greatness in a touch?
Now, we've seen previously, watering to wine, well that's something we can glorify Jesus for.
We have seen how Jesus called to Lazarus, and Lazarus rose from the dead.
That is certainly something to glorify Jesus about, and we've seen how Jesus could teach.
And people glorified him for that.
What about a touch?
Jesus touching someone.
Is there glory in that?
And I would say to you, yes, there is.
Look at the crowd's response after he touched this man who was deaf and couldn't speak, they are amazed.
And they are saying, he does everything well.
Now, usually in miracles, Jesus can speak or think it, it's done, but there are times when Jesus touches people.
He gets physically close.
And here we see it, that he touches a person on their tongue and in their ears.
So let's see what is so glorious about that touch.
And what we see here is that he shows us his glorious closeness.
If you go through the Bible, you will see a lot of times that we are told not to touch things.
So for example, in the Garden of Eden, God told us people, don't touch the tree.
Now, he didn't literally say that, he said, don't eat from it.
But if you're going to eat from the tree, you're going to have to reach up and touch it.
And we all know what happened after that.
It led to the fall of Adam and Eve.
When you get to Exodus 19, where God is on Mount Sinai, he tells the people, don't touch the mountain.
It's holy.
When we look at the articles that went into the temple and the tabernacle, the commandment is once again, don't touch.
Or you will suffer the wrath of God.
And we also know that there were certain foods, there were certain items that God's people were not to touch.
If they touched them, they would become unclean.
So Israel had all these rules, don't touch, don't taste.
At the day, we sometimes have similar rules.
I remember that when I used to go into toy stores, I was always told, don't touch the toys.
And they would also say, you could smell the toys.
Don't ask me why they said that.
But I couldn't touch the toys.
So I went around smelling toys.
But really, we have these type of rules today too.
But generally, they deal with health and hygiene, don't we?
So for example, if you are in a big city, try not to touch the handles of the escalators which are going up.
Why?
Because all those nasty people who have touched it before you, and you don't know what type of diseases they have.
Or if you go into the restroom, I mean, there are times I won't even touch the handles.
I'll use my elbows or something else because you don't know what's been going on in here.
So we've got all that.
And what do you do?
You've got to go wash your hands because of what you touch, because there are certain things you do not want to touch.
And if it's not the germs that you are scared of getting, that's the reason why we don't shake hands anymore,
be careful of what you eat.
Don't touch that cake.
Don't touch that pie.
Don't touch the refrigerator in the middle of the night because it's not good for your health.
In the Bible, all sorts of rules and regulations about don't touch, all sorts of rules and regulations in our modern life,
let's don't touch, let's don't get near certain things.
But look at what is happening in this passage where Jesus comes to touch someone who has a disorder.
Let's see what's going to happen here.
Jesus is taking a long trip, 100 plus miles.
He left the vicinity of Tyre and he goes up, decided, and then he makes a turn and heads down into the Decapolis.
He is in Gentile territory.
And while he is traveling, he runs into a man who is deaf and dumb.
And the people bring him to Jesus.
So Jesus will do something.
And Jesus takes him away from the crowd so he can heal him.
And I want you to notice the action.
He touches his finger into the man's ear, spits on his tongue.
Let me ask you, would you do that?
No, I don't touch anybody's ears.
I mean, my wife sometimes says, will you massage my feet? I'm like, I don't know about that.
There's something. Oh, we don't do that. That's just unclean.
And I'll tell you here, the spit, it could be considered unclean, but yet you have in the ancient world
people who believe that spit had medicinal purposes.
And there are other miracles where Jesus uses spit to heal.
So on the one hand it could be unclean, but on the other hand, maybe it is medicinal.
But Jesus does this so much for hygiene today, so much for uncleanliness.
Jesus touches his person with a handicap.
And the reason he does it this way, well, here you have a man who can't hear, can't speak.
It was a very tactile way of showing this man what he was going to do to heal him.
It was almost like a teaching moment.
And I want you to realize that in other miracles, Jesus does this as well.
And what does it show us about Jesus, his grace and his love?
It may be just a touch, but Jesus is doing this because his heart goes out to a man who has a handicap and is suffering.
I mean, I don't know if people made fun of people with handicaps back then, but I'm pretty sure they did.
They probably didn't think much of him, but he was willing to break down those barriers and do something about it.
Now, one of the first jobs I ever had was at a mental institution where I was the male delivery person.
And it was at Central State Hospital in Virginia, and it was a very huge campus.
It really was a campus. It was more like a college. It didn't look like a college, but it was big.
And they had all these buildings, and we had there the criminally insane.
I didn't see them because you couldn't get near them.
But we also had those with severe handicaps and the geriatric unit, which were people who either had handicaps, Alzheimer's, and people didn't want them.
And it did not smell. And I did not want to go anywhere near any of those people.
I just went in, dropped off the mail, got out.
Because what was my reaction to those who were either disfigured, insane, or just didn't look good? Stay away.
Stay away from all those people.
It's not good to be near people like that.
But then again, I want you to think of the glory of Jesus Christ.
He touches someone who is handicapped in a way that you and I wouldn't.
It would have the medical profession up in arms because he spit and he touched.
He draws close to those who are broken.
That's the glory of our Savior.
That is the glory of Jesus Christ. He is willing to come and draw near.
And he not only can touch our bodies, he can touch our souls as well.
This also makes me think of the future.
Because there's another incident which is somewhat like this. It is that after Jesus has risen from the grave,
and you have those who doubted that it was Jesus who died, and what does Jesus have the disciples do?
Here, Thomas, touch my wounds. Touch my disfigurement.
And one day when we think about the touch of Christ,
there's going to be that day when we will see Jesus face to face, see those wounds.
And I don't know if we'll be able to touch them or not, but it's certainly a possibility.
Because wounds disfigurement does not keep us from the touch of our Savior.
In fact, because we are His creation, created in His image, He draws near to the disfigured
because they're still in the image of God.
And not only do we see here that here's the glory of Jesus Christ in His touch,
but He also shows us His glorious power.
He heals the man.
Now look at verse 34. There is a lot of grace here with His glory.
In verse 34, it's somewhat unusual because it says in verse 34,
He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to Him,
apathrata, which means be open.
In other versions, it may say something a little different with a groan.
And in other passages in Scripture, that word groan is used.
For example, in Romans 8, 23, not only so, but we ourselves,
we have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship,
the redemption of our bodies.
Why is Jesus groaning?
In this passage, the word is used again by Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Meanwhile, we groan longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling.
In those two passages by Paul, we are groaning because of all of our physical bodies
are having to go through in this world, death, decay, disfigurement.
And I'm sure back then there were a lot more people who were disfigured.
Why is Jesus groaning?
Because in His grace, He sees what the curse has done to His creation.
He is willing to do something about it.
That's why He's groaning.
And whether He sees retardation, cancer, Alzheimer's, cerebral palsy, or Down syndrome,
I think it has the same reaction with Jesus.
This is not what we were intended to be.
It's only this way because of sin and the fall and the curse.
And Jesus here doesn't just touch.
The power flows and Jesus acts.
And that man is cured.
Jesus touches.
He speaks.
He looks to heaven.
And what's the result?
That man can now hear.
He can now speak.
And notice what it says, speak clearly.
And we often, I think, wonder, what is he saying?
Can you imagine what that man would be saying?
I can speak.
What's happened?
I've been cured.
And he can hear.
Can you think about what you would say if you were in the same position?
And it's not only this man is talking, the rest of the passage says,
everybody else is talking.
He can't get him to shut up because he's done this miraculous healing through his touch.
And notice what they say.
He has done everything well, or he has done everything good.
Reminds us of Genesis chapter one, when God spoke and creation was declared good.
Because Jesus creates, but he recreates through healing.
That is the glorious power of Jesus Christ.
Now let's think for a moment about the implications of this.
You may know people who have disabilities.
They have some real problems and I can think, for example, David, he's had some terrible problems.
But one day, here's what Jesus Christ is going to do.
That miraculous, glorious power will be used to transform David into something that is very glorious,
which we would probably not even recognize.
We would go from pity today to almost worship in the new heavens and the new earth.
We may think of Rodney, remember Rodney with all of his problems.
One day, Jesus Christ will touch his body.
And once again, there's going to be an awesome change.
We may know people who have Alzheimer's, who can't think, who are constantly forgetting.
But in the new heavens, in the new earth, when Jesus comes again for his people who have Alzheimer's,
let me tell you what's going to happen.
They're going to have the recall and IQ of an Einstein.
Because Jesus Christ is going to recreate us in his fullness.
And what we've got to understand is that as God's people are great hope,
comes not because everything will be taken care of in this world, but one day,
that touch is going to make us all 100% whole.
Don't worry about what can happen to you or your kids so much.
Don't know what's going to happen.
But what we do know is, is the glory of Jesus is that he can restore.
Our circles, we pull back from getting too close and touching people.
And I know I'm that way.
I'm not exactly a touchy person.
And part of it goes back to a time when we were in Virginia,
and I went up and I hugged a woman.
And she groaned and she groaned because she had back problems and I sort of learned a lesson.
But when Jesus Christ touches you, those pains all evaporate.
Because that's the type of savior we have.
One who is willing to show us his glory by taking away our disfigurement,
whether it is spiritual or physical.
That is the glory of Jesus, the glory of his touch.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we ask now that you will show us the glory of Jesus,
who by his touch is able to heal, by his words the power of God is demonstrated.
May we look forward to that time when all of our infirmities will be done away with.
The curse will be no more.
Our minds will be made right as well as our bodies and our souls will desire you and your kingdom above all else.
Holy Spirit, speak to us of these eternal truths that we find in your Word. Amen.