“Moved With Compassion”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe….

"Moved With Compassion"

   

      Allow me to introduce you to Jacob.

     

    Jacob lives at a retirement community where we conduct services.  He faithfully attends the meetings, which leads us to believe he loves the Lord and His people.  :):)  Note that He also loves Frances's backpack, which contains the hymnsheets we use during our services.   However, there is, shall we say, a rub regarding Jacob's attendance:  Frances and I are both allergic to cats.  We usually leave the encounters with Jacob feeling a bit congested and scratching an itchy nose.  Our friend tends to make matters worse because he invariably approaches me with the desire to be petted.  I find myself not being able to resist a brief stroke of his fur because he is so sweet-natured and so faithful an attendee of our services.  This, of course, makes my allergy reaction worse.  It also reminds me of an account in Scripture regarding the Lord Jesus Christ and His willingness to touch the untouchable.

    "And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed" (Mark 1:40-42).

   I often wonder how long it had been since the leper had felt the warmth of someone's hand.  Old Testament law forbad touching lepers because of the infectious transmission of the disease (Leviticus 5:3).  The Lord Jesus, of course, was not subject to this directive because His touch administered healing to the man rather than being infected by his leprosy.  Thus, "moved with compassion", the Savior also moved His hand to touch and cleanse.  We can only imagine what it meant to the leper that someone - Someone - cared enough to administer such grace.  "In my distress, I cried unto the Lord and He heard me" (Psalm 120:1).

    In spiritual terms, we are all that leper.  Moreover, our Savior was willing not only to touch us, but to become as one of us in order to die and rise again in order to cure our sin-diseased hearts.   This was true in our conversion, and remains true in our walk with the Lord as His trusting children.  "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin… If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (I John 1:7; 2:1).  The blood of Christ represents His death as a man.  Only as a man could God the Son shed blood. His advocacy confirms His resurrection and office as our living intercessor in the Heavenlies, again, as a man.  Only as man could the Lord Jesus serve as a qualified mediator between ourselves and God.  Yes indeed, He touched us, and far more.

    I think about such things when Jacob approaches me with the expectation of being stroked by my hand.  I often hesitate, but then I think of the Lord Jesus touching a leper.  Even more, I think of Him touching me.  So Jacob receives a brief, but certain touch of my hand.  And I receive from him a blessed and even more certain remembrance of a Savior "moved with compassion".

"The Word was made flesh."

(John 1:14)

"There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

(I Timothy 2:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say rejoice."

(Philippians 4:4)

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