"To Know the Love of the Christ"-Continue with "He Was Moved With Pity"

Can you imagine what that touch meant to the leper?  To illustrate, consider an experience.  Dr. Paul Brand, a leprosy specialist, tell of a leper he treated in India. During the examination, the doctor laid his hands on the leper's shoulder and explained, through an interpreter, the treatment that the man would have to undergo. Suddenly, the leper began to weep.  "Have I said something wrong?" the doctor asked.  The interpreter questioned the young man in his language and replied:  "No doctor. He says he is crying because you put your hand around his shoulder. Until he came here no one had touched him for many years."  For the leper who approached Jesus, being touched had even greater meaning. Following that one touch,the disease that had made him an outcast was gone!

"Moved to dispel grief. Jesus was deeply moved by the grief of others.  Consider, for example, the account at Luke 7:11-15.  It took place when, about halfway through his ministry, Jesus approached the outskirts of the Galilean city of Nain.  As Jesus got near the gate of the city, he met a funeral procession.  The circumstances were especially tragic.  A young man who had been an only child had died, and the mother was a widow.  Once before, she had likely been in such a procession-that of her husband.  This time it was her son, who perhaps had been her only support. The crowd accompanying her may have included  additional mourners chanting lamentations and musicians playing mournful tunes.  (Jeremiah 9:17, 18; Matthew 9:23)  Jesus' gaze, however, became fixed on the grief-stricken mother, no doubt walking near the bier that carried the body of her son. 

Next time: "To Know the Love of the Christ"-Conclusion of "He Was Moved With Pity"

From the book: Draw Close to Jehovah