I am not an indiscriminate hugger. I can’t say whether or not Jesus was. I do know, at least from the first stories that Mark tells us, that Jesus was a toucher.  

There are several interactions recorded. John baptizes him, he invites Peter Andrew, James, and John to follow him. He teaches, and then heals a man by scolding the evil spirit. He grabs Peter’s mother-in-law’s hand, he heals a bunch of people, he heals a man with a skin disease. We don’t know how he healed the bunch of people. But we do know that Jesus touched Peter’s mother-in-law and the man with the skin disease.

+++

Last fall, I was writing about learning how to provide pastoral care by looking at the ways that Jesus was present with people. I talked about his presence in celebration, in grief, in meals, in conversation. I made a note to myself to talk about how he was present in healing, but I never got it written. For the class I was teaching, for you.

Part of it was running out of time. But part of it was because we assume that the ways Jesus was present in healing are prescriptive and predictive. We assume, and sometimes teach, that Jesus will heal, if we ask in the right way, if we live in the right way, if we get enough people praying, if we storm the gates of heaven.

I’m not sure that in the stories from early Mark where Jesus healed the man in the synagogue, Peter’s mother-in-law, and the man with the skin disease are meant to be predictive or formulaic about healing.

But I do know that they are descriptive. And I know because of those descriptions that Jesus was touching people that no one, particularly a leader, would touch. It meant that he was within arms-length and eye contact of sick people.

It may not be a model of healing but it is a model of care.

+++

The photo is from the blessing of the hands.