The Overcomer Trust

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THE TOUCH OF THE KING.

By Sophia Nugent.


It is very wonderful to recall the way in which during His earthly life the Lord Jesus seemed to be watching for opportunities of coming into close contact with the sinners He had come to save. On every possible occasion He was claiming identity with them, making every need a means of using the nearness which He had descended from heaven to win, and was going to retain for ever by His death.

One of His first miracles is described like this. “A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean’. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man.  ‘I am willing’, He said. ‘Be clean’.”  He need not have done it, His word would have been cleansing enough, but He chose to touch, that each of us who are willing to take our awful load of ‘leprosy’ to Him, owning ourselves unclean, outcast and vile may expect to be touched by Jesus. “Immediately,” the story continues, “the leprosy left him and he was cured”. So it is with us.

After cleansing comes the longing for service, our hands want to work for Him, but often, like Peter's mother-in-law, something hinders. A fever holds us and we need to be healed of all feverish restlessness. The only thing to still us into the quiet restfulness of true health is renewed contact with the Master, whose touch cleansed us. But He is ready, and if we will let Him “into the house”, and not be ashamed to reveal all our helplessness, His cooling, restful hand will impart to us His own rest. “He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on Him” (Matt. 8 v14-15). Do you think any ministry is as welcome and as precious to the Lord Jesus as that from the hand He has touched?

We have perhaps been deaf to His voice. Over and over again He has had to mourn our hardness of hearing, “Having ears, you do not hear”. And we too have had cause to sorrow that we have so often missed His voice, or lost it among a medley of others. We long to catch the slightest whisper of His will, but it is only possible through personal contact with Him. “Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk . . . He took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put His fingers into the man’s ears . . . He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, ‘Be opened’. At this the man’s ears were opened” (Mark 7 v32-35). “He touched the man’s ear and healed him” (Luke 22 v51). Will you miss His touch because you are too proud to own yourself deaf?

Because we are deaf there is an impediment in our speech. It is not that we cannot speak for Him, but there is a lack of clarity in what we say. Others cannot understand us and go away. We are too vague to be of real use and all because we cannot hear well. We long to be understood as we speak. Is He sufficient? He “touched the man’s tongue . . . his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly” (Mark 7 v33-35). We need His touch before we can freely say, “He loved me!”

We cannot do without having Him in continual sight, we need an unbroken, unclouded vision of Him and cannot be satisfied with occasional glimpses. This too comes from His touch. Three times Jesus’ touch opened blind eyes to see Him and once He repeated it, till the glad testimony rose that the blind saw “everything clearly” (Matt. 9 v27-30, Matt. 20 v34 & Mark 8 v 23-25). He does not tire of having to put His hands again upon the eyes of those who long to see Him. He wants us to speak and see clearly and both come from His touch.

The list is not finished. The hand has been touched and made capable of serving Him, the ear made keen and quick to hear Him, the tongue made able to speak for Him and the eyes opened to see Him clearly, but what about the feet? “He began to wash the disciples’ feet.” No member untouched, no member unclaimed.

Do we want to know His touch in all its fulness of tenderness and power? There is only one condition, it is the leper who gains it, the fevered, the deaf, the speechless and the blind, are we ready to take the place of these? To be touched by Him means to acknowledge utter helplessness. Perhaps this is just the reason why we seem so often to miss out, we will not stand still before Him.

We must know His touch, He is yearning to bestow it, watching for us to lay before Him our need, listening for our ‘Yes Lord’ to His power. For then comes immediate cleansing, (Matt. 8 v3), serving (Mark 1 v31), hearing, speech (Mark 7 v35), and sight (Matt. 20 v34).

The touch of Jesus is the touch of the Master, and what He lays His hand upon is taken to Himself for ever. If He touches hand or ear, it is that they may be His own, for what He touches He claims as well as cleanses.

Are we ready for His touch to claim us as well as giving power? There is nothing vague or mysterious about His touch. Every time He touched, He spoke. His Word always accompanied His touch, and does so still. It is in His Word that we meet Him and gain that close contact we need. To be touched by Jesus does not mean some new, wonderful revelation which few are shown. Each one who reads His Word may and ought to meet Him there. It is humbling to think how often we have missed Him, and risen from our reading without knowing anything of the near, intimate contact with Him He yearns for us to have.

Long ago He drew near to one of His lonely servants. Daniel had been three weeks in mourning and agonised searching after the mind and meaning of God. Then at last the Son of Man appeared, and like everyone else who sees God, Daniel realised his helplessness. Then came the touch which set him upon his knees. He touched Daniel again, for He wished to hear His child’s voice, and with the second touch came power to speak to the Master. It was when the lips of Daniel had been touched that his mouth was opened and he began to speak. But our speaking to Him is only half, for real conversation needs two, and so a third touch was given that Daniel might be able to listen, and after it he could say “Speak my Lord” (Daniel 10 v2, 8, 10, 16, 18, 19).

After the touch which has strengthened us to hear Him, comes the touch which enables us to pass on the received message to others (Is. 6 v6-9). And He is so rich that He touches, not only to give power to speak, but the very words to use. “Then the Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth, and said to me, ‘Now, I have put My words in your mouth’”(Jer. 1 v9).

Here is one more proof of the intensity of His desire for intimate contact with His children. Some hesitating heart might think that though He desired it in the past, before the cross, He may not want it now, as He sits crowned at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Here He answers this doubt. Years after His ascension, He came down in His Majesty to another of His lonely children, His face was “like the sun shining in all its brilliance” (Rev. 1 v16). And as John saw and fell at His feet as dead, the same hand which touched him before the Cross was laid on him with intense tenderness, and the same voice which had said, “Don’t be afraid” now said, “Do not be afraid”, for He is the same Jesus.

Instantly the touched leper praises, the touched hand ministers, the ear listens, the tongue speaks, the eye sees Him and follows. But before we leave the thought of His touch, there is just one more thing it involves. Jacob knew it when, long ago, the touch of the angel broke him down in helpless suffering. For this is not only a contact of infinite tenderness but of irresistible power to subdue. Can you face this? This touch leaves you maimed for life in all you had held as your best strength? Job knew it when he cried in his agony, “Have pity upon me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has touched me” (Job 19 v21). His touch will subdue you into the place of blessing, where the name of power is bestowed, and you shall rise, as Jacob did, a “prince with God”, or like Job, your latter end will be more blessed than your beginning. But as you touch Him, you will find your hand clasped and know that He has only been waiting for you to yield so that He may touch you with His mighty hand, and you hear His voice, “I will never leave you”.