You never touched Me

“And Jesus said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with Him said, Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched Me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of Me.” (Luke 8:45,46).

“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” (Matt. 7:23).

“But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of
iniquity.” (Luke 13:27).

Do we want to know Jesus? Have we ever touched Him? If we know Jesus, then we have touched Him and He has touched us back, through His Spirit.

“And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:27). Jesus searches the spirit of our mind for faith in His promise to save us and for a genuine response to His love for us. His Spirit moves our spirit; our resuscitating spirit responds to the waves of His radiating love. This is His work of intercession. He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Through that combined Spirit from God and the spirit that is regenerating in us we can begin to appeal to God with a power we would otherwise not have. Jesus, our interceding High Priest, aligns our nature with His divine nature, our spirit with His divine Spirit, and God hears us because we are humbly requesting according to His will.

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.” (1Jn. 5:13-15).

He touches us if we reach out to touch Him. No sooner did the infirmed woman touch Him than healing came out of Him. The exchange of her touch and His was instantaneous; her touch was even cause and effect. Without any delay, her touch caused His touch. “Immediately her issue of blood stanched.” (Luke 8:44). We see this with Solomon. All that the Queen of Sheba gave him he lavished back on her. “And, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” (Luke 11:31, cf 1 Ki. 10:10-13). This was Jesus’ lesson of grace for all who truly need the gift of His Spirit. He comes close to encourage our hopes to hold on to Him like He came close to the crowds around Him. But, if we are caught up in this world, its concerns and stresses and pleasures, then the world has absorbed all our need of Him. His close proximity cannot excite in us any desire to lay hold of Him. We will be like the crowd around Him that day in Galilee when Peter, astonished said, “Master, the multitude throng Thee and press Thee, and sayest Thou, Who touched Me?” The crowd received no healing touch from Jesus. The only person who did was that one desperately needy woman.

Is it possible to be too busy, even too excited about religious work to not need Jesus or to touch Him? Is it possible to be so busy with the work of the Lord that I lose sight of the Lord of the work? Yes, it happens a lot. And if I never touch Him for His help, I never receive the touch of His Spirit. I never know Him; and He never knows me. If I die in that condition, when I awaken it won’t be to hear His wonderful words, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred,…I was thirsty,…: I was a stranger, …naked, sick, in prison, [and you touched Me. You held Me and touched My heart. I knew you.]” (Matt. 25:34,35). Instead I will hear, “You never touched Me and I never knew you. I never knew your touch, your desperation to touch My holiness, which touches My heart.”

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;… that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”( 1Jn. 1:1,3).

All the crowd knew was a social club. All they had was human fellowship. What Jesus wants from us is fellowship with His Father and with Him, handling, looking upon, listening to and watching Him all through the Bible. This is walking after the Spirit. Touching Jesus is being in the Spirit--us touching and handling Him, opening our heart to His wonderful counsel and coming into close quarters with Him, and Him touching us, His Spirit handling our hearts and lives “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5:5).

Are we groaning under the burden of, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts”(Isa. 6:5)? Is our faith reaching up in desperation to be forgiven and cleansed, seeking to touch the part of Him that is the closest to us in our sin-encrusted earth, the life-giving “Holy, Holy, Holy” hem of “His train [that fills] the temple” (Isa. 6:3,1)?

Will we be like the holy men of old “whose hearts God had touched” (1Sam. 10:26)? Let us never hear the sad tones from Jesus,“I never knew you.” Rather, today and always let us submit to the righteousness of God, falling in repentance for turning away from the King of glory and for being willfully ignorant of His Law. Then under overwhelming condemnation from the Law’s baptism of fire, and humbled, we will trust in the Messiah, our Saviour who God gave us for the remission of our horrendous, shameful sins.

Let’s touch Jesus’ heart by coming in contact with Him through His words of truth and grace, through aiding and encouraging others, through His autobiography which He wrote into nature, and by looking to Him for love. If we do, He will return our touch with His healing virtue. Simultaneously.

There’s no other name like Jesus,
’Tis the dearest name we know,
’Tis the angel’s joy in Heaven,
’Tis the Christian’s joy below.

Sweet name, dear name,
There’s no other name like Jesus,
Sweet name, dear name,
There’s no other name like Jesus.

                                           Lyrics by F. E. Belden