In Christ, There Are NO Untouchables - March 16 Readings: Numbers 23-24, Mark 14:1–25, Psalm 35:21–28, Proverbs 7:12–13

Links to March 16 Readings: Numbers 23-24, Mark 14:1–25, Psalm 35:21–28, Proverbs 7:12–13

The Bible is a deep well, an inexhaustible supply of the water of life. No matter how many times you read it, you will always see something new. I have read the stories surrounding the latter days of Jesus' earthly ministry a hundred times, no, a thousand times. But I saw something new today, in Mark 14:3.

While He was in Bethany at the house of Simon who had a serious skin disease, as He was reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of pure and expensive fragrant oil of nard. She broke the jar and poured it on His head.

We usually note the unnamed woman's extravagant act of worship, anointing his body in advance of burial. We observe Judas Iscariot's duplicity, rebuking the woman for wasting so much money that could have gone to the poor when his true motive was greed; he was dipping in the treasury for personal use.

But it has never occurred to me where Jesus was when this event took place. He was in Bethany, a small village down the other side of the Mt. of Olives from Jerusalem. When he was there he usually stayed with his close friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus. In fact, some believe that Simon may have been the father of these three, but that is speculation. It is assumed that Simon was a former leper, likely one who had been healed by Jesus, or he would not have been having a dinner party.

But think about it. Jesus was reclining at a meal with a man whom all of Israel, in particular the religious leaders, would have avoided and shunned. Perhaps now the ban was off of him because of his healing, but it tells us something about Jesus that he was there.

Jesus went where others would refuse to go. Jesus touched the untouchables. He was a friend of sinners, whom the religious shunned. He was a friend of lepers, whom everyone avoided. He was a friend of tax collectors who were universally hated.

Recently we sent a team of three to India to work with people from the lowest caste of Indian society, known as the untouchables. That is more than a vivid word, it is a description. People in higher castes give them no mind. Literally, they will not touch them, have no contact with them.

Jesus sought out the untouchables and touched them with his love. He welcomed the outcasts. He befriended sinners, never excusing or approving their sin but showing love to them in spite of it all. He did not shun them, he embraced them.

If we are going to do ministry in Jesus' name today we must do as he did. We must embrace the outcasts, love the unlovable, touch the untouchable and engage those others run from. As we stand against the sin of homosexuality we must not treat them as untouchables. That is true of every sin, from the respectable sins of the self-righteous to the vile and disgusting sins of the gutter. We must find those society throws away and open our arms to them in the name of Jesus.

Jesus was a friend to sinners, to the ugly, to the unwanted, to the rejected, to the outcasts. If we are followers of Jesus Christ, then we must be the same. The church cannot be a refuge from the ugliness of the world where we gather only with the desirable to fellowship. The arms of the Body of Christ must be open to all who repent and believe.

Father, may my heart be as Christ's. He touched those society regarded as untouchable. He love the hated. He accepted the rejected. May that spirit dwell in me and live through me.