As long as I can remember, I was taught to value compassion. In Sunday school we learned that God wants us to show compassion to others. We sent money to feed the hungry and we sponsored children in need. 

The Christian culture that surrounded my upbringing is not the culture that surrounded Jesus. In the ancient world, Greek and Roman gods showed no sympathy for the human plight. Compassion was not seen as a divine attribute or anything that mankind should emulate. Around the same time Paul wrote his letters, the philosopher Seneca wrote, “Compassion is the vice of a feeble soul.”  

As usual, Jesus did the opposite of what was expected of a deity. Because of His compassion, He joined us in the muck and mire of humanity... to save us. Each of His actions on this earth was marked by tangible compassion, from the big to the simple. 

Jesus was so moved by the physical suffering of others that he reached out and (quite often) actually touched them. 

The act of touching shows the depth of Christ’s compassion. To a Jew of that time, breaking ritual purity was a huge deal, maybe even a bigger deal than moral purity. Avoid the lepers, don’t touch the “unclean,” and by all means don’t enter a home with a corpse. God’s law thus prevented infection, contagions and contamination. 

Jesus could have chosen to heal the sick from a safe distance away, thus avoiding ritual impurity. But instead He touches a leper, exposing His skin to a disease people knew to be contagious. He allows the touch of the bleeding woman who is seen as perpetually “unclean.” He ducks into the doorway of the house of a corpse and touches a dead body, lifting the little girl up by the hand.  

The beauty of these moments is that instead of the sickness and death contaminating Jesus, making Him ritually “unclean,” it’s exactly the opposite! His contagious holiness pushes the darkness away, bringing wholeness, healing, restoration and resurrection. He brings a holiness that is real, not merely ritualistic.  

Why did He touch when His words would have been enough? Because He cares. His tangible compassion permeates His every interaction with His creation. When we are suffering, He is there, reaching out, touching us, pushing aside the darkness.

May we never take Christ’s scandalous compassion for granted, and may it compel us to reach out with His compassion to the world around us. Let His compassion be contagious!