All They Wanted Was to Touch Him

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I’ll never forget that day as long as I live. If memory serves me right, it was the summer of 1989. The setting: Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. We had some good seats down in the lower level not far from the Pirates’ dugout. Whenever I go to a baseball game, I like to get there early and check out BP and just soak in the atmosphere. Especially in the summer, I love live-action baseball (which is why I am slightly perturbed by the tire fire that is the relationship between MLB and the player’s union these days) and I think I got that love during those days of my childhood.

One day in particular, I happened to be close enough to ask the Pirates’ first baseman, Sid Bream, for an autograph. As I remember it, he looked up at the scoreboard and told me it was too late - they weren’t allowed to sign autographs this close to the game. I’m not doubting the rule he cited, but I still remember the disappointment. I was just a kid wanting an autograph. That’s it.

I thought of that story again recently as I was reading accounts of Jesus with the crowd, and how in more than one place we see people simply wanting to touch him. They didn’t want much - simply the chance to touch him.

Before we go too much further, let’s hear from Luke 6:17-19:

He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

All they wanted to do, those in these massive crowds, was to touch him, because they KNEW the power of Jesus to bring about healing to those so desperately sick. They believed so strongly in his power to heal they came from all over the place for the chance to be near him. Back in those days, to come from all over the place took on a whole new meaning - it was quite a commitment to cross the terrain of what we now refer to as the Holy Land. But they were willing to do whatever it took; that’s the power they saw in Jesus.

In reading this passage, one is left with the question, “Do I have the desire to touch Jesus in any manner close to the obvious desperation with which these people operated in this circumstance?”

In reading this passage, one is left with another question, “Do I believe Jesus has the power to heal in any manner close to the passion these folks had for the same?”

All that junior high kid wanted from Sid Bream was a lousy autograph. While I will never forget that encounter, what strikes me now is the passion I had in wanting a simple autograph. My prayer is I want to encounter Christ with even more passion than I wanted that autograph.

I wonder what our lives, families, community, nation, and world, would look like if we had the passion and zeal for the grace of God, love of Jesus, and power of the Holy Spirit that Major League Baseball and the players’ union have used to make their relationship a “tire fire” and further destroy a great game.

All they wanted to do was touch him, that’s how much they believed in his power. May we approach Jesus with a comparable level of desire and belief.