TOUCH. — ^The word ' touch ' is always associated in the Gospels with Christ Himself, except in one instance. The exception is Lk ll""* 'Ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers,' a passage requiring no exposition.
I. Christ's touch.—!. Christ's touch of heal- ing.— Clirist liabitually established outward con- tact with the sick as a sign and means of healing. Besides the word awre^dai, 'touch,' there are used such phrases as iirLTiOivai rrjv x«'P<^) ' to lay the hand upon,' and Kparelv ttjs x^'P"^') ' to take by the hand.' It might at first be supposed that there was a slightly more mediatorial significance about the latter phrases, as though our Lord were rather acting as the delegate of another than on His own autliority, but it will be found, on examination of parallel passages, that this distinction cannot be observed. The wide extent of Christ's contact by touch with human malady is seen as soon as the passages recording this act are enumerated. By a touch only, recorded in its simplest form [iiirTeudai.), Christ healed a leper (Mt 8^), fever (v.^^ where Mk pi has KparriacLs r^s xetp6s), blind people {e.g. Mt 9^8)^ the ear of Malchus (Lk 22^1). By a touch, recorded in its stronger form of grasp or imposition of hands, He liealed one deaf and dumb (Mk 7^^), the ))lind man at Bethsaida {S^^--^), a woman with
a spirit of infirmity (Lk 13'^), the epileptic lad (Mk 9^^), many divers diseases (6^), and the dead daughter of Jairus (Mt 9'-^).
2. Christ's touch, other than of healing.— Here four instances are to be noted : the arresting touch laid ujjon the bier of the widow of Nain's son (Lk 71* ri\paTo TTjs cropou) ; the tqiholding touch or grasp offered to Simon Peter upon the sea (Mt 14^^ eKreivas TTjv x^V"" eireXd^eTo avrov) ; the eneouraging touch laid upon the disciples after the Transfiguration, when ' he touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid' (Mt 17^ ijipaTo avTwv ; cf. Rev 1" 'He laid his right hand [edrjKe ttjv de^idv'\ upon me, say- ing. Fear not ') ; the touch of blessing vouchsafed to the children brought by their mothers (Mt 19^* iirideU avTois ras xerpa?).
The Incarnation itself has been truly described in one of its aspects as God's coming into touch with men, or God's putting Himself where men can touch Him. St. Paul says that men 'seek the Lord, if haply they may reel after [lit. ' handle '] him' {frjXa^riffeiav, Ac 17^); and one purpose of the Incarnation is that in Christ this desire may be satisfied. And, accordingly, to recognize some- thing symbolic about the ' touches ' of Christ mentioned in the Gospels, is no mere exercise of fancy.
(1) In the instances recorded above we are, as a first step, permitted to see the broad fact of Divine love seeking friendly contact with those for whom it cares. Our Lord is not ashamed to call men brethren. He lays His hand upon the bier ; takes children in His arms ; holds up a sinking disciple ; encourages by touch as well as by word those who otherwise are overwhelmed by fear. Thus we see already an acted parable of how in the Incarnation our Lord ' taJceth hold of the seed of Abraham' (He 2^^ fwiXafipdveTaL, the word already quoted of Jesus ' catching ' Peter on the waves to hold him up). In Christ, ' God put on the garment of humanity, and drew near in person, that we might clasp Him as a kinsman in our arms' (Ker, Sermons, 1st ser. 191). Instead of the spoken 'word' of the OT prophets, addressed only to the hearing, there is now the living 'Word,' meeting the lives of men in warm and friendly contact.
(2) But a further and deeper truth suggests itself when we pass to the many records of Christ's touch of healing. There we see what might be called the victorious vitality of the Incarnate Saviour, whose touch represents not only a sign of friendliness, but the opening of a channel of life- imparting jjower. If it be true that the ' funda- mental meaning of the symbol ' of lajdng on of hands in the OT — on an ofl'ering, a criminal, a young disciple, etc. — was 'identification by con- tact ' (Swete in Hastings' DB iii. 85*), then even to the self-consciousness of Jesus there must have been something deeply significant about the deliberate touch or imposition of hands on others. It meant that He identified Himself with them in their weakness ; and that He identified them with Him- self in His supei'abounding life. ' He touched nothing which He did not ' — heal. Christ said to men, ' Because I live, ye shall live also ' (Jn 14'^). He revealed this Divine power amid immense variety of malady, and amid the human helpless- ness of many of the cases.
(3) Still another step is offered to us when we observe that Christ healed by touch such a disease as leprosy, where contact with the polluting ailment was distinctly forbidden by the Levitical law (L\' 13*^). For here we see a y\y\A representation of Christ's identification with mankind, not only in weakness but in defilement. To touch the blind or deaf was the act of a Divine physician ; but to touch the leper was more than this — it was the act of One who could triumph over pollution, who could