TOUCH
TOWEL
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come in contact with detileinent and yet not be defiled. ' Another would have defiled himself by touching the leper : but He, Himself remaining undefiled, cleansed him whom He touched ; for in Him health overcame sickness, and purity defile- ment, and life death' (Trench, Miracles, 233). Thus the life revealed in the Incarnation not onlv sustains and heals, but delivers from the guilt which it is not afraid to meet in closest contact.
(4) Finally, in many of the instances we can discern in Christ's touch an admirable means of suggesting the presence of a Healer, and so of challenging faith. ' Then touched he their eyes, saying. According to your faith be it unto you' (Mt 9-**). The touch of our Lord must often have been of the nature of a challenge. It provoked attention, profi'ered help, and awaited response.
II. Touching Christ.— The occasions on which men are recorded in the Gospels to have touched, or sought to touch, our Lord may be arranged as follows. The principle guiding the arrangement will be referred to when the instances have been collected.
1. The touch of desire or faith (the verb in this first group is awrecrOai). — 'As many as had plagues pressed upon him, that they might touch him ' (Mk 3^"). ' They besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment ' (Mk 6^ ||). ' A woman . . . came in the crowd behind and touched his garment. For she said. If I touch but his garment, I shall be whole ' (5^- ^* ||). With these may be associated the act of the woman in Simon's house, who washed Christ's feet with tears, and anointed them with ointment, and of whom the Pharisee said later, ' This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what manner of woman this is which toucheth him ' (Lk 7=*»).
2. The touch of curiosity or indifference. — The most vivid instance of this is in the story above referred to of the woman with an issue of blood, where, in the different Gospels, no less than four Greek words are used to depict the thronging of the multitude, so finely distinguished from the significant touch of faith which brought healing to the sufferer. Mk.'s word is awdXi^eiv, 'throng' (Mk 5^^). Lk. uses no fewer than three words : crvfiTTvlyeiv, lit. ' choke ' ; avv^x^iv, ' press ' ; Atto- eXi^fLv, 'crush' (Lk S''^- «). 'Out of that throng- ing multitude one only touched with the touch of faith. Others crowded upon Him, but did not touch Him, did not so touch that virtue went forth from Him on them ' (Trench).
3. The hostile hold of restraint or enmity. — Since, in dealing with the touch of Christ, we included instances of His ' laying hands ' on others, so in pathetic contrast the following instances must be included here. 'And when his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him ' (Kparrja-ai a'urSv, the word often used of Christ's more kindly activity) (Mk 3^^). ' No man laid hands on him (€w^^a\ev TTjv xev«)> for his hour was not yet come' (Jn 7^"). Though the connexion be not one of verbal identity, such references to a false or hostile touch of Christ suggest themselves as the betraying kiss of Judas (Mk 14^*), and the smiting in the high priest's palace (v.*^).
i. It is better to class separately the very inter- esting references to the touching of our Lord after the Resurrection. These are as follows : ' Tliey came and took hold of his feet (iKpArrjaav avTov Toiis v6das), and worshipped him' (Mt 28")— the permitted grasp of recognition and adoration. ' Handle me (\//r]\a<pria-aT^ fie), and see ' (Lk 24^'-') ; ' Reach hither thy hand (i/>^pf tV x^^P'^ (tov), and put it into my side ' (Jn 20-^)— the solicited touch of reverent experiment. ' Touch me not {firi fj.ov dirrov), for I am not yet ascended unto the Father ' (Jn 20'') VOL. II. — 47
— the forbidden handling of selfish and premature rapture.
When God and man were brought near in the Incarnation, it was natural that the Divine hand should be seen stretched out mauAvards in healing and help (see above) ; but natural also that human hands should be seen groping Godwards, seeking closer contact. An American missionary bishop tells of an Indian who knocked one day at his door, and said : ' I have often gone out into the woods, and tried to talk to a Great Spirit of whom my father told me. But I could never find Him. Per- haps you don't know what I mean. You never stood in the dark, and reached out your hand, and could not take hold of anything.' The idea is pre- cisely that of St. Paul ; men ' seek the Lord, if haply they may handle him ' (\pyj\a4>ricr€Lav avrdv, Ac 17^''). Now it is this identical word, strangely enough, that our Lord uses in the gracious invi- tation to His disciples : ' Why are ye troubled ? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself ; handle me and see.' In the Incarnation this longing has been responded to. So that, when St. John sets forth the main purpose of his First Epistle, he uses this same word again, and with what Westcott declares to be a ' distinct reference ' to the passage in Luke, he states that purpose to be the disclosure to others of ' that which we belield, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life' (1 Jn V).