One of my favorite Chuck Norris jokes goes like this: “Chuck Norris doesn’t get a bad case of Covid. Covid gets a bad case of Chuck Norris." (Cue dad-joke groans).

Don’t worry! This is not an article about Chuck Norris, but it is about gross ailments and God. A few Sundays ago the sermon in our church was on Mark 5:21-42: the story of the woman healed from an issue of blood and Jarius’ daughter raised from the dead. Our pastor called attention to an interesting contrast in the text.

Jarius was a leader in the synagogue and his daughter was sick with a fever. He was clearly pious and respected. He would have been very familiar with the laws regarding ritual cleanliness. So when the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years touched Jesus, Jarious would have instantly recognized that Jesus had been “infected.” That Jesus was now unclean and unfit to serve God. And it only got worse when Jesus arrived at Jarius’ house and took his now dead daughter by the hand!

And yet… when the woman touched the mere hem of Jesus’ garment, power flowed out from him, and when Jesus lifted Jarius’s daughter by the hand she rose from the dead!

Jesus doesn’t get a bad case of uncleanliness by touching us. We get a good case of cleanliness.

The point is simple. However far I’ve sunk, however infected and unclean I’ve become, I’m not too far gone for God. He’s not grossed out, turned off, or scared off by my sin. Jesus is the God who doesn’t turn away, keep his distance, or exclude the “lepers.” No, he comes to me right in the middle of whatever “oogieness” I’ve been infected with.

No matter what Jesus touches, he never gets infected. Instead everything gets infected by him. “Infected” by forgiveness, new life, and love.

What are you infected with? What is hemorrhaging inside of you? What sin is causing your “fever” unto death? Fear not! Jesus is already reaching out to take you by the hand. You are forgiven, you are loved. Let him do his good work for you.

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