Touch

I have been trying to get my head around what it means to "touch" someones life with the gosepl. This has been a lingering thought for the past few weeks. It seems like Jesus often would get his hands a little dirty and touch those who were need of healing.
A couple of weeks ago the pastor at the Wheaton Evangelical Free Church preached on the "Healing Son of God." This was a fantastic sermon and I encourage you to give it a listen. Below is the link that will take you to a MP3 of the sermon.
http://www.wefc.org/pages.asp?pageid=1582
So when I think about how Jesus touched, it causes me to wonder what it means for me to reach out and touch? An even tougher question is why is it so difficult for me to do this?
A part of it is fear. When we seek to be ministers we are getting into messy territory. We live in a sin tainted world and people's lives are very broken. This messiness may be the result of their own personal sin or it may also be the result of the falleness around them. We live in a corporate world, in which, the falleness/sinfulness of one can affect many. Romans 5:12 says, "just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men (women, too) because all sinned."
A result of the fall is the spread of sin and death. We are all guilty and victim at the same time. Guilty as a result of our own sin and often the victim of the sin of others.
So when we think of reaching into people's lives and touching them with the gospel we enter into their world. We enter into their brokeness. Jesus truly offers forgiveness of sin but we still live in the results. As Jesus entered our world to offer salvation, he came to a broken and messy world to inaugurate His Kingdom.
It is my desire to bring hope into people's lives but I must learn to be like my master. He entered into a sinful world and touched. Through reliance on the Holy Spirit Jesus brought His healing hand to our world. I need to learn to trust God's protection as I seek to get into people's lives. At times it can be scary to hear stories, to give counsel to the questioning, or to gently confront another with God's truth but we have a powerful God who is more than able to sustain and change lives!