The verse is striking in its simplicity: “Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him” (Matthew 8:3). We touch lots of things as we move through life without ever thinking much about it. But this touch was different. The man Jesus touched was a man who had most likely forgotten what it felt like to be touched by another human being. He was an outcast. Dirty. Unclean. One of the untouchables. A man to be kept separate, hidden, quarantined, away from the rest of polite and impolite society. He was an unclean......

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