Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Mineral Springs Church of Christ Podcast
Touching The Untouchable: Because He Did It, I Can Not Keep Quiet
A man marked “unclean” walks straight into the city and asks the question many of us carry but rarely voice: not “Can you fix this?” but “Will you choose me?” We open Mark 1:40–45 and watch Jesus cross the gap religion maintained—reaching out, touching a leper, and then healing him. That sequence matters. Touch comes first, proving compassion isn’t afraid of contamination, and power follows, restoring body and belonging. It’s a portrait of love that moves toward pain rather than away from it.
We explore how the ancient world handled leprosy, why the law isolated people, and how stigma steals more than health. Then we dig into the tension between ability and willingness. Most of us can help more than we do; we’re just tired, busy, or guarded. The healed man receives more than a cure—he meets a Friend—and his gratitude overflows into a testimony he literally can’t keep to himself. Along the way, we share a vivid story about discovering beloved Trini food in Atlanta and how delight always seeks an audience. If we eagerly recommend meals, shows, and deals, what keeps us quiet about mercy and hope and the ultimate Healer?
This conversation connects the past to the present: from outcasts to anyone sidelined by diagnosis, shame, or persistent failure; from leprosy to the deeper human wound Christians call sin. We name the promises that steady us—God orders steps, upholds the falling, and does not forsake his people—and we ask what Monday faith looks like when Sunday songs fade. Expect a warm, honest challenge to cross the road, offer presence before solutions, and share the good that changed you because joy is meant to be noisy. If this resonated, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review to help others find the hope you found.
We will glorify the King of Kings. We will glorify the Lack. We will glorify the Lord of Lord. Oh, it's the great life. Lord, Lord. We will have a full frog. We will watch the bed. We will watch the bed. We will go in. Now tell me if you know two nine four. Two nine four.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. We'll sing all the verses before we do the chorus.
SPEAKER_00:Lord the people praise you, lift you up and raise you. You are the only one. You're the one, you're the only one. You're the one, you're the only one. Bless your name, Lord Jesus. The only name that freezes. Oh you are the only one. You're the one, you're the only one. We will praise you right here and now lest the hills and rocks cry up. Oh you are the only one. You're the one, you're the only one. And if we had ten thousand hands, we would bless you as you come back. Oh you are the holy one. You're the one, you're the only one. And if we had ten thousand times, we would bless you with every one. Oh you are the holy one. You're the one, you're the only one. We're singing hallelujah. All the glory is to you. Oh you are the holy one. You're the one, you're the only one. We're singing hallelujah. All the glories to you. Oh you are the holy one. You're the one, you're the only one. You are the holy one. You're the one, you're the only one. You're the one, you're the only one. Amen.
SPEAKER_01:Mark chapter number one, Mark chapter number one. And I chant belong. Mark chapter one. Beginning in verse number forty and reading to forty-five. Scripture says and the leper came to Jesus, beseeching him and falling on his knees before him and saying, If you are willing, you can make me clean. Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, I am willing to be cleansed. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. And sternly warned him and immediately sent him away. And Jesus said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded as a testimony to them. But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city. But stayed out in unpopulated areas, and they were coming to him from everywhere. Today's sermon is titled Touching the Untouchable. Touching the Untouchable with a subscript. Because he did it, I can't keep quiet. Because he did it, I cannot keep quiet. I was invited to be a keynote speaker at the Nahi Meyer Next Level Up Summit and Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, hosted by the Renaissance Church of Christ from Wednesday to Friday this week. And the conference was good as I prepared to leave the hotel I was staying at. I decided that there is this well-known place in Atlanta for cooking Trinidadian food. We don't say Trinidadian, we just say Trini. But for cooking Trini food, well-known place, and I said, I'm in Atlanta, I need to stop there before I come back to Arkansas. And so I made my way to this place called Tassa's Roti Shop, and I ordered three doubles. I know you don't know what that is, but follow me. I ordered three doubles. It was doubles is a local cuisine, and I had three doubles. It tasted like home. And I felt like eating five more. But my bank account was not set up in such a way that I could. But something interesting happened while I was eating the doubles. I wanted to tell everyone who was a trainee like me who may not have known that they could get authentic Trinidadian food in the US of A where they could find it. I wanted to call everyone that I knew. I did not just want to tell Trinidads, I also wanted to tell Americans. I know you have no idea what doubles is, but you haven't lived until you had one. I wanted to tell everyone, forget the name, forget how we got the name, just bite it. Come to Atlanta with me and bite into a good doubles, it would change your life. You would recognize that y'all don't know good food until you eat trini food. I wanted to tell everyone. Because this passage ends with a leper being told not to tell anyone anything, but he realized what he tasted was too good not to share it with anybody else. So he told everybody. Scripture says in verse number 40, he's a leper. A leper in those times, if we had time, I'll take you to Leviticus. And Leviticus would tell us that if you were found to have leprosy, you were supposed to be in quarantine for 14 days. And if the leprosy did not leave you after 14 days, they would put you outside of the city in a community for outcasts and medically diseased. And you were supposed to live there for the rest of your life. The only time that changes is if you are healed. So this leper was supposed to be outside the city in quarantine, and he was supposed to be there for the rest of his life. The moment you read that a leper is coming to Jesus, the first problem is he is in the wrong place. And not just inside, he's coming into contact with someone who is clean and not diseased like him. Here's the problem. So I need you to picture that this leper is in the city, and because of Jewish law, he's walking around and he's saying, Unclean, unclean, unclean, unclean. Now, what normally happened was when you did that, people would cross on the other side of the road. So they would not be where you are because you don't want to touch anything unclean. But Jesus does not cross the road, Jesus does not move, so he comes right up to Jesus, and he has one question. The question begins with a statement. But the question is, if you are willing, make me clean. Make me clean. He says, I know you're able to. I'm not questioning. I heard news, I heard lepers were already cleansed, I heard dumb people were talking, deaf people were hearing, blind people were seeing, lame people were walking. So I know you're able. So even though Jesus is Lord, Jesus is savior, even though Jesus is, he is not sure that Jesus would care about him either. So his question is not if you're able, his question is, are you willing? Back home in Trinidad. God blessed Mahilli and I to lead this awesome church, but there were several persons in our church community who did not have their own vehicle, and there were several persons who were physically disabled, and so every Sunday for years, Michalia and I would drive home a car load of people, take them to their locations. Now I need you to understand that we did this simply because we had a heart to do it. But these people were not in the same location. There was one person 10 minutes in the east, and the other person was 15 minutes in the south, and another person was five minutes in the west, another person was north, and we were all the way in the central. So none of them were necessarily close to us, and we would do this. But can I tell you the truth? There were some days where I was just tired, there were some days where I had little sleep the night before, came to church early, did my ministerial duties, and I was not willing to offer that assistance. So you know, you're looking at me funny. I'm just trying to be honest. I had the ability to, but even though I had the ability, I did not always have the willingness, and I want you to be honest. There are times where you have had the ability to do something for someone, but having the ability did not immediately mean you had the willingness. Let's tell the truth. You have not always been willing. In fact, some of you have been so kind that you willed yourself to be willing when you didn't really want to do it. Anyone in the house who did something not necessarily willingly, but under a little bit of grudgingly? So you can understand. Have you not also been in a situation where you knew someone was able to help you and you're hoping they were willing to? That's where this guy is. He knows Jesus has the ability, but he doesn't know if Jesus is willing. So I need a volunteer. All right, I'll choose one if no one volunteers, Jimmy. You volunteered earlier this morning. All right, Eddie is volunteering. All right, come. Guess you think while Eddie is walking here. Remember what the guy wants. The guy wants to be just stand right here. The guy wants to be healed, and he's asking Jesus to heal him. Now we've seen Jesus heal already. We've seen him, in fact, in chapter number two, he's going to see a guy on a bed being let down through the roof by his four friends, and he's going to say, Son, your sins are forgiven. And this guy just gets up and walk. We've seen Jesus just speak a word and heal. And I want you to have that in your mind because the first thing the text tells you that Jesus does is touch him. He's touching a leper. No one touches a leper because they are dirty, they are unclean, they are diseased. Jesus does not have to touch him to heal him. Jesus chooses to touch him before he heals him. This guy has not felt a friend's embrace or touch in who knows how long. Jesus is the first person to come within arm's length of him to lay his hand on his shoulder and say, Friend, I am willing to be cleaned. Jesus touches the untouchable. So that you could get some of what I have. Even if it means I get dirty. I'm willing to be near, I'm willing so that you could see my heart. You could feel my heart. You could feel that I care about you. Jesus touches him not to heal him, but to let him know I'm here for you. Does that make sense? So now that thank you. Now that that happened, this guy got something more than he bargained for. He came for healing, he got healing and a friend. He came for a savior, but he got a savior and someone who was willing. Oh, I wish I had a church. He came so that he could not be diseased any longer. He not only found healing, he found hope and happiness. He got touched twice. All right, all right, all right. Let me let me talk to this side. This side didn't get it. The first time he got touched was Jesus showing he was willing. The second time he got touched was Jesus healing him. He got touched twice. Oh, y'all got it. All right, let me have this side. Because he got more than he bargained for, it changed how he acted after. So now let's see what happened. Jesus then, scripture says, sternly warns him and tells him, do not tell anyone anything. Go to the priest, show yourself to be clean according to the law, and you're good. This man was so moved by what Jesus did. He couldn't keep his mouth shut. The only thing Jesus asked him to do was the only thing he could not do. Jesus had one rule, say nothing. And the one rule is the only rule he couldn't keep. Because he recognized what happened to him was too good not to share with anybody else. How could I keep this awesome savior and friend to myself? How could I not tell anybody else that there's hope and happiness in Jesus, not just healing? How could I keep quiet and see others that I lived with? Y'all miss it. I told you lepers were outcasts. And the only people they lived with were other lepers. Other diseased people. Other outcast people. He just got healing. There was no healing. Okay, let me put it in our tense. Let me let me let me cancer is the bane of human existence right now. That we have no cure for. So I really want you to get this. Picture going to the doctor. And the doctor, you went for a routine checkup, and the doctor finds a mass. And so he has to do a biopsy. Says I'll call you in seven days. When he calls you in seven days, he says, We found cancer, and it's malignant, it's not benign. We need you to come in. And then you came in, they do more tests, and they say you're you're stage five. And then you meet Jesus. And you know what he's capable of. So you approaching him say, I know you're able, I just don't know if you're willing. And then Jesus reverses the diagnosis on your life. If I understand that feeling correctly, you're not just healed, you're happy. Because before you felt like you had a death sentence, before you felt like you had no hope, and everything you think you lost, he just restored. Someone who appreciates what God just did is going to have a hard time not saying anything. Worse yet, not saying anything to someone else they know in the same position as them. That's where this leper is. There was no hope and healing for leprosy in those days. He just got healed, and he is so touched, he says, I can't keep this to myself. I need to tell everybody. What I want you to get most from this is that the one thing he was asked to do was the one thing he could not do. And he could not do it because what he received was too good. I started by telling you I was ready to tell everyone the good news of doubles. Because I tasted it and it was too good. Not to tell other Trinies like me where to get good doubles, but also not to tell every American if you want a taste of good Trini cuisine, authentic Trini cuisine, I know a place. But sometimes It's easier for us to be evangelists and messengers of a good TV show, good food, good places to eat, but not a good Lord. And it makes me recognize that some of us don't appreciate how good God is. If we could talk about a good place to eat quicker, faster, and more often than we talk about how good God has been in our lives. Makes me recognize that we're not good evangelists and messengers of Christ as we are of a good cup of coffee or a deal at Walmart or Dillard's or wherever else you shop. And that tells me something is wrong. It tells me you don't appreciate that we are all and have been all lepers. But Jesus touched us. Hopefully, it should change how you respond. In a sense, while we may not have had leprosy, we had another sickness, sin. We were all plagued by it. Every one of us inside here. And there was no known cure. None. No cure. None. And then God sent his son so that you are now free from sin. Free from the curse of death. You now have hope and joy in Jesus. If you know what Jesus has done for you and is doing for you, why are you not happier about it? And why are you not sharing it more? If I could say I once was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in, and then ultra light from heaven filled my soul, filled my heart with love, and wrote my name above. And just ultra talk with Jesus makes me whole. If you could sing that and mean that, if you could sing Amazing Grace or Sweet the Sound, it saved a wretch like me and mean it. If you could sing, Alas, and did my savior bleed, and did my sovereign die, would he devote that sacred head for such a womb as I? If you could sing that and mean it, if you could sing, why did my savior come to earth and to the humble go? Why did he have such a lowly birth? Because he loved me so. If you could sing that and mean it, then you should appreciate that the same God that saved you from all of your sins is the same one that has you alive today. He allowed you to breathe the breath that you just breathed. He has positioned you in the family that you have with the graces that you have, the blessings that you have. If you could appreciate that God is with you every day and giving you promises such as, I will never leave you nor forsake you. In all things you are more than conquerors. If you could think about Psalm 23, where David said that I have seen the Lord, and he has never forsaken the righteous, nor his seed begging bread. In Psalm 37, verse number 23, David starts by saying, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he falls, he's not utterly cast down, because God upholds him in his hands, and then he says, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. If you could stand here and say that my steps are ordered by the Lord, and that even when difficulty happens, I could say, God has not forsaken me. That alone should prompt you not just to sing praises of your God on Sunday, but also to tell somebody else how great your God is on Monday. That we should be more like this guy, where the goodness of God causes us to tell everyone we come into contact with, I know a guy you should meet. I know a guy that you should be running to because he changed my life. Until I taste better doubles in the US, I am going to tell everyone that they need to go to Marietta, Atlanta, Georgia to a shop called TASA's Route Shop. Because there is the best life-changing most delectable taste of doubles they can ever find. But if I could do that about food, I should also be able to say I used to be more wretched than I am now. But I met a man named Jesus, and he has done wonders in my life. And if he could do it for me, I am sure he could do it for you. So now I'm an evangelist twice. I could tell you where to get the best Trinidadian food, and I could tell you where to find a savior and a friend. One of the reasons why we exist, I'm done. The reason why we exist is so that we could tell everyone where to find someone who is the only one that could make a difference in their life. Let me say it one more time. One of the reasons why we exist is so we could tell everyone about someone who is the only one that could make a difference in their life. Sometimes you just need a reminder. Jesus is more than able and he's willing. I don't know where you are, but everyone could do it a reminder that as you deal with whatever you're dealing with, Jesus is more than able. But I thank God he's also more than willing. Let's all stand. We're going to sing. And if you need prayer, you meet me at the front. You don't have to tell me what you need prayer for. You just want to say, I need prayer, pray for me as a family. We'll pray for you. But as we pray for you, we're reminding you that God touches the untouchable. And if he has touched you, if he has done something for you, you should be able to say something about it to someone and everyone, as we sing.