Contagious Life

In Luke 8:26-56 Jesus encounters Legion (a demon-possessed man), Jairus (a synagogue ruler with a dying preteen daughter), and a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. For us, these seem like run of the mill Jesus miracles. But to a first century Jew, they see impurity, uncleanliness, and things you shouldn't touch or be around in almost every verse of these stories. They would have expected that uncleanliness to rub off on Jesus. Instead, in each story, Jesus become contagious to the people he touches giving them his life, health, wholeness, and hope. Christians would do this again during the Roman plagues of the second and third centuries and we continue to live in to that Christian tradition today, contagiously spreading the love and life of Christ to all who need it.