In Luke 4, after Jesus had read aloud from the scroll of Isaiah, those in attendance were pleased with what they had heard.

The locals in Jesus’ hometown synagogue were believers in the God of liberation.

They loved hearing the prophecies of old that spoke of God setting their people free.

So much so, that when they heard the man they knew of as Joseph’s son declare that the promises of God’s deliverance had been fulfilled that very day, they spoke well of him.

For a moment, at least.

As soon as Jesus put their understandings in reverse with a couple stories about God’s prophets ministering to a people not their own — both outsiders and outcasts — the entire crowd of witnesses collectively flipped their lid.

Filled with rage, they got up, drove him out to the edge of town and intended to hurl him off the cliff.

It sounds like a horrible idea, because, it was a horrible idea.

Though the crowd advanced as a unified mob of murderers, Jesus was able to pass through the midst of them, and go on his way.1

It’s hard to know how Jesus does some of the things he does. Even in this story.

Maybe, Jesus went into ghost-mode, and subtly vanished from their midst.2

Maybe, everyone in the crowd assumed that someone else had a hold of him. Similar to what his parents might have experienced when they realized they forgot him in the temple when he was a boy.

Maybe, he’s so uninteresting in the middle of a fight that he’s easy to misplace.

Whatever it was, though they laid their hands on him, they couldn’t touch him.

He simply went on HIS way.

It’s as if the religious leaders were so caught up in their furious misunderstandings of God’s mercy toward people unlike them that they somehow lost track of Jesus.3

In Psalm 71, the Psalmist is in a difficult spot. Feeling overmatched by his own enemies, he prays to God for deliverance.

“Incline your ear to me and save me. Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you.”

The Psalmist knew how it felt to have others put their hands on him. To seize him with wicked designs and grasp him with injustice and cruel intentions.

In response to those who stood against him, he prayed to the God who had always been for him and whose love had yet to fail him.

Even since before he was born.

And because he knew that unceasing love, he believed that deliverance would eventually come.

Though his enemies had put their hands on him, in the grand scheme of things, he knew he could not be touched.

In 1 Corinthians 13, we are given one of the more well known sections of scripture about the nature of love, written by the Apostle Paul. Though we might typically hear these verses read aloud at weddings, Paul likely wrote them for another purpose.

More than a love guide for the soon to be married, it seems Paul is actually concerned for the church’s collective unity. And even more than human relationships, the passage isn’t simply a list of how to love one another, but a profound descriptor of the way in which God — who is LOVE — loves us.

God is patient. God is kind. God does not envy. God does not boast. And, so on.

The poem’s final summation of love is that it never ends.

“Love never fails.”

God never fails.

And this is why Jesus and the Psalmist are able to walk in confidence. Though they experience force at the hands of their enemies, God never fails.

The same is true for you and I.

Though others may put their hands on you, in Christ, you cannot be touched.

The impatience of others and their lack of kindness will not prevail. Their envy and their boasting will not last. Though they are proud they will be brought low. Though they keep a record of your wrongs, God has already cast that record in the middle of the sea.4

Only God has the final say. Only love will not fail.

It’s not that we won’t experience hurt or be “handled” by others in unrighteousness. It’s not that we will go through life unscathed, or avoid dying.

The point is, that in whatever scathing we face, and whatever death we die, we will not be touched.

“He is not the God who keeps us from dying, but the God who saves us from death.”5

“He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.”6

Nothing — not even death — can separate us from the love of God.

Paul considers what might separate us from the love of God in his letter to the Romans, “Shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or nakedness, or famine, or danger or sword? No, in all these things, we are more than conquerers.”7

Not apart from them. But in them.

We not only have hope because this is what is true for us in Christ, but we learn something else when Jesus evades the mob in Luke 4.

As the story goes, we read that when Jesus evades the crowd, he goes his own way.

Not only is he untouchable when they put their hands on him, but he does not respond in kind. He does not handle them.

He does not grasp them.

And if he touches them at all, it’s a touch of mercy. A touch of love that leaves them standing there on the edge of the cliff.

If we truly believe that LOVE toward us is patient and kind, not envious or boasting, not self serving or keeping a record of our wrongs, why then do we “love” others so differently than we are loved?

Why do we get so handsy with one another?!?

Rather than use the same kind of force that was used against him, Jesus walks his own way — which is the will of his Father.

And in this, we are reminded of WHO God is. Patient. Kind. Keeping no record of wrongs. Always protecting. Always persevering.

Always NEVER failing.

These texts give us hope that in Christ, we cannot be touched. But not only that, they serve as a reminder for us to get our hands off of one another.

God doesn’t need us to get out ahead of him in a work he is not doing. The Spirit will work in our neighbors and in our enemies without us feeling the need to force whatever issue is pressing on us.

God’s touch is enough. And love never fails.

So, let us be the voice of encouragement to our neighbor, and our enemy, and remind them that in Christ, they cannot be touched.

Otherwise, if we are not careful, we might get so caught up in our furious misunderstandings of God’s mercy toward those different than us, we might lose track of Jesus.