"all those who were visited with suffering thrust themselves upon him, to touch him."

"all those who were visited with suffering thrust themselves upon him, to touch him."
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Jesus,

the Divine Person, with two natures, 

Divine and human,

is Almighty.

He became man like us

not merely to do miracles and to heal the people, 

but to sacrifice Himself on the cross

as amendment for our sins

and to save us from sin and eternal perdition.

But He did  miracles and  healed the people for two reasons,

first out of compassion.
for His neighbours.

(we are His children by His being our Creator and neighbours by His being fully man like us)

and second,  in order to make His followers believe His being God.

The following words of His bring out His compassion.

"Jesus was moved with pity; he held out his hand and touched him, and said, It is my will; be thou made clean.(Mark.1:41)

"Yet still, when he looked at the multitudes, he was moved with pity for them."  (Matthew.9:36)

"and took pity on them, since they were like sheep that have no shepherd,"
(Mark.6:34)

"I am moved with pity for the multitude; "
(Mark.8:2)

"So, when he disembarked, he found a great multitude there, and he took pity on them, and healed those who were sick." (Matt.14:14)

"And Jesus, moved with compassion, touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight, and followed after him."
(Matthew 20:34)

The above quotations  are only few among many that show that Jesus was always compassionate.

"And now, to convince you that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins while he is on earth

(here he spoke to the palsied man):

 I tell thee, rise up, take thy bed with thee, and go home."(Mark. 2:10,11)

Here we see that Jesus did this miracle to show that He has the power to forgive sins, which means that He is God.

Some were healed by His words and some by His touch.

He cured ten lepers by His words.

"He met them with the words,

'Go and show yourselves to the priests'; and thereupon, as they went, they were made clean."(Luke 17:14)

When He cured one leper at his request, he cured Him by touching him.

"Then a leper came up to him, asking for his aid; he knelt at his feet and said, If it be thy will, thou hast power to make me clean.

41 Jesus was moved with pity; he held out his hand and touched him, and said, It is my will; be thou made clean.

42 And at the word, the leprosy all at once left him, and he was cleansed."

But we must be clear about one thing,

what is more important than the vocal words and physical touch

  is the spiritual touch which is the cause of all the cures.

Jesus used words or touching to cure the patients

only because He was touched in His heart,

in other words, 

moved by compassion and mercy.

No spiritual touch, no salvation.

God had forbidden our first parents  to eat or even to touch the fruit , on pain of death.

As per justice, God should have put  our first parents  to death immediately after eating the forbidden fruit.

But God didn't do that.

Why?

The lamentable condition of Adam and Eve,

who were deceived by Satan,

and who were hiding themselves being afraid to meet Him face to face,

touched God's heart.

Out of compassion for the poor creatures, He promised them a Saviour.

Touched by the inability of the human race to help itself,

the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity became man

taking on His human nature all the weaknesses of man

such as tiredness, fear,  hunger, thirst, sufferings and death, 

except sin.

Moved by compassion Jesus cured the sick and forgave the sinners wherever He went.

It was this compassion that made Him call even  His
betrayer  'friend'.

"Jesus said to him, My friend, on what errand hast thou come?"

Did Jesus call Him so just
for formality, not out of love?

No.

Jesus is not a hypocrite.

He is God, who speaks and does as He thinks.

Jesus loves sinners with real love.

His love and compassion for Judas made him call him 'friend'.

Jesus might have been thinking at that time,

"Friend, I came to the world in search of you.You have betrayed me to my enemies,  whom also  I love most, as per my word 'Love your enemies'. I will touch your heart at the last moment of your death."

I am sure that Jesus touched his heart at last fraction of the moment of his death, which is more than enough for salvation. 

It was His compassion that made Him pray to His Father  to forgive all those  who worked for His death on the cross.

"Jesus meanwhile was saying, Father, forgive them; they do not know what it is they are doing."

True.  They did not know that they were cooperating with Jesus for the salvation of our souls.

Touching was a two way process, 

Jesus was touched by the spiritual condition of His followers

and His words touched them.

Result: salvation.

That is happening even now.

Jesus is touching our souls through variety of ways:

Through the words of the Bible.

Through His Ministers who are with us giving us not only His words but also Jesus Himself through Holy Communion.

Through His followers' exemplary life.

Through His answers to our prayers.

Through His inspirations during our prayer and meditation.

Sometimes even through the controversial words of the enemies to our faith.  

Our reaction to His touch must be always positive.

Suppose we happen to come across a poor beggar whose condition touches our heart, we must remember that he is not a beggar, he is Jesus Himself.

We must do to him what we would do to Jesus Himself. 

"Be merciful, then, as your Father is merciful."
(Luke. 6:36)

Lourdu Selvam.