Miracles of Jesus - Part 7

Cleansing the Leper
Matthew 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-45; Luke 4:38-39

Leprosy was repulsive to all who saw the person; it was incurable by human means, it was isolating, lepers were confined outside the city limits, many times to the city dump, probably because they could find food and other things there. Leprosy would cause a person to become unclean ceremonially if he touched a leper, even if he did not catch the disease. Leprosy was the physical counterpart to the spiritual problem of sin. It was the model disease for sin. That is why when a leper is healed it is called a cleansing instead of a healing. When a leper was healed, he was to go to the priest and be pronounced clean before reentering society. Not since Elisha healed Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5) had someone been healed of leprosy.

In Mark 1:38, when the disciples told Jesus, “Everyone is looking for You,” Jesus told them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” Something will happen in the miracle that will relate back to this. So, do not forget this statement.

This miracle follows the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Then right after the sermon, a leper comes up to Jesus and He touches him, which is a violation of the Law.

When this leper came to Jesus he did not doubt Jesus’ power, and he submits to His will. He submits to the person of God. We need to do the same. We are to know God can do whatever He wants and trust Him. If He is willing, He will. We just have to trust in the goodness of God.

When this leper humbly approached Jesus and made the humble request Jesus was moved with compassion. Jesus “stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, I am willing; be cleansed’” (Mark 1:41).

Jesus does not always lay hands on those that He is healing. When He does, we ought to ask if it has significance. What is the significance here? Were you supposed to touch a leper? No. That would make you unclean. Before you can touch someone or something unclean and not become unclean yourself, you must make the other person or thing clean. You cannot both stay the same. God is the only one who can make an unclean person or thing clean. When Jesus touched the leper and healed the leper, He was making another claim to deity.

Jesus told the former leper to “tell no man and show himself to the priest.” He wanted the man to keep his healing a secret. Scholars often talk about something called the “Messianic Secret” in the Gospel of Mark. These scholars claim Jesus did not want those He healed to tell others that He was the Messiah, because Jesus knew He really was not the Messiah. That is ludicrous. However, if that is not the reason, then why does He often tell people not to say anything?

There are two reasons, first, from the context of verse 38, we know that Jesus’ primary purpose was to preach. He did not want the crowds clamoring to Him to be healed. He wanted them to come to hear His words. If word got out about the healing of a leper, it would distract from his main purpose. A second reason that Jesus did not want them to go around proclaiming that He was the Messiah was because their expectation of the Messiah was that the Messiah was a political deliverer. The Jews wanted someone who would free them from the Roman rule and set up a political kingdom. During this advent, Jesus’ role was as a Suffering Messiah who came to serve and to die. He was going to set up a spiritual kingdom. Therefore, Jesus did not want to use the misunderstood title and substituted other titles for Himself such as “Son of Man.” In fact, He will use that title in His next miracle.

It is hard to believe that someone who benefits from a miraculous healing by Jesus would turn right around and disobey Him. However, this man did just that. We do not know for sure if the man told the priests because the text does not say that he did or did not. He probably did obey the first half of the command, to show himself to the priest. We have to remember that he had been an outcast. If he wanted to re-enter society, he would have had to go to the priests to be pronounced clean so he could re-enter the community. We do know for sure that he does not remain silent.

What can we learn from this miracle, first, genuine compassion has no limits? True compassion reaches even to the lowest level. Compassion is always necessary when working with people because we all fail. We make terrible mistakes commit terrible sins, etc. It is our natural inclination and easy to move toward contempt of the down and outers, like the Pharisees did. However, we need to move toward compassion, as Jesus did. When we do not have compassion, it is because we think that we are better than others are. We think that they are in their situation because of some fault of their own and we would not have done whatever it was that got them in that position. Therefore, if we do not have compassion, the reason may be pride.

Second, the leper said, “If you are willing.” We need to recognize that God has the ability to heal, or do whatever, but we also need to recognize that He has the right not to do anything. We need to recognize that we do not know what is best. He does. Some people claim that God always wants to heal us. However, Jesus does not correct the leper when he says, “If you are willing.”

Third, faith needs to be followed by obedience. Disobedience hinders God’s work.