Matthew 8 begins where chapter 4 leaves off, with the Sermon on the Mount as a sort of parenthesis in between. At the end of chapter 4, Jesus was “going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. And great multitudes followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan” (vv. 23-25). Jesus then “went up on the mountain” (5:1), where He preached His great sermon, and then came down from the mountain, still followed by “great multitudes” (8:1).

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus turned the religious beliefs and practices of popular Judaism, especially those of the scribes and Pharisees, topsy-turvy. He had told them, in effect, that their teaching was wrong, their living was wrong, and their attitude was wrong. Virtually everything they believed in, stood for, and hoped in was unbiblical and ungodly. The Lord overturned their entire religious system and exposed them as religious hypocrites and spiritual phonies.

Unlike other Jewish teachers of that day, Jesus did not quote the Talmud, the Midrash, the Mishnah, or other rabbis. He recognized no written authority but the Old Testament Scripture and even put His own words on a par with Scripture. “The result was,” Matthew explains, “that when Jesus had finished these words [the Sermon on the Mount], the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one with authority, and not as their scribes” (Matt. 7:28-29).

In establishing Jesus’ messiahship Matthew demonstrated His legal qualification through His genealogy, His prophetic qualification through the fulfillment of prophecy by His birth and infancy, His divine qualification by the Father’s own attestation at His baptism, His spiritual qualification by His perfect resistance to Satan’s temptations, and His theological qualification through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.

In chapters 8 and 9 Matthew dramatically sets forth still another qualification: Jesus’ divine power. Through the miracles of these two chapters, Matthew shows beyond doubt that Jesus is, in fact, the very Son of God, because only God could perform such supernatural feats. In an astounding display of power, Jesus cleansed a leper, healed two paralytics, cooled a fever, calmed a storm at sea, cast out demons, raised a girl from the dead, gave sight to two blind men, restored speech to a man made dumb by demons, and healed every other kind of disease and sickness.

These two chapters are particularly critical to understanding the life and ministry of Christ. In this section Matthew records a series of nine miracles performed by the Lord, each one selected out of the thousands He performed during His three-year ministry. The nine miracles of Matthew 8-9 are presented in three groups of three miracles each. In each group Matthew recounts the miracles and then reports the Jews’ response.

Jesus’ miracles were the supreme proof of His divinity and the irrefutable credentials of His messiahship. Matthew’s purpose in recording the miracles, like Jesus’ purpose in performing them, was to confirm His deity and His claim to be the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. In many ways this section is the heart of Matthew’s message.

When Jesus first called His twelve disciples, He charged them not to go to Gentiles or Samaritans but “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ‘And as you go, preach, saying “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons; freely you received, freely give’” (10:5-8).

Tragically, however—and inexplicably from a human point of view—many of the Jews who saw Jesus’ miracles concluded that He performed them by demonic rather than by divine power (Matt. 12:24). As more and more Jews rejected Him, Jesus turned His attention to the establishment of the Gentile church. He also began to speak more in parables, which the unbelieving Jews could not understand because of their spiritually hardened hearts (13:11-13).

It should be noted that the apostle John also recorded the miracles in his gospel as proof signs of Jesus’ divinity and messiahship. When the Jewish leaders criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, accused Him of blasphemy, and then sought to kill Him for claiming to be equal to God, “Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and greater works than these will He show Him, that you may marvel. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes’” (John 5:16-21). A short while later He further explained, “The works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me” (v. 36).

Still later Jesus said to His Jewish listeners, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me … I and the Father are one” (John 10:25, 30). When “the Jews took up stones again to stone Him,” Jesus said, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?… If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father” (vv. 31-32, 37-38).

To His troubled disciples, who even late in His ministry could not comprehend His relationship to the Father, Jesus had to explain again, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves” John 14:10-11; 15:24.

In his stated purpose for writing this gospel, John says, “Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” 20:30-31.

The first three miracles reported in detail by Matthew (cf. 4:23-24) all involve the healing of physical affliction. In New Testament times disease was rampant and medical science as we know it did not exist. If a person survived a serious disease it was usually because the malady had run its course. Whether or not it was fatal, most disease caused great pain and suffering, for which there was little remedy. Sufferers were often left scarred, deformed, crippled, or otherwise debilitated for the rest of their lives. Plagues would sometimes wipe out entire villages, cities, or even regions. The list of diseases was long, and life expectancy was short.

Many diseases are mentioned in Scripture. We read of various forms of paralysis and atrophy, which would encompass such things as muscular dystrophy and poliomyelitis. The Bible frequently speaks of blindness, which was rampant because it could be caused by countless forms of disease, infection, and injury. Deafness was almost as common and had almost as many causes. We are told of boils, infected glands, various forms of edema, dysentery, mutism and other speech disorders, epilepsy, intestinal disorders, and many unidentified diseases.

When Jesus healed, He did so with a word or a touch, without gimmicks, formulas, or fanfare. He healed instantaneously, with no drawn out period of waiting or of gradual restoration. He healed totally, not partially, no matter how serious the disease or deformity. He healed everyone who came to Him and even some who never saw Him. He healed organic as well as functional afflictions. Most dramatically and powerfully of all, He even raised the dead.

It is small wonder, therefore, that Jesus’ healing miracles brought such immediate and widespread attention. For people who seldom had means to alleviate even the symptoms of disease, the prospect of complete cure was almost too astounding to be believed. Even the rumor of such a thing would bring a multitude of the curious and hopeful. For those of us who live in a society where basic good health is accepted largely as a matter of course, it is difficult to appreciate the impact Jesus’ healing ministry had in Palestine. Jesus instructed the disciples not to take any money because people would have paid them all they had for health, and that could easily have corrupted the disciples’ motives and objectives (see 10:8-9). For a brief period of time disease and other physical afflictions were virtually eliminated as Jesus went through the land healing thousands upon thousands (see Matt. 4:23-24; 8:16-17; 9:35; 14:14; 15:30; 19:2; 21:14; etc.). As Jesus Himself said on several occasions, His miraculous works alone should have been more than enough reason to believe in Him (John 10:38; 14:11). Such things had never happened before in the history of the world and could only have a divine cause. That is what made the rejection of the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and others so self-condemnatory. No one could deny that Jesus performed the miracles, and only the most hard-hearted resistance to the truth could make a person reject His divinity in the face of such overpowering evidence. Those who would not believe in Jesus were indicted by every miracle He performed.

In the first three miracles of Matthew 8 the Lord healed a leper, a paralytic, and a woman with a fever. Beside the fact that each of them involved healing, these three miracles have four other common characteristics. First of all, in each of them Jesus dealt with the lowest level of human need, the physical. Although even earthly life involves much more than the physical, the physical part has its importance, and Jesus was lovingly sympathetic to those with physical needs. He thereby revealed the compassion of God toward those who suffer in this life.

Second, in each of the first three miracles Jesus responded to direct appeals, either by the afflicted person himself or by a friend or relative. In the first case the leper himself asked Jesus to make him clean (8:2); in the second the centurion asked in behalf of his servant (v. 6); and in the third (v. 14), several unnamed friends or relatives asked on behalf of Peter’s mother-in-law as we learn from the parallel account in Luke 4:38.

Third, in each of the first three miracles Jesus acted by His own will. Though He was sympathetic to the needs of those who were afflicted and was moved by the appeals for help, He nevertheless acted sovereignly by His own volition (vv. 3, 13, 15).

Fourth, in all three miracles Jesus ministered to the needs of someone who, especially in the eyes of the proud Jewish leaders, was on the lowest plane of human existence. The first person He helped was a leper, the second was a Gentile soldier and his slave, and the third was a woman. We learn from John that Jesus first revealed His messiahship to a despised Samaritan adulteress in Sychar (John 4:25-26), and we learn from Matthew that these three miracles of His early ministry served the humblest members of society. Our Lord showed special compassion toward those for whom society had special disdain.

(8:1-4) Introduction—Leprosy—Salvation—Spiritual Cleansing: this passage is a beautiful picture of spiritual cleansing. The power of Jesus to heal and cleanse the most defiled person is clearly seen.

1. Multitudes followed Jesus (v.1).
2. The leper, the most unclean and defiled person (v.2).
3. The Lord Jesus (v.3).
4. The cleansed man (v.4).

(8:1) Jesus Christ, Response to: multitudes followed Jesus. They followed because they were astonished at His teaching.

(8:2) Seeking Christ: there was the leper—the most defiled and unclean person. The leper dramatically demonstrates that no person is too unclean, polluted, dirty, or sinful to come to Jesus Christ. Note three significant points.

1. The leper came to Jesus. He came despite what people thought. He came…

• despite being “utterly unclean” (Romans 3:23; cp. Romans 3:10-18).
• despite being considered dead (Ephes. 2:1; Ephes. 4:18; 1 John 5:12).
• despite being an outcast and ostracized by people.
• despite being considered polluted and incurable by people.

2. The leper worshipped Jesus. The word worship (proskuneo) means to reverence; to pay homage. The attitude of reverence and worship was shown by bowing. The leper was desperate and knew his desperate plight. He was not allowed to approach within six feet of anyone. However, he rushed up to Jesus and fell prostrate before Jesus’ feet and worshipped Him. The leper demonstrated two significant things by rushing up and worshipping Jesus.

• His desire and willingness to break away from the world and its restrictions.
• His acknowledgment that Jesus was worthy of worship.

3. The leper asked and trusted Jesus for cleansing. The leper did not ask merely to be healed, but he asked to be cleansed. He wanted to be restored, that is, made whole and saved completely. He wanted all the rights and privileges of a whole man. He wanted to be completely restored with men (socially) and with God (religiously).

The words “If thou wilt” show two things.

1. It shows great faith in Jesus. The leper believed that Jesus had the power to heal him; it was just a matter of Jesus choosing to cleanse him.
2. It shows that the leper appealed to Jesus’ heart, not to His power. He believed and knew Jesus had the power. What was needed was for the leper to touch Jesus’ heart. In essence what the leper asked for was the love and the power of God.

The leper asked to be cleansed. God says that all men must ask if they wish to be cleansed. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). The leper did two things that we must all do when we ask Christ to cleanse us.

1. He genuinely trusted Christ: believed in Him and His power.
2. He offered himself to Christ: bowed and received the love and power of Christ to cleanse him.
3. Not every leper came to Jesus for cleansing. Every generation has its unbelievers who do not come to Him for cleansing.
   1. Some just do not trust Jesus. They do not believe in Him nor His power.
   2. Some know about Jesus, but are just unwilling to offer themselves to Him. They are unwilling to bow and to receive His love and power.

(8:1-4) Leprosy: William Barclay points out that leprosy was the most terrible disease in the day of Jesus, greatly feared. It was disfiguring and sometimes fatal. In the Bible leprosy is a type of sin (The Gospel of Matthew, Vol.1, p.300).

1. The leper himself was considered utterly unclean—physically and spiritually. He could not approach within six feet of any person including family members. “His clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, ‘Unclean, unclean’ ” (Leviticus 13:45).
2. He was judged dead—the living dead. He had to wear a black garment so he could be recognized as being among the dead.
3. He was banished as an outcast, totally ostracized from society—earthly and heavenly. “All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean; he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be” (Leviticus 13:46). He could not live within the walls of any city; his dwelling had to be outside the city gates.
4. He was thought to be polluted, incurable by any human means whatsoever. He could be cured by God and His power alone. (Note how Jesus proved His Messiahship and deity by healing the leper.)

Imagine the anguish and heartbreak of the leper, being completely cut off from family and friends and society. Imagine the emotional and mental pain. There are other recorded instances of lepers being healed (cp. Matthew 10:8; Matthew 11:5; Mark 1:40; Luke 7:22; Luke 17:12; and perhaps Matthew 26:6; cp. Mark 14:3).

(8:1-4) Jesus Christ: this is the first healing miracle performed by Jesus in Matthew. Christ proved two things when He healed the leper.

1. Jesus proved Himself to be God, to possess the power of God. The people knew no one could cure a leper but God (2 Kings 5:7).
2. Jesus proved Himself to be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He not only pronounced the leper cured, as the priests did; He cleansed the leper. He took the man’s leprosy (sin) away; He cleansed the man thoroughly and completely.

(8:1-4) Healing—Suffering: this leper was healed. In looking at miraculous healings the question is often asked, why are all faithful believers not healed when they are sick and ask for healing? Some walk ever so faithfully before God and they believe that God does heal; and they have as much faith, if not more faith, than some who are healed. Why then are they not also healed?

The reason is God. When God looks at our requests, He considers at least four things.

1. God’s glory. Would granting the request bring the greatest glory to God’s name?
2. Our good, not only physically, but spiritually. What particular spiritual grace or quality do we need to learn: endurance, self-control, trust, dependence?
3. Spiritually, within ourselves: will granting our request strengthen us more spiritually? Which way will our faith and trust in God grow more?
4. Spiritually, without ourselves: how does God now want to use us—as a constant prayer warrior? As an unbelievable testimony to His empowering spiritual strength, no matter the physical condition? Consider something else: What do the people need with whom God wants to use us? What is the best way for God to reach them—by demonstrating His strength in and through our trial? No matter what some may claim, the power of God is often more forcibly seen by manifesting itself through infirmities and weaknesses.
5. God’s wisdom. He knows what is needed by whom; when it is needed; for whom it is needed; where it is needed; how it is needed; why it is needed.
6. God’s mercy. He wills above all else for men to know His mercy. He does whatever is needed to demonstrate His mercy to men. Sometimes walking through the trials of life reveals His mercy more; sometimes removing the trials reveals His mercy more. He chooses the best way for both the sufferer and those who surround him.

(8:3) Compassion—Salvation: there was the Lord Jesus. The heart of Jesus was deeply touched by the leper. The sight just gripped His heart. The man’s condition was wretched. Just imagine…

his body full of sores his flesh eaten away his loneliness his desperation

his alienation his emptiness his helplessness

 

1. Jesus “touched” the leper. Note that before saying a word, Jesus reached out for the man: He “put forth His hand, and touched him.” When no one else would, Jesus reached out for the most defiled. How long had it been since anyone had touched him? Weeks? Months? Years?

So many will not touch the most defiled. They will have nothing to do with them. They shun and avoid them. Too often, even when the defiled wander into church, the church gets rid of them as soon as possible. So many in the church have little time for the defiled. They neglect and leave them where they are. Too many believers and too many churches have lost the sense of mission to reach the most defiled.

2. Jesus said, “I will.” These words say several significant things about Jesus.

• Jesus was not willing even for the most defiled to perish (2 Peter 3:9).
• Jesus did not have to be urged to help the most defiled. The most defiled simply had to approach Jesus with a sincere heart.
• Jesus did not have to be paid to help the most defiled. The leper did nothing but come to Jesus, believing that Jesus would cleanse him.

“I will.” The mission of Jesus Christ is to seek and to save that which is lost, no matter how defiled (Luke 19:10; Matthew 9:12-13; Matthew 20:28). The church is called to the very same mission (John 20:21). Jesus Christ said go—go to “every creature,” to every human being (Mark 16:15; cp. Matthew 28:19-20).

3. Jesus cleansed. The leper had acknowledged Jesus’ power. Now he received that power: he was cleansed physically and ceremonially, that is, religiously and spiritually. Note that Jesus cleansed the man immediately. He did not hesitate; there was no waiting. The man meant business with Jesus; he genuinely wanted to be cleansed. Jesus knew his sincerity, so He cleansed him immediately. The idea is that He cleansed him through and through (cp. Psalm 5:7; 1 John 1:9).

(8:4) Pride—Witnessing: there was the cleansed man. After the leper had been cleansed, he still needed to do two things—two things that every genuine believer must do.

1. The cleansed man had to be aware of pride. The leper had been cleansed and delivered from the pit of defilement. There were many still in the pit where he had come from. Jesus knew this man’s heart, knew that he stood in danger of temptation, the temptation of self importance. He could have easily gone about saying what is so often heard: “Jesus has cleansed me. But for the grace of God, I would still be a sinner.” Of course, this was true. But to go about proclaiming such would have tended to separate him apart as more favored than others, and he was not a favorite of God. God has no favorites. He was just a man who had been desperately unclean and whom Christ had cleansed. The cleansed man needed to proclaim Christ and His cleansing power, not his own cleansing. He deserved nothing, especially the grace of God; therefore, he had no reason to profess, “But for the grace of God….” Such would have been self-centered, prideful, and boastful. Jesus wanted to prevent such a profession.
2. The cleansed man had to obey the law. Jesus told the man to obey the law for two reasons.

• He cared deeply for the cleansed man. He wanted him to be restored, accepted, and reunited with his family and friends They would accept him only if he was proven to be cured.
• He wanted the man to respect God’s law and to walk in it for the remainder of his life.

The Wretched Man: A Leper

The great multitudes that followed Jesus when He had come down from  the mountain did not do so because they adored Him as their Messiah. Most of the crowd, no doubt, was simply curious, never before having seen anyone perform miracles or heard anyone speak with such authority (4:23-25; 7:28-29). They were uncommitted observers, amazed by what Jesus said and did but not convicted of their need of Him as Lord and Savior.

The root word behind leper means “scaly,” which describes one of the earliest and most obvious characteristics of leprosy. There continues to be much debate among scholars as to whether or not the disease Commonly called Hansen’s disease today is the same as biblical leprosy. Many biblical terms for diseases simply describe observable symptoms that could apply to several different physical afflictions. In addition to that, some diseases change over the course of years, as immunities develop and new strains of infectious microorganisms are formed.

Most medical historians believe that leprosy originated in Egypt, and the leprosy bacillus called myobacterium leprae has been found in at least one mummy that also showed the typical scaly evidence of the disease on its skin. The Old Testament scholar R. K. Harrison maintains that the symptoms described in Leviticus 13 “could presage clinical leprosy” (Colin Brown, ed. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975], 2:465). It seems safe to assume, therefore, that ancient leprosy was virtually the same as contemporary Hansen’s disease.

This severe form of leprosy was the most feared disease of the ancient world, and even today it cannot be totally cured, though it can be kept in check by proper medication. Although some 90 percent of people in modern times are immune to such contagion of leprosy, it was much more communicable in ancient times. Spongy, tumor-like swellings would eventually grow on the face and body, and the bacillus would become systemic and affect Internal organs, while the bones would begin to deteriorate. Untreated in ancient times, it produced a weakness which made the victim vulnerable to tuberculosis or other diseases.

In order to protect His chosen people, God gave strict and specific regulations to Moses regarding leprosy, the details of which are found in Leviticus 13. A person suspected of having the disease was taken to a priest for examination. If he showed signs of having more than a superficial skin problem, he was isolated for seven days. If the symptoms became worse, the person was isolated for seven more days. If, at that time the rash had not spread further; the person was pronounced clean. If, however, the rash had become worse, he was pronounced unclean. When leprosy was immediately evident from a person’s hair turning white and his having raw swollen flesh, he was pronounced unclean on the spot and no isolation period was involved. A less serious type of disease caused the entire skin to turn white, in which case the affected person could be considered clean.

That disease was probably a form of psoriasis, eczema, vitiligo, tuberculoid leprosy, or perhaps a condition which Herodotus and the great Greek physician Hippocrates called leukodermia. When a person was found to have the serious form of leprosy, his clothes were to be torn, his head uncovered, his mouth covered (to prevent spread of the disease), and he was to cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” wherever he went to warn others to stay clear of him. Lepers were legally ostracized and forbidden to live in any community with their fellow Israelites (Num. 5:2). Among the sixty-one defilements of ancient Judaism, leprosy was second only to a dead body in seriousness. The Talmud forbade a
Jew from coming closer than six feet to a leper, and if the wind was blowing, the limit was one hundred fifty feet.

Recent medical studies confirm that Hansen’s disease can be passed on to others when it is inhaled through the air—a good reason for a leper to cover his mouth, as the Leviticus regulations required. People have also contacted the disease from touching an object handled by a leper—again showing the value of the Leviticus standard, which required the burning of contaminated clothes. In his book Unclean! Unclean! L. S. Huizenga describes some of the horrors of leprosy.

The disease which we today call leprosy generally begins with pain in certain areas of the body. Numbness follows. Soon the skin in such spots loses its original color. It gets to be thick, glossy, and scaly … As the sickness progresses, the thickened spots become dirty sores and ulcers due to poor blood supply. The skin, especially around the eyes and ears, begins to bunch, with deep furrows between the swellings, so that the face of the afflicted individual begins to resemble that of a lion. Fingers drop off or are absorbed; toes are affected similarly. Eyebrows and eyelashes drop out. By this time one can see the person in this pitiable condition is a leper. By a touch of the finger one can also feel it. One can even smell it, for the leper emits a very unpleasant odor. Moreover, in view of the fact that the disease-producing agent frequently also attacks the larynx, the leper’s voice acquires a grating quality. His throat becomes hoarse, and you can now not only see, feel, and smell the leper, but you can hear his rasping voice. And if you stay with him for some time, you can even imagine a peculiar taste in your mouth, probably due to the odor. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1927, p. 149; cited in William Hendriksen, The Gospel of Matthew [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1973], p.388)

Although advanced leprosy is generally not painful, because of the nerve damage it is disfiguring, debilitating, and can be repulsive in the extreme, and has therefore for millennia been one of the most dreaded of diseases. One ancient rabbi said, “When I see lepers I throw stones at them lest they come near me.” Another said, “I would not so much as eat an egg that was purchased on a street where a leper had walked.”

An up-to-date look at modern leprosy reveals more of its character. Dr. Paul Brand, world-renowned expert on the treatment of Hansen’s disease has provided much help in understanding the unique nature of this affliction. Hansen’s disease (HD) is cruel, but not at all the way other diseases are. It primarily acts as an anesthetic, numbing the pain cells of hands, feet, nose, ears, and eyes. Not so bad, really, one might think. Most diseases are feared because of their pain—what makes a painless disease so horrible? Hansen’s disease’s numbing quality is precisely the reason such fabled destruction and decay of tissue occurs. For thousands of years people thought HD caused the ulcers on hands and feet and face which eventually led to rotting flesh and loss of limbs. Mainly through Dr. Brand’s research, it has been established that in 99 percent of the cases, HD only numbs the extremities. The destruction follows solely because the warning system of pain is gone.

How does the decay happen? In villages of Africa and Asia, a person with HD has been known to reach directly into a charcoal fire to retrieve a dropped potato. Nothing in his body told him not to. Patients at Brand’s hospital in India would work all day gripping a shovel with a protruding nail, or extinguish a burning wick with their bare hands, or walk on splintered glass. Watching them, Brand began formulating his radical theory that HD was chiefly anesthetic, and only indirectly a destroyer.

On one occasion, he tried to open the door of a little storeroom, but a rusty padlock would not yield. A patient—an undersized, malnourished ten-year-old—approached him smiling. “Let me try, sahib, doctor,” he offered and reached for the key. With a quick jerk of his hand he turned the key in the lock. Brand was dumbfounded. How could this weak youngster out-exert him? His eyes caught a telltale clue. Was that a drop of blood on the floor?

Upon examining the boy’s fingers, Brand discovered the act of turning the key had gashed a finger open to the bone; skin, fat, and joint were all exposed. Yet the boy was completely unaware of it! To him, the sensation of cutting his finger to the bone was no different from picking up a stone or turning a coin in his pocket. The daily routines of life ground away at the HD patient’s hands and feet, but no warning system alerted him. If an ankle turned, tearing tendon and muscle, he would adjust and walk crooked. If a rat chewed off a finger in the night, he would not discover it missing until the next morning … … Stanley Stein (author of Alone No Longer) went blind because of another cruel quirk of HD. Each morning he would wash his face with a hot washcloth. But neither his hand nor his face was sensitive enough to temperature to warn him that he was using scalding water. Gradually he destroyed his eyes with his daily washing. (Philip Yancey, Where Are You God When It Hurts? [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977], pp. 32-34)

Leprosy is a graphic illustration of sin. Like leprosy, sin infects the whole person, and it is ugly, loathsome, corrupting, contaminating, alienating, and incurable by man. Lepers in ancient Israel were vivid object lessons of in. Yet a leper was the first to be healed by Jesus in this series of miracles in Matthew and the fact that the leper came to Him was astounding in itself, because lepers were forbidden to come close to non-lepers.

Four things about this particular leper stand out. First of all he came to Jesus with confidence. He obviously Sensed a love and tenderness in Jesus that allowed him to approach Him without fear of reprisal (such as being stoned) or even of reprimand. He somehow knew that Jesus was neither afraid of him nor ashamed to associate with him. He did not shout to Jesus from a distance, as he was supposed to do, but approached Him directly and without hesitation. Because he realized Jesus was not ashamed of him, he was less ashamed of himself. He
thought of nothing but his great need and of Jesus’ ability and willingness to meet that need.

Second, the man came to Jesus with reverence. His boldness did not come from presumption but from humble adoration. When he reached Jesus he bowed down to Him (from which comes bowed down) literally means to prostrate oneself and is most often translated “to worship” (See Matt. 2:2; 4:9, 10; John 4:20-24; Acts 7:43; Rev. 4:10; 19:10). From the reverential nature of his request it seems that the leper addressed Jesus as Lord not simply in the sense of “Sir,” but as an acknowledgment of deity. He felt he was in the presence of God and that therefore Jesus could heal him of his terrible disease. It is both interesting and instructive to note that the scribes and Pharisees who were doubtlessly in the multitude that day were beautifully and richly attired, yet were inwardly corrupt, proud, and unbelieving. By contrast, the leper appeared loathsome and repulsive on the outside, but inwardly he was reverent and believing.

Third, the leper came to Jesus with humility. He came expectantly but not demandingly, saying, Lord, if you are willing. He asked to be healed only if it were the Lord’s will. He did not claim to be worthy or deserving, but left himself in the Lord’s hands to do as He would. The implication seems to be that the leper was quite willing to remain leprous if that were the Lord’s will. Obviously he wanted to be healed, but he did not explicitly ask Jesus for healing, almost as if that were too much to presume. He simply acknowledged Jesus’ ability to heal him. How far that humble spirit is from the demands of many Christians today who make claims on God’s healing, blessing, and favor as if those were their inherent rights. This man claimed no rights, and his first concern was not his own
welfare at all, but the Lord’s will and glory.

Fourth, the leper came with faith, declaring, You can make me clean. He literally said, “You have the power to make me clean.” That is faith at its highest—the absolute conviction that God is able, coupled with humble
submission to His sovereignty in the exercise of His power. The man knew that Jesus was not obligated to heal him, but he also knew that He was perfectly capable of doing it. He had the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who declared to Nebuchadnezzar, “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” Dan. 3:17-18.

The leper came with confidence because he believed Jesus was compassionate, with reverence because he believed Jesus was God, with humility because he believed Jesus was sovereign, and with faith because he believed Jesus had the power to heal him. In response to that faith, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Jews were forbidden by the Mosaic law to touch a leper, because he was unclean (Lev. 5:3). To do so was to expose themselves to both ceremonial and physical contamination. They could not help a leper by touching him, but only harm themselves. Yet it is certain that lepers yearned for the touch of another human being. In their isolation and social stigma they no doubt would have given anything for even brief intimate contact with someone besides other lepers.

Jesus could have healed with only a word, as He did on numerous other occasions. But He made an obvious point of touching this man. That simple act in itself was amazing, not in the sense of being sensational and spectacular—as are the supposed miracles of many modern healers—but simply in the fact that the Son of God lovingly condescended to touch the outcast of outcasts whom no other man would even come near.

The healing was instantaneous: immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Jesus did not need to heal in stages, although at times He chose to do so (Mark 8:22-26; John 9:6-7). When He touched defilement it went away. The scene on this occasion must have been startling—to see a deformed, shriveled, scaly, sore-covered, derelict suddenly stand upright, with perfect arms and legs, with his face smooth and unscarred, his hair restored, his voice normal, and his eyes bright. The marvels of modern medical science pale beside such miraculous restoration.

The first requirement of faith is obedience, and as soon as the leper was cleansed, Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and present the offering that Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.” Before he celebrated his new lease on life, and even before he testified to others about his miraculous cleansing, the man was to fulfill the requirements of the Mosaic law by having the temple priests attest to his cure.

This process, described in Leviticus 14, involved taking two birds and killing one of them over running water. The live bird, along with cedar wood, a scarlet string, and some hyssop, was then dipped in the blood of the slain bird. The former leper was then sprinkled seven times and pronounced clean by the priest, and the live bird was set free. The cleansed person was then to wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe himself. He could then rejoin Israelite society, although he had to remain outside his tent for seven days. The final act on the eighth day was to bring the required guilt, sin, and grain offerings—according to what could be afforded—and to be anointed by the priest on various parts of the body.

Jesus may have told the man not to say anything about his healing in order not to increase the crowd’s adulation of Him simply as a miracle worker, or perhaps He wanted to discourage their looking to Him as a political deliverer. It may have been that the Lord was still in His period of humiliation and that His exaltation by the crowd at this time would have been premature in the divine plan.

All of those reasons could have been involved, but Jesus’ instruction to go, show yourself to the priest, and present the offering that Moses commanded, was specifically given for a testimony to them, that is, to the multitude and especially to the Jewish leaders. Although Jesus devastated the hypocritical, superficial, and unbiblical standards and practices of the scribes and Pharisees, He did not want the people to think He was violating the requirements of God’s law—which He had just declared He came to fulfill, not destroy (5:17). In addition to that, when the priest declared the man clean—as he would have to do because of the obvious healing—Jesus’ miracle would be officially confirmed by the Jewish establishment. It is likely also for this reason that Jesus told the man not to tell anyone else before he presented himself to the priest for examination. If word that his healing was done by Jesus reached Jerusalem ahead of the man, the priests would no doubt have been reluctant to verify the cleansing.

Sadly, the man who had shown such confident and humble faith in his joyous exuberance did not also show immediate obedience. We learn from Mark that he became so excited that “he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news about, 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” Mark 1:45.

As Jesus remarked several times in various words, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” (Matt. 9:5; cf. Mark 2:9; Luke 5:23). The Lord’s greatest purpose was to cleanse sin, not sickness, and even His physical cleansings became illustrations of the spiritual cleansing He offered. The healing of leprosy was especially powerful in that regard, because its great physical destructiveness, pervasiveness, ugliness, and incurableness represent the even greater destructiveness, pervasiveness, ugliness, and incurableness of sin. Just as leprosy destroys physical health and makes a person an outcast with other men, so sin destroys spiritual health and makes a person an outcast with God. But just as Christ can cure leprosy, He can also cure sin; and just as His cleansing from leprosy restored men to human fellowship, His cleansing from sin restores them to God’s.

Much modern evangelism and personal witness is weakened by failure to confront men with the terribleness and danger of their sin. Coming to Christ is not getting on a popular bandwagon of religious sentimentality. It is facing and confessing one’s sin and bringing it to the Lord for cleansing. True conversion takes place when, like the leper, desperate people come to Christ humbly confessing their need and reverently seeking His restoration. The truly repentant person, like this leper, comes with no pride, no self-will, no rights, and no claim to worthiness. He sees himself as a repulsive sinner who has absolutely no claim to salvation apart from the abundant grace of God. He comes believing that God can and will save him only as he places his trust in Jesus Christ.

After a person is saved from sin, Jesus’ first requirement is that he henceforth obey the Word of God. Only a life-style of holy living can give proper testimony to what Jesus Christ has done in saving us. It is best to say nothing of our relationship to Jesus Christ unless our living reflects something of His holiness and will. When a Christian lives obediently, then both his actions and his words testify to Christ’s goodness and power.