Jesus Cleanses a Leper

Matthew 8:2. A leper] Scarcely is there a more loathsome, defiling, and hopeless disease than leprosy. Even to this day it remains incurable except through divine intercession. Typical language describing the leprosy of Biblical times is cited in Jesus the Christ, pp. 199-201. For instance: "Leprosy was nothing short of a living death, a corrupting of all the humors, a poisoning of the very springs, of life; a dissolution, little by little, of the whole body, so that one limb after another actually decayed and fell away. Aaron exactly describes the appearance which the leper presented to the eyes of the beholders, when, pleading for Miriam, he says, 'Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother's womb.' (Numbers 12:12.) The disease, moreover, was incurable by the art and skill of man; not that the leper might not return to health; for, however rare, such cases are contemplated in the Levitical law." (Trench, Notes on the Miracles, pp. 165-168, cited, Talmage, pp. 200-201.)

Matthew 8:2; Also: "The symptoms and the effects of this disease are very loathsome. There comes a white swelling or scab, with a change of the color of the hair .. . from its natural hue to yellow; then the appearance of a taint going deeper than the skin, or raw flesh appearing in the swelling. Then it spreads and attacks the cartilaginous portions of the body. The nails loosen and drop off, the gums are absorbed, and the teeth decay and fall out; the breath is a stench, the nose decays; fingers, hands, feet, may be lost, or the eyes eaten out. The human beauty has gone into corruption, and the patient feels that he is being eaten as by a fiend, who consumes him slowly in a long remorseless meal that will not end until he be destroyed. He is shut out from his fellows. As they approach he must cry, 'Unclean! unclean!' that all humanity may be warned from his precincts. He must abandon wife and child. He must go to live with other lepers, in disheartening view of miseries similar to his own. He must dwell in dismantled houses or in the tombs." (Deems, Light of the Nations, p. 185, cited, Talmage, p. 199.)

Matthew 8:2; If thou wilt] Possibly this is the first instance of healing by Jesus during his ministry of so lasting and dread a disease as leprosy, and yet the afflicted believer came to him with abundant faith. The question was not, 'Can you heal me? but, Will you?'

I. V. Matthew 8:2. Worshipping him] The leper knew Jesus was the Messiah, and the worship here involved included the payment of divine honors to a Deity. Faith in Christ and proper worship of him are conditions precedent to the exercise of that faith which begets healing power.

Matthew 8:4. By sending the cleansed leper to the priests so that the detailed cleansing rituals of the Levitical law might be obeyed (Lev. 13; 14), Jesus recognized and made honorable that law he himself had given through Moses. Two reasons are apparent why this manifestation of healing should have been kept secret: (1) To enable the healed leper to obey the Levitical requirements for ceremonial cleanliness—a thing which might have been difficult had the priests been aware that Jesus had performed the miracle involved; and (2) To avoid feeding the flames of persecution that already were igniting on every hand against the Master and his cause.