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1 When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2 And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." 3 Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." ~ Matthew 8:1-4
Today, we transition into Matthew 8. Each of the four gospel writers present the Lord Jesus and His ministry different than the others. Throughout his gospel Matthew presents the Lord Jesus as the Messiah King. Since the Lord Jesus had challenged the authority of the religious leaders of Israel, they were questioning His authority to teach as He did. Beginning in today's chapter, the Lord Jesus performed 10 different miracles. These miracles provided proof that the Lord Jesus was God and as God He was qualified to be our Savior.
In v.1 of today's passage we read, "When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him."
It helps our study of this gospel to remember that Matthew did not write it chronologically, he wrote it thematically. Matthew's goal here was to substantiate the authority of the Lord Jesus by recording 10 miracles in Matthew 8-9. It was through the miracles performed that the Lord Jesus and His teachings were authenticated. I find it most interesting that according to Matthew 12 after the Lord Jesus had taught as He did and performed these miracles, the Jews concluded that He was of the devil.
In v.2 of today's passage we read, "And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.'"
A man who had leprosy approached the Lord Jesus. Those with leprosy lost feeling in their fingers and their toes. Since the diseased would lose the ability to feel, they would cut themselves and not even know it. They were shunned by society due to the contagiousness of their disease. According to Luke 5:12, this man was full of leprosy which was a terrible skin disease caused by a bacteria called microbacterium leprae. Those who had this disease were often referred to as "The walking dead." Lepers were excommunicated from normal life and they were placed outside of society. If someone came within 300 feet of the diseased, they would be required to yell out, "unclean" meaning, "Don't come any closer to me at your own risk." Lepers were ostracized and they had no human contact. As a result, lepers were some of the most desperate people on the planet and this man who approached the Lord Jesus was among the most desperate of them all.
This disease, although loathsome, served that man that day because it forced him to desperately seek out the Lord Jesus. He was so convinced the Lord Jesus had the ability to heal him, he went to Him risking his life. He just wasn't sure if the Lord would be willing to heal him. So he said to the Lord, "Lord, if you are willing, You can make me clean." The leper's desperation led him to worship the Lord Jesus. He came to worship the Lord first before he made his request of Him. He did this because he understood the soul is more important than the body. He had true faith which said, "I know that You can but I do not know if You will." That’s the highest level of faith. It is always this type of faith that leads us to exalt God even before He answers our prayers. True conversion occurs when desperate people come to simply worship God; not seeking things for themselves.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' Immediately his leprosy was cleansed."
After the leper desperately begged the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus put out his hand and touched him. The Lord Jesus knew this leper needed to be touched by somebody who was clean. He didn’t have to touch him. Since the leper had not felt the touch of another human for a long, long time, the Lord Jesus touched him. As a result, the leper was immediately healed. His actions proved that he was convinced that the Lord Jesus could heal him. He made his request by faith because this is the nature of faith to lead us to desire God's will above all.
Like this man, we all want to belong. True belonging only happens when we ask the right questions and we embrace our authentic, imperfect selves in the context of our relationship with God. Belonging is the essence of life. Everything else rests on it. Every other gift celebrates it, in its own way. We belong to God. And, until we recognize this, we will never know our place in this world or the one to come.
In v.4 of today's passage we read, "And Jesus said to him, 'See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'"
I can almost hear the collective gasp of those gathered that day when the Lord Jesus reached out His hand toward the leper and touched him. The Lord Jesus didn't have to touch the man to heal him, but He chose to touch him because something much deeper was happening. This was the Lord Jesus way of throwing open the door to deeper intimacy with Him for the leper. This is what it is all about throughout the Bible, a deeper and more intimate personal relationship with God. And, nothing like our desperate pain serves us in the discovery of this most important principle of life.
According to Leviticus 13 the leper was brought to the high priest who isolated the leper from everyone in the land. In Leviticus 14:2 we read, "This is the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing." Just as instructed in the Law of Moses, the Lord Jesus came to heal the leper. After healing him the Lord Jesus sent the healed man to the high priest so that he could reintroduce him back into the land of the living. The Law of Moses anticipated this miraculous healing of leprosy. Oh, the compassion of God! His heart has always been for us, even though we rebelled against Him in the Garden of Eden.
The Lord Jesus also told the healed man not to tell others. He did this because He didn't want people to be come to Him just because He could heal them physically. He wanted them to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness for themselves. He also did this for the benefit of the healed man. The Lord Jesus knew the opposition from the religious leaders was growing and that could have harmed the healed man even more. So, the Lord told the healed man to present himself to the high priest for an eight-day examination that would prove he was healed. The goal of this was that the former leper would be reinstated into fellowship with his family and loved ones. Incidentally, the number eight is the number for "new beginnings" throughout the Bible.
