And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
A loathsome outcast cut off as unclean came to Jesus while He taught and healed by the lake, casting his decaying body at His feet in worship and calling Him Lord. His brief plea joined full confidence that Jesus as God's authorized Saviour had power to restore him with humble submission leaving the decision to His will. Instead of shrinking back, Jesus drew near and laid His hand on him without defilement, and cleansing power acted at once to make his flesh healthy like a child's. He then sent him to the priests with the offering Moses commanded, fulfilling the law and giving them evidence of divine power. Because leprosy pictures deep-rooted deadly sin no human power can cleanse, his words stand as the prayer of faith any sin-sick soul may pray, certain of a willing answer to forgive and make clean.
The Leper and His Plea
Behold, a leper came and worshiped Jesus, casting himself at His feet and prostrating his foul, decaying body before Him, addressing Him as Lord. His few words comprehended his great need and his belief that Christ was able to give him life and health and restore him. He was convinced Jesus was really the promised Saviour of the world, to whom all things are possible, the One authorized of God, the great Physician who could cure even him and set him free from his infirmity. His faith laid hold of the Saviour as his blessed hope for freedom from his infirmity.
That confidence that Jesus had power to make him clean was joined with submission, leaving the decision to heal to Him and asking whether He was willing. The appeal trusts Jesus has power to make whole and asks Him to act according to His will. His hope grew as he heard of Jesus' mighty works in seclusion and as he saw Him heal others, and his confidence rested on reaching Jesus the great Healer who could relieve him of his disease. He believed Jesus would not turn away anyone who sought His help, having seen the life-giving help Jesus gave others.
He came while Jesus was teaching by the lake outside the city limits before a large crowd and healing the sick by laying hands on them and by a word, raising the lame, the blind, the paralytic, and those dying of various maladies to health. The leper drew as near as he dared, standing afar off as a loathsome spectacle with a decaying body, watching and hearing until convinced. Though isolation, danger to others, restrictions, and the crowd's fear and horror stood in his way, he forgot the restrictions placed on him, the safety of the people, and their horror of him. Though he had not meant to endanger the people, he pressed forward heedless through the frightened multitude that fell back and tried to prevent him, seeing only the Son of God and hearing only the voice giving health and happiness to the suffering, focusing only on the Saviour.
His leprosy was the most dreaded of eastern diseases because of its incurable and contagious character and its horrible effect on its victims, filling even the bravest with fear, with deadly poison permeating his whole body. Among the Jews it was regarded as a judgment for sin, called the stroke and the finger of God, and treated as a symbol of sin because it was deep-rooted, ineradicable, and deadly. By the ritual law the leper was pronounced unclean, whatever he touched was unclean and the air was polluted by his breath, and like one already dead he was shut out from dwellings and from the dwellings of men. One suspected of the disease had to present himself to the priests to be examined and judged, and if pronounced a leper he was isolated from family, cut off from the congregation of Israel, and doomed to associate only with fellow lepers, required to live apart and warn others that he was unclean. There was no exemption even for kings and rulers, who had to yield the scepter and flee from society.
This man had once been of high distinction, a man of high distinction diagnosed by the priest with the worst form of the incurable disease. His condition separated him from family, friends, and former society, leaving him an exile from home, from his home and former society.
Christ's Touch and Testimony
When the plea was made, He drew near instead of shrinking back, with calm fearlessness in the face of the danger and dread of touching a leper, while the crowd fell back and even the disciples were filled with terror and sought to prevent Him, because by the law of Moses he who touched a leper was himself made unclean. He laid His hand upon the supplicant without receiving defilement and granted the petition with cleansing power. The change was immediate, for the dying body of corruption became healthy flesh with sensitive nerves and firm muscle, the rough scaly surface gone and replaced by a soft glow like the skin of a healthy child. At that the eager multitude lost their terror and crowded around to behold the manifestation of divine power.
Having touched and healed him, He directed him to show himself to the priest and bring the offering Moses commanded, so that the priests must examine him, decide he was free of the disease, and allow his return to family and community. In this He fulfilled the required conditions and showed that His healing did not oppose that law, while giving people and priests compelling evidence of divine power. That instruction affirmed the law's requirement for offerings, whose ceremonial ordinances were meaningful types whose significance became clear through Christ's death, when type met antitype. The healing thus became a public testimony of compassion, power, and respect for the law given through Moses that could have reached priests and teachers whose prejudice kept them from Jesus. Yet the man's public announcement drew such crowds that Jesus had to stop His work for a time and gave His enemies an occasion to oppose Him.
The welcome and healing of lepers shows He turns no one away, for even loathsome lepers found access to His presence and were healed. Their healing proves His power to cure every malady and His willingness to receive the most despised sufferers. That example gave hope to the helpless, such as the friends and relatives of a paralytic, that they too might be relieved if brought under His notice. His divine power meeting and overcoming bodily disease stands in contrast to the spiritual disease of unbelief and prejudice, which grows more firmly rooted when people close themselves to light. In receiving the worshiping leper He revealed humility, compassion, tenderness and care for the erring and for those needing sympathy and love, answering without reproach or censure as an encouragement through His healing ministry.
Cleansing From Sin Today
Leprosy is the picture of the leprosy of sin and of the soul, deep-rooted, deadly, and impossible to be cleansed by human power, and the leper's deformity pictures those who have not honored God's cause but have the deformity of sin revealed in life and character. Jesus in coming to dwell in humanity receives no pollution, and His touch brings healing without making Him unclean, so His presence is healing virtue for the sinner. The leper's words are a prayer of faith that anyone may pray, falling at His feet when He draws near, for cleansing of heart and mind and for healing and wholeness of body and soul, committing the case to Christ the great Physician, Medical Missionary, Mighty Healer and Lifegiver.
Everyone who comes to Him with that plea in faith will be touched by Him and made clean by His willing answer, because it is God's will to forgive, cleanse, make people His children, and enable them to live holy lives. Unlike requests for earthly blessings, which may be delayed or answered differently, the appeal for deliverance from sin is granted. The words became a prayer prayed in wonderful nearness to God for oneself and for brethren and for healing and strength for service, applied to patients seeking healing, whose answer brings healing with exhaustion gone and clearness of mind.
The verse illustrates His method of joining the ministry of the Word with healing work and demonstrates His power to relieve physical suffering and His willingness to save through healing ministry. His cleansing gives the blessed hope of the gospel and wonderful comfort, health to the body and peace to the sin-sick soul, filling the heart with miraculously working joy. As physical suffering is removed hearts are softened and reached, so those who minister in His stead are to hold out this hope of restoration and point sufferers to Him. As He bears with wicked and sinful people and still bears with them, even such deformed ones must be borne with rather than cast off.
A loathsome outcast cut off as unclean came to Jesus while He taught and healed by the lake, casting his decaying body at His feet in worship and calling Him Lord. His brief plea joined full confidence that Jesus as God's authorized Saviour had power to restore him with humble submission leaving the decision to His will. Instead of shrinking back, Jesus drew near and laid His hand on him without defilement, and cleansing power acted at once to make his flesh healthy like a child's. He then sent him to the priests with the offering Moses commanded, fulfilling the law and giving them evidence of divine power. Because leprosy pictures deep-rooted deadly sin no human power can cleanse, his words stand as the prayer of faith any sin-sick soul may pray, certain of a willing answer to forgive and make clean.
The Leper and His Plea
Behold, a leper came and worshiped Jesus, casting himself at His feet and prostrating his foul, decaying body before Him, addressing Him as Lord. His few words comprehended his great need and his belief that Christ was able to give him life and health and restore him. He was convinced Jesus was really the promised Saviour of the world, to whom all things are possible, the One authorized of God, the great Physician who could cure even him and set him free from his infirmity. His faith laid hold of the Saviour as his blessed hope for freedom from his infirmity.
That confidence that Jesus had power to make him clean was joined with submission, leaving the decision to heal to Him and asking whether He was willing. The appeal trusts Jesus has power to make whole and asks Him to act according to His will. His hope grew as he heard of Jesus' mighty works in seclusion and as he saw Him heal others, and his confidence rested on reaching Jesus the great Healer who could relieve him of his disease. He believed Jesus would not turn away anyone who sought His help, having seen the life-giving help Jesus gave others.
He came while Jesus was teaching by the lake outside the city limits before a large crowd and healing the sick by laying hands on them and by a word, raising the lame, the blind, the paralytic, and those dying of various maladies to health. The leper drew as near as he dared, standing afar off as a loathsome spectacle with a decaying body, watching and hearing until convinced. Though isolation, danger to others, restrictions, and the crowd's fear and horror stood in his way, he forgot the restrictions placed on him, the safety of the people, and their horror of him. Though he had not meant to endanger the people, he pressed forward heedless through the frightened multitude that fell back and tried to prevent him, seeing only the Son of God and hearing only the voice giving health and happiness to the suffering, focusing only on the Saviour.
His leprosy was the most dreaded of eastern diseases because of its incurable and contagious character and its horrible effect on its victims, filling even the bravest with fear, with deadly poison permeating his whole body. Among the Jews it was regarded as a judgment for sin, called the stroke and the finger of God, and treated as a symbol of sin because it was deep-rooted, ineradicable, and deadly. By the ritual law the leper was pronounced unclean, whatever he touched was unclean and the air was polluted by his breath, and like one already dead he was shut out from dwellings and from the dwellings of men. One suspected of the disease had to present himself to the priests to be examined and judged, and if pronounced a leper he was isolated from family, cut off from the congregation of Israel, and doomed to associate only with fellow lepers, required to live apart and warn others that he was unclean. There was no exemption even for kings and rulers, who had to yield the scepter and flee from society.
This man had once been of high distinction, a man of high distinction diagnosed by the priest with the worst form of the incurable disease. His condition separated him from family, friends, and former society, leaving him an exile from home, from his home and former society.
Christ's Touch and Testimony
When the plea was made, He drew near instead of shrinking back, with calm fearlessness in the face of the danger and dread of touching a leper, while the crowd fell back and even the disciples were filled with terror and sought to prevent Him, because by the law of Moses he who touched a leper was himself made unclean. He laid His hand upon the supplicant without receiving defilement and granted the petition with cleansing power. The change was immediate, for the dying body of corruption became healthy flesh with sensitive nerves and firm muscle, the rough scaly surface gone and replaced by a soft glow like the skin of a healthy child. At that the eager multitude lost their terror and crowded around to behold the manifestation of divine power.
Having touched and healed him, He directed him to show himself to the priest and bring the offering Moses commanded, so that the priests must examine him, decide he was free of the disease, and allow his return to family and community. In this He fulfilled the required conditions and showed that His healing did not oppose that law, while giving people and priests compelling evidence of divine power. That instruction affirmed the law's requirement for offerings, whose ceremonial ordinances were meaningful types whose significance became clear through Christ's death, when type met antitype. The healing thus became a public testimony of compassion, power, and respect for the law given through Moses that could have reached priests and teachers whose prejudice kept them from Jesus. Yet the man's public announcement drew such crowds that Jesus had to stop His work for a time and gave His enemies an occasion to oppose Him.
The welcome and healing of lepers shows He turns no one away, for even loathsome lepers found access to His presence and were healed. Their healing proves His power to cure every malady and His willingness to receive the most despised sufferers. That example gave hope to the helpless, such as the friends and relatives of a paralytic, that they too might be relieved if brought under His notice. His divine power meeting and overcoming bodily disease stands in contrast to the spiritual disease of unbelief and prejudice, which grows more firmly rooted when people close themselves to light. In receiving the worshiping leper He revealed humility, compassion, tenderness and care for the erring and for those needing sympathy and love, answering without reproach or censure as an encouragement through His healing ministry.
Cleansing From Sin Today
Leprosy is the picture of the leprosy of sin and of the soul, deep-rooted, deadly, and impossible to be cleansed by human power, and the leper's deformity pictures those who have not honored God's cause but have the deformity of sin revealed in life and character. Jesus in coming to dwell in humanity receives no pollution, and His touch brings healing without making Him unclean, so His presence is healing virtue for the sinner. The leper's words are a prayer of faith that anyone may pray, falling at His feet when He draws near, for cleansing of heart and mind and for healing and wholeness of body and soul, committing the case to Christ the great Physician, Medical Missionary, Mighty Healer and Lifegiver.
Everyone who comes to Him with that plea in faith will be touched by Him and made clean by His willing answer, because it is God's will to forgive, cleanse, make people His children, and enable them to live holy lives. Unlike requests for earthly blessings, which may be delayed or answered differently, the appeal for deliverance from sin is granted. The words became a prayer prayed in wonderful nearness to God for oneself and for brethren and for healing and strength for service, applied to patients seeking healing, whose answer brings healing with exhaustion gone and clearness of mind.
The verse illustrates His method of joining the ministry of the Word with healing work and demonstrates His power to relieve physical suffering and His willingness to save through healing ministry. His cleansing gives the blessed hope of the gospel and wonderful comfort, health to the body and peace to the sin-sick soul, filling the heart with miraculously working joy. As physical suffering is removed hearts are softened and reached, so those who minister in His stead are to hold out this hope of restoration and point sufferers to Him. As He bears with wicked and sinful people and still bears with them, even such deformed ones must be borne with rather than cast off.