Matthew 8:4, commentary and pictures

After healing a man judged incurably leprous and banished from home and society, Jesus told him to tell no one but to go at once to the priest with the offering Moses required. The priestly inspection was to certify publicly that he was clean so the same authority that condemned him could restore him to family and community life. Going promptly and quietly was to secure an impartial verdict and to prevent crowds, outcry over contamination, and charges of breaking the ritual law from disrupting His preaching work. Honoring the Mosaic requirement upheld the law and made the cure a standing witness to the priests of His healing power, meant to disarm prejudice though they refused Him. The healed man, overjoyed at restored vigor and unable to refrain from praise, misunderstood the restriction and proclaimed the cure abroad, creating commotion that forced Jesus to withdraw from the city.

Leprosy Setting and Instruction

Leprosy was the most fearful and loathsome disease of the East, dreaded for its contagious character and horrible effect upon its victim, so that great precautions were taken to prevent its spread. With the Hebrews one pronounced unclean was isolated from family, restricted from society, and cut off from the congregation of Israel, barred from entering cities and villages and doomed to associate only with fellow sufferers. He was obliged to publish his own calamity, to rend his garment, to sound the alarm, and to cry Unclean, Unclean as a signal heard with fear and abhorrence, bearing the curse away from friends and kindred with no affectionate hands to soothe his pain. Many such sufferers were in the region of Christ's ministry, and though debarred from city and village where His chief work lay among the populace, news of the great Healer reached them in their isolation and raised hope that coming into His presence might bring relief.

The law laid upon the priests the duty to examine a suspected leper, to judge the severity of the disease, and to pronounce clean or unclean. In this account that examination had already taken place and had resulted in a verdict of incurable leprosy, with separation from society and from Israel's congregation.

After cleansing the leper Jesus commanded him to tell no man of the healing, but to go promptly, even to the temple, to show himself to the priest, and to offer the gift commanded by Moses. The charge to keep silent and to act promptly before rumors of the healing reached the priests was to secure an impartial decision. The priestly examination and offering were to establish publicly that the man was free of leprosy, so that he could be formally judged clean and restored to home, family, and ordinary community life.

Purposes of the Command

The priestly examination and offering were to certify publicly that the man was free of leprosy, so that he could be formally judged clean and restored to home, family, and ordinary community life. The very priests who had condemned him to banishment were thus made to certify his cure. Going promptly, before rumors of the healing reached the priests, helped secure an impartial decision and kept hostility toward Jesus from influencing it.

The command to keep silent avoided display and commotion and protected the preaching work from disruption. It prevented the healing from drawing crowds of lepers seeking escape from their doom without faith or principle and without desire to use health to honor God. It also prevented raising an outcry about contamination of the people by contact with leprosy, and prevented giving enemies opportunity to accuse and condemn Him for breaking ritual law, to limit His work, and to turn the people away from Him. His work was thus carried forward without theatrical display, in contrast to those who sought praise and honor from men.

Directing the offering and priestly procedure showed respect for the law given through Moses, sanctioned it, and refuted the charge that His teaching opposed it. It made the cure a public testimony and standing witness to the priests of His healing power and His respect for the law. It was meant to reach leaders shut in by prejudice, to disarm prejudice, and to convince minds open to conviction. Yet though the examination confirmed the cure and gave compelling evidence of divine power, they refused to acknowledge Him as Messiah.

By giving this direction He sanctioned the law requiring offerings as remaining in force until His death, when their types met fulfillment.

Disobedience and Ministry Example

The cleansed man disobeyed the charge to tell no one and proclaimed the cure abroad. He took the restriction to come only from retiring modesty. He did not understand that each new manifestation of divine power made the chief priests and elders more determined to destroy Jesus.

To him health was very precious, with pure blood coursing through his veins and quickening his whole being with new and delightful life. He rejoiced in the full vigor of manhood and in restoration to family and society. He felt it impossible to refrain from giving full glory to the Physician who had made him whole. His publicizing of the cure helped create such commotion that Jesus had to withdraw from the city.

The verse belongs to a chapter that joins the ministry of the Word with medical missionary healing and gives the example of His healing ministry and methods. It stands among His acts of healing bodily disease while preaching and ministering to sin-sick souls. He first relieved the poor, suffering body before ministering to the darkened mind. When present misery was removed, thoughts could better be directed into light and truth.

It shows meeting one defiled by sin with humility, tenderness, care, sympathy, and love. Self-confidence and self-righteousness must be put away. Even those who have not honored the cause of God and whose lives and character reveal the deformity of sin must be borne with, because the wicked and sinful are still borne with.