Luke 5:12

Here is, I. The cleansing of a leper, Luk 5:12-14. This narrative we had both in Matthew and Mark. It is here said to have been in a certain city (Luk 5:12); it was in Capernaum, but the evangelist would not name it, perhaps because it was a reflection upon the government of the city that a leper was suffered to be in it. This man is said to be full of leprosy; he had that distemper in a high degree, which the more fitly represents our natural pollution by sin; we are full of that leprosy, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is no soundness in us. Now let us learn here,

1. What we must do in the sense of our spiritual leprosy. (1.) We must seek Jesus, enquire after him, acquaint ourselves with him, and reckon the discoveries made to us of Christ by the gospel the most acceptable and welcome discoveries that could be made to us. (2.) We must humble ourselves before him, as this leper, seeing Jesus, fell on his face. We must be ashamed of our pollution, and, in the sense of it, blush to lift up our faces before the holy Jesus. (3.) We must earnestly desire to be cleansed from the defilement, and cured of the disease, of sin, which renders us unfit for communion with God. (4.) We must firmly believe Christ's ability and sufficiency to cleanse us: Lord, thou canst make me clean, though I be full of leprosy. No doubt is to be made of the merit and grace of Christ. (5.) We must be importunate in prayer for pardoning mercy and renewing grace: He fell on his face and besought him; they that would be cleansed must reckon it a favour worth wrestling for. (6.) We must refer ourselves to the good-will of Christ: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst. This is not so much the language of his diffidence, or distrust of the good-will of Christ, as of his submission and reference of himself and his case to the will, to the good-will, of Jesus Christ.

2. What we may expect from Christ, if we thus apply ourselves to him. (1.) We shall find him very condescending and forward to take cognizance of our case (Luk 5:13): He put forth his hand and touched him. When Christ visited this leprous world, unasked, unsought unto, he showed how low he could stoop, to do good. His touching the leper was wonderful condescension; but it is much greater to us when he is himself touched with the feeling of our infirmities. (2.) We shall find him very compassionate, and ready to relieve us; he said, "I will, never doubt of that; whosoever comes to me to be healed, I will in no wise cast him out." He is as willing to cleanse leprous souls as they can be to be cleansed. (3.) We shall find him all-sufficient, and able to heal and cleanse us, though we be ever so full of this loathsome leprosy. One word, one touch, from Christ, did the business: Immediately the leprosy departed from him. If Christ saith, "I will, be thou justified, be thou sanctified," it is done; for he has power on earth to forgive sin, and power to give the Holy Spirit, Co1 6:11.

3. What he requires from those that are cleansed, Luk 5:14. Has Christ sent his word and healed us? (1.) We must be very humble (Luk 5:14): He charged him to tell no man. This, it should seem, did not forbid him telling it to the honour of Christ, but he must not tell it to his own honour. Those whom Christ hath healed and cleansed must know that he hath done it in such a way as for ever excludes boasting. (2.) We must be very thankful, and make a grateful acknowledgment of the divine grace: Go, and offer for thy cleansing. Christ did not require him to give him a fee, but to bring the sacrifice of praise to God; so far was he from using his power to the prejudice of the law of Moses. (3.) We must keep close to our duty; go to the priest, and those that attend him. The man whom Christ had made whole he found in the temple, Joh 5:14. Those who by any affliction have been detained from public ordinances should, when the affliction is removed, attend on them the more diligently, and adhere to them the more constantly.

4. Christ's public serviceableness to men and his private communion with God; these are put together here, to give lustre to each other.

(1.) Though never any had so much pleasure in his retirements as Christ had, yet he was much in a crowd, to do good, Luk 5:15. Though the leper should altogether hold his peace, yet the thing could not be hid, so much the more went there a fame abroad of him. The more he sought to conceal himself under a veil of humility, the more notice did people take of him; for honour is like a shadow, which flees from those that pursue it (for a man to seek his own glory is not glory), but follows those that decline it, and draw from it. The less good men say of themselves, the more will others say of them. But Christ reckoned it a small honour to him that his fame went abroad; it was much more so that hereby multitudes were brought to receive benefit by him. [1.] By his preaching. They came together to hear him, and to receive instruction from him concerning the kingdom of God. [2.] By his miracles. They came to be healed by him of their infirmities; that invited them to come to hear him, confirmed his doctrine, and recommended it.

(2.) Though never any did so much good in public, yet he found time for pious and devout retirements (Luk 5:16): He withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed; not that he needed to avoid either distraction or ostentation, but he would set us an example, who need to order the circumstances of our devotion so as to guard against both. It is likewise our wisdom so to order our affairs as that our public work and our secret work may not intrench upon, nor interfere with, one another. Note, Secret prayer must be performed secretly; and those that have ever so much to do of the best business in this world must keep up constant stated times for it.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk_5:12; Luk_5:15

Behold a man full of leprosy

The leper cleansed

I.

LEPROSY AFFORDS A STRIKING REPRESENTATION OF THE CHARACTER AND CONSEQUENCE OF SIN.

1. This spiritual leprosy has rendered all our race unclean in the sight of God and in the judgment of His holy law.

(1) It shuts us out from His presence,

(2) and from a place among His people.

2. No skill or power of man can cure this disease.

3. This malady, if not healed, will issue in death. And remember, death is not cessation of being, but a state of awful terror, pain, and wretchedness. This is the issue to which sin is bringing its victims.

4. Yet, thank God, our case is not altogether hopeless; there is a cure.

II. OBSERVE THE STEPS TAKEN BY THIS LEPER TO OBTAIN A CURE. Thus we may learn what the disposition is, in which we should endeavour to approach the Saviour, who alone can heal our spiritual leprosy.

1. The first thing I would notice in this lepers conduct is the eagerness and haste with which he ran to Jesus immediately he met Him.

2. His reverential selfabasement. His eagerness in seeking relief did not cause him to forget what was due to the character of Him from whom that relief was sought.

3. The confidence he entertained of Christs power. Have not we far stronger grounds for this than he had? (J. Harding, M. A.)

Two pulpits

I. Observe HOW MANY ANONYMOUS BELIEVERS THERE ARE IN THE BIBLE RECORD WHO GIVE HELP ALL ALONG THE AGES. Here are mentioned multitudes, and among them two persons in particular--a leper and a paralytic. And that is all we know about any individual to whom that eventful day was the beginning of renewed life. No name, no history, no after career; but we suppose that these cripples are in heaven now, and we know that their story has helped thousands to be patient and cheerful on the way thither. It is of little consequence who we are; it matters more what we are.

II. EVEN IN EXTREME HOPELESSNESS OF DISEASE ONE MAY EXHIBIT A SUPREME AND ILLUSTRIOUS FAITH. The cases of these two men were as bad as they could well be; yet did our Lord find in them faith enough to be healed. In the rooms of the American Tract Society, in New York, are still standing two objects which I studied for some meditative years, once a month, at a committee meeting. One is a slight framework of tough wood, a few feet high, so bound together with hasps and hinges as to be taken down and folded in the hand. This was Whitefields travelling-pulpit--the one he used when, denied access to the churches, he harangued the thousands in the open air, on the moors of England. You will think of this modern apostle, lifted up upon the small platform, with the throngs of eager people around him, or hurrying from one field to another, bearing his Bible in his arms; ever on the move, toiling with Herculean energy, and a force like that of a giant. There, in that rude pulpit, is the symbol of all which is active and fiery in dauntless Christian zeal. But now, look again: in the centre of this framework, resting upon the slender platform, where the living preacher used to stand, you will see a chair--a plain, straight-backed, armed, cottage-chair--rough, simple, meagrely cushioned, unvarnished, and stiff. It was the seat in which Elizabeth Wallbridge, the dairymans daughter, sat and coughed and whispered, and from which she went only at her last hour to the couch on which she died. Here again is a pulpit; and it is the symbol of a life quiet and unromantic and hard in all Christian endurance. Every word that invalid woman uttered--every patient night she suffered--was a gospel sermon. In a hundred languages, the life of that servant of God has preached to millions of souls the riches of Christs glory and grace. And of these two pulpits, which is the most honourable is known only to God, who undoubtedly accepted and consecrated them both. The one is suggestive of the ministry of speech, the other of the ministry of submission.

III. AN EXPLANATION OF THE MYSTERY AND THE PURPOSE OF SUFFERING. Pain is a sort of ordination to the Christian ministry. Pure submission is as good as going on a foreign mission. Souls may be won to the Cross by a life on a sick-bed just as well as by a life in a cathedral desk.

IV. Hence, we may easily learn WHAT SHOULD BE THE CHIEF OCCUPATION OF AN INVALID. NO one can preach from any pulpit without the proper measure of study. He must thoughtfully ascertain what will make his efforts most pertinent.

1. He will study doctrine.

2. He will study experience, too.

A month ago I saw a brave soldier of the Cross who had been passing through a fiery history of years with broken health, which had taken him from the pulpit of his usefulness and bidden him look into the grave season after season. He was now only able to stand, and sought a new field. Only yesterday he visited me again; in his feebleness he lay on my couch while he talked. He had just come from putting the wife of his manhood, his patient helper and the stay of his home, in the bedlam of a madhouse. Poor in spirit and poor in purse, broken-hearted and alone, he feared he should break again. Yet there he lay, and spoke hopefully and gently. Oh, that valiant brother, quivering in every muscle, but bold and firm in his trustful courage, preached to me in my study as I know I never preached in my church!

V. Some people recover from long illness; Christ heals them, as He did these men in the story. So there is one more lesson for convalescents: WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO DO WITH THEIR LIVES HEREAFTER? It is a solemn thing to die, said Schiller, but it is a more solemn thing to live. We know the story of the Scotch mother, whose child an eagle stole away; half maddened she saw the bird reach its eyrie far up the cliff. No one could scale the rock. In distraction she prayed all the day. An old sailor climbed after it, and crept down dizzily from the height. There, on her outstretched arms, as she plod with closed eyes, he laid her babe. She rose in majesty of self-denial and took it (as she had been taught in that land) to her minister. She would not kiss it till it had been solemnly dedicated unto God I What shall a man do with a life given back to him? (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)

What has God done to save me?

The divinely-offered key to a right appreciation of Christs spiritual work, even to that which theologians call the Atonement, should be sought by observing how our Lord cleansed the lepers, made the blind to see, and the lame to walk. Let us endeavour to realize how He, whose name is the only name given under heaven among men whereby we may be saved, healed mens diseases, in order that we may understand, so far as it has been revealed, how He saves us from our sins.

I. CONSIDER, FIRST, WHY JESUS HEALED. Not to show that He could, but because He pitied the sufferer. When asked to work miracles to prove His ability to do so, He habitually declined. Every act of healing wrought by Christ was an act of pure compassion. He never healed to attract attention to Himself. He often commanded those He healed to say nothing of their cure.

II. CONSIDER, NEXT, HOW JESUS HEALED.

1. The fact that He had compassion upon them was itself the first step in the cure of many who came to Him. There are diseases in which recovery must begin by regaining lost self-respect. In Christ the most dissolute and disgraced found not only pity, but delicate considerateness. Think, e.g., of His treatment of this leper. We can scarcely conceive what the effect must have been upon a man who had for years been closeted with his loathsome self, or with still more loathsome fellow-sufferers--a man who might not eat with human beings unless the same deadly taint was upon them, nor appear in the street except jangling a bell to give warning of the peril his presence brought; who, if he patted upon the head a carrion dog, it must be instantly killed, lest it should brush against others and defile them, because he had touched it; who, if he saw his mother, his child, his wife approach, must fly or shout, Unclean, unclean! Keep afar! We can scarcely conceive what the effect must have been upon such a man, when he saw Jesus draw nigh. The multitude attending the Saviour falls back as men shrink from the plague; for crowds are always cowards. But the Master approaches, and, paying no heed to the jangling bell, the warning cry, lays His hand upon him. For the first time for years the leper feels the touch of a hand that is not hardened by the awful malady. That touch must have made the leper a new man in heart before the quickened pulse could shoot new life into the decaying limbs.

2. In healing, Christ made effort. One must be blind to read the New Testament, and fancy Christs cures cost Him nothing because He was Divine. It was because He was Divine that they cost Him so much. If you would seek beings incapable of suffering, you must not go up toward the angels and the great white throne, for there you will find the Lamb as it had been slain, but down among the oysters. Do you ask, How did Christ bear mens diseases? Thus: He sighed, He prayed, He lifted them in His arms, He put His hands upon them, He drew them to His bosom, He groaned, He felt His strength go from Him, to heal their bodies. If He had done less, He would not have made manifest the longsuttering God; and His saving mens bodies, His bearing their infirmities and healing their diseases, would have been no illustration of the agony with which He wrestled in Gethsemane for the salvation of their souls.

3. In many instances Jesus employed known remedies in physical healing. He manipulated the palsied tongue and the stopped ears--put His fingers in the ears, touched the tongue. He covered the blind eyes with moist clay, a well-known Egyptian remedy for ophthalmia. He inquired minutely the symptoms of the demoniac boy. He bent over those He healed, He touched them, as careful physicians do. Thus He encouraged, not the breach, but the observance of Gods order. He put honour, by His example, upon the use of scientific remedies. At times He healed by a word, without approaching the sick one. But He seems to have dispensed with remedies only when to employ them was impossible, or when they would have been obviously useless, or when there was a special reason for neglecting them. His example said to those apostles to whom miraculous powers were given, Use the best means; pray God to bless their use; and when you can do nothing more, pray. And that is what every wise and instructed Christian tries to do.

4. In all Christs healings there was conspicuously revealed the authority of absolute power. When He spoke, devils obeyed, the dead heard, the despairing hoped, the lost knew that they were found. (William B. Wright.)

The touch of Christ; or, the power of sympathy

A lady visiting an asylum for friendless orphan children lately watched the little ones go through their daily drill superintended by the matron, a firm, honest woman, to whom her duty had evidently become a mechanical task. One little toddler hurt her foot, and the visitor, who had children of her own, took her on her knee, petted her, made her laugh, and kissed her before she put her down. The other children stared in wonder. What is the matter? Does nobody ever kiss you? asked the astonished visitor. No; that isnt in the rules, maam, was the answer. A gentleman in the same city, who one morning stopped to buy a newspaper from a wizened, shrieking newsboy at the station, found the boy following him every day thereafter, with a wistful face, brushing the spots from his clothes, calling a car for him, &c. Do you know me? he asked at last. The wretched little Arab laughed. No; but you called me my child one day. Id like to do something for you, sir. I thought before that I was nobodys child. Christian men and women are too apt to feel when they subscribe to organized charities that they have done their duty to the great army of homeless, friendless waifs around them. A touch, a kiss, a kind word, may do much towards saving the neglected little one who feels he is nobodys child, teaching it, as no money can do, that we are all children of one Father. When Christ would heal or help the poor outcast, He did not send him money, but He came close and touched him.

A lepers logic

This man apparently had no doubt of our Lords ability to heal him. It was about Christs willingness that he was in doubt. As a rule, men do not naturally associate love and power; they believe in the existence of power far more readily than in that of love. Power seems to create distrust in love.

1. Perhaps because the world is so used to seeing power used arbitrarily and selfishly.

2. Because of the consciousness of sin. It was when Peter saw the Divine power of Christ displayed in the draught of fishes that he said, Depart from me, &c. And in the light of this fact, the incident of our text has a peculiar force; for--

I. THE DISEASE FROM WHICH THIS MAN WAS SUFFERING WAS REPRESENTATIVE OF SIN. It was a decomposition of the vital juices, putrefaction in a living body; hence an image of death. The leper was treated throughout as a sinner. He was a dreadful parable of death. The case of this leper, therefore--

II. GAVE OUR LORD AN OPPORTUNITY, NOT ONLY TO DO A WORK OF MERCY AND LOVE UPON A DISEASED MAN, BUT ALSO TO GIVE A SYMBOLIC TESTIMONY OF HIS WILLINGNESS TO DEAL LOVINGLY AND FORGIVINGLY WITH A SINFUL MAN. Let US see how Christs willingness comes out in this incident.

1. It is not repelled by an imperfect faith.

2. It was shown in Christs express declaration. How striking is the way in which He meets that timid If Thou wilt with I will. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)

If Thou wilt

When the leper said, If Thou wilt, he narrowed his appeal, and directed it to the will of Jesus. His faith in Christs power was very much stronger that his faith in Christs goodness. It contained much that was true, but did not contain much more that was equally true. Christ answered, not according to the imperfection of the appeal, but according to its possibility of being perfected. If Thou wilt is fitting language for us, not because we doubt His goodness, but because we believe in His wisdom. If we learn that it is Gods will that we should suffer and have disappointment, we hope amidst our pain, and know that our disappointment is after all the appointment of the wiser still, and that, whatever may be in the meantime withheld, the answer will be given at last, Be thou clean. (J. Ogmore Davies)

Leprosy

I. PHYSICAL ASPECT.

1. White pustules--eat away flesh--attacking one member after another--at last the bones.

2. Attended with sleeplessness, nightmare, and hopelessness of cure.

3. A living death.

II. SOCIAL ASPECT.

1. Contagion.

2. Lived in a several house, or in bands at a distance from ordinary dwelling.

3. Went with head uncovered, crying, Room for the leper.

III. RELIGIOUS ASPECT.

1. Excommunication--no communion with the commonwealth of Israel.

2. In every way a type of the impenitent sinner. For--

3. Sin is a living death; contagious, and separates from God. (F. Godet, D. D.)

Socially restored, as well as morally

And He charged him to tell no man. Assume that the true state of the case was that Jesus wrought a cure, and left it to the priest to declare the patient cured, and all becomes clear, natural, and Christlike. Two things had to be done to make the benefit complete--the disease had to be healed, whereby the sufferer would be delivered from the physical evil; and it had to be authoritatively declared healed, whereby the sufferer would be delivered from the social disabilities imposed by the law upon lepers. Jesus conferred one-half of the blessing, and He sent the leper to the priest to receive from him the other half. He did this, not in ostentation, or by way of precaution, but chiefly, if not exclusively, out of regard to the mans good, that he might be restored, not only to health, but to society. Hence, also, the injunction of silence. The prevention of unhealthy excitement among the people was only a secondary aim. The primary end concerned the man healed. Jesus wished to prevent him from contenting himself with half the benefit, rejoicing in restored health, and telling everybody he met about it, and neglecting the steps necessary to get himself universally recognized as healed. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)

Show thyself to the priest, &c.

A certificate of the recovery of a leper could only be given at Jerusalem, by a priest, after a lengthened examination, and tedious rites. It will illustrate the bondage of the ceremonial law, as then in force, to describe them. With his heart full of the first joy of a cure so amazing, the leper had to set off to the Temple for the requisite papers to authorize his return, once more, to the roll of Israel. A tent had to be pitched outside the city, and in this the priest examined the leper, cutting off all his hair with the utmost care; for, if only two hairs were left, the ceremony was invalid. Two sparrows had to be brought at this first stage of the cleansing--the one, Go be killed over a small earthen pan of water, into which its blood must drop; the other, after being sprinkled with the blood of its mate--a cedar twig, to which scarlet wool and a piece of hyssop (Psa_51:1) were bound, being used to do so--was let free in such a direction that it should fly to the open country. After the scrutiny by the priest, the leper put on clean clothes, and carried away those he had worn to a running stream to wash them thoroughly, and to cleanse himself by a bath. He could now enter the city, but for seven days more could not enter his own house. On the eighth day he once more submitted to the scissors of the priest, who cut off whatever hair might have grown in the interval. Then followed a second bath; and now he had only carefully to avoid any defilement, so as to be fit to attend in the Temple next morning, and complete his cleansing. The first step in this final purification was to offer three lambs, two males and a female, none of which must be under a year old. Standing at the outer edge of the court of the men, which he was not yet worthy to enter, the leper awaited the longed-for rites. These began by the priest taking one of the male lambs destined to be slain as an atonement for the leper, and handing it to each point of the compass in turn, and by his swinging a vessel of oil on all sides in the same way, as if to present both to the universally-present God. He then led the lamb to the leper, who laid his hands on its head, and gave it over as a sacrifice for his guilt, which he now confessed. It was forthwith killed at the north side of the altar, two priests catching its blood, the one in a vessel, the other in his hand. The first now sprinkled the altar with the blood, while the other went to the leper and anointed his ears, his right thumb, and his right toe with it. The one priest then poured some oil of the lepers offering into the left hand of the other, who, in his turn, dipped his finger seven times into the oil thus held, and sprinkled it as often towards the Holy of Holies. Each part of the leper which before had been touched with the blood was then further anointed with the oil, what remained being stroked on his head. The leper could now enter the mens court, and did so, passing through it to that of the priests. The female lamb was next killed, as a sin-offering, after he had put his hands on its head, part of its blood being smeared on the horns of the altar, while the rest was poured out at the altar-base. The other male lamb was then slain for a burnt-sacrifice; the leper once more laying him hands on its head, and the priests sprinkling its blood on the altar. The fat, and all that was fit for an offering, was now laid on the altar, and burned as a sweet-smelling savour to God. A meal-offering of fine wheat meal and oil ended the whole; a portion being laid on the altar, while the rest, with the two lambs, of which only a small part had been burned, formed the dues of the priest. It was not till all this had been done that the full ceremony of cleansing, or showing himself to the priests, had been carried out, and that the cheering words, Thou art pure, restored the sufferer once more to the rights of citizenship and of intercourse with men. No wonder that even a man like St. Peter, so tenderly minded to his ancestral religion, should speak (Act_15:10) of its requirements as a yoke which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear. (Dr. Geikie.)

The moral of Luk_5:14

Unless we show ourselves to whomsoever is our priest after our healings and cleansings, and after the gift which is commanded us, we are less pure for having been so cleansed, and more diseased for having been so healed. There can be no greater evil than to be prosperous without being prayerful, and strong without being Godlike. You should never finish your successful commercial enterprise with the balancing of your account at the bank. The only duty of your restored vigour is not merely to pay your doctors bill. Your healing and your prospering are from Israels God; you had better tell Him of them, and tell Him without much ado with man by the way. Tell no man until you know how to speak devoutly, and see no man until you have seen God. You must obey with the new strength before you are free in the use of it. (J. Ogmore Davies.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 5:12-16. Behold a man full of leprosy — Of this miracle, see the notes on Mat 8:2-4, and Mar 1:45. And he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed — The original expression, ην υποχωρων εν ταις ερημοις, και προσευχομενος, implies that he frequently did this. Though no one was ever more busily employed than he was, or did so much good in public as he did, yet he found time for pious and devout retirement: not that he needed to avoid either distraction or ostentation; but he meant to set us an example, who have need so to order the circumstances of our devotion as to guard against both. It is likewise our wisdom so to order our affairs, that our public work and our secret devotions may not intrench upon, or interfere with each other. Observe, reader, private prayer must be performed secretly; and how much soever we have to do in the best business in this world, we ought to have stated times for it, and steadily to attend to them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 29. HEALING OF THE LEPER, Luk_5:12-15.

Mat_8:2-4; Mar_1:40-45.

For notes on this miracle see parallel section on Matthew.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk_5:12.—St. Matthew gives a distinct note of time and place when and where this miracle was wrought: it was after the Sermon on the Mount, and as Jesus came down from the mount, that the leper met him. Full of leprosy.—A term of medical accuracy describing the severity of the disease. The leprosy had spread over his whole body, but not in the manner described in Lev_13:13, for he was still unclean (Luk_5:14). It is to be specially noticed that when the disease had attained a certain stage the man was pronounced ceremonially clean, and was allowed to mingle with others. Thou canst make me clean.—His faith was wonderfully strong, as there was only one case of a leper being cleansed by miracle—that of Naaman.

Luk_5:13. Touched him.—A violation of the letter of the Mosaic law, but an action prompted by the higher law of compassion (Mar_1:41).

Luk_5:14. He charged him to tell no man.—The reason of the prohibition probably was our Lord’s unwillingness to allow the attention of the people to be diverted from His teaching to His miracles, and an excitement to be aroused which would interfere with His work. The mischievous effect of disobedience to His commands on this occasion is noted in Mar_1:45. Shew thyself to the priest, etc.—See Lev_14:1-32. For a testimony unto them.—I.e. to the priests that a miracle had taken place.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_5:12-16

“Be clean: be silent.”—The Mosaic law, which banished the leper from camp and city, which compelled him to go with bare head and rent garment, as one who mourned his own death, and to cry, “Unclean, unclean!” so often as he approached the haunts of men, was not a sanitary precaution, but a dramatic religious parable setting forth God’s hatred for the various forms of disease and death which spring from sin. Those afflicted by this disease were doubly burdened—they were the prey of the most loathsome of all physical maladies, and were living emblems of the disastrous effects of sin and of God’s anger against it. Hence we can understand the intense longing with which this leper entreated to be cured, and the compassion of the Saviour for one in his pitiable condition. Note:—

I. The astonishing and sublime faith of the leper.—“Full of leprosy,” he draws near to Jesus with the cry, “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” Jesus had not long begun His public ministry. He had only just delivered the Sermon on the Mount. He had not fully showed Himself unto Israel. The leper could not possibly have heard many of His words, or have seen many of His works. He may have sat on the mountain, apart from the the groups which gathered immediately round Jesus, and may have heard the divinest words which ever fell from human lips. But a great multitude had also heard them. Yet none but the leper seems to have felt that He who spake as never man spake must be more than man—the Lord from heaven. He does not hesitate to address Christ as “Lord”; nay, he worships this “Lord” as God. He kneels down, and falls on his face before Him, as though seeing in Him a divine and ineffable majesty. He has no doubt of Christ’s power to heal a disease which was yet beyond the scope of human power. But he is humble; he refers himself solely to the pure and kindly will of Christ, leaves the decision to Him, and is prepared to accept it, whatever it may be.

II. The compassion of Christ.—“Moved with compassion” (Mar_1:41), “He put forth His hand and touched him.” To touch a leper was to become a leper in the eye of the law and of the priests. So that to heal a leper Christ became a leper, just as to save sinners He who knew no sin became sin for us. What comfort was in that touch, and what promise! For how should Christ take him by the hand and not heal him? how bid him rise, and lift him from the dust, without also raising him from death to life? The touch of Christ was His response to the leper’s worship: the words He speaks respond to the leper’s prayer. “Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.” “I will: be thou clean.” Word answers to word: the response of Christ is a mere echo of the leper’s prayer. And so when we cry, “Make us clean,” God always answers, “Be thou clean.” But that is not always the answer we hear or seem to hear. We often ask God to create a clean heart within us when He can only cleanse our hearts with a torrent of affliction or with bitter tears of repentance.

III. Our Lord’s command.—“To tell no man, and to show himself to the priests.” We should have thought that the man’s first duty was not to hold his peace, but to tell every man he met what a great Saviour he had found, and to urge them to repair to the Healer, in order that they too might be made whole. Perhaps after all, in spite of the opinion of many good men in the present day, it is not every convert’s first and great duty to bear verbal witness to the Saviour who has redeemed him. One of the reasons for this command was, doubtless, that our Lord did not as yet wish to draw on Himself the public attention. It was perilous to the higher objects of His mission that the people of Galilee, ignorant and sensual in their thoughts, should crowd round Him, and try to make Him by force the sort of king He would not be. And, therefore, for a time He set Himself to repress the eager zeal of his converts and disciples. Another and more special reason was, that He wished the leper to discharge a special duty, viz. to bear “a testimony to the priests.” He cared for the absent priests in distant Jerusalem, no less than for the leper’s immediate neighbours in Galilee. As yet the priests were prejudiced against Him. They thought of Him as a zealot, a fanatic, who in cleansing the Temple had swept away corruptions at which they connived, by which they had profited. The testimony He wished to send them could hardly have failed to make a deep and auspicious impression on their minds. Jesus would fain have brought them all to a knowledge of the truth and a better mind. And then, too, His deference to their priestly authority could hardly have failed to propitiate them, and to convince them that He was bent on establishing the law, not on making it void.

IV. The leper’s blended obedience and disobedience to the command.—By lingering on the way and prating to every man he met, it is likely that confused and misleading rumours concerning the miracle would travel before him, and his message would lose much of its value. Till the priests have pronounced him clean, he was a leper in the eye of the law, and had no right to enter the cities and talk with men. If he assumed that he was clean before they pronounced him clean, they would infer that both he and Christ were wanting in respect both to them and to the law. All the grace, all the courtesy and deference, of our Lord’s act would be cast away, and the special value and force of the testimony to the priests would be impaired, if not lost. Obviously, he thought to honour Christ by “much publishing” what He had done. Yet to what good end did he honour Christ with his tongue, while he dishonoured by disobeying Him in his life. Let us take the warning, and be “swift to hear, slow to speak.” Much talk about religion—and especially about the externals of religion, about miracles and proofs, about ceremonies or the affairs of the Church—so far from strengthening the spirit of devotion, is perilously apt to weaken it. There are few who are strong enough to talk as well as to act. A great faith such as this leper’s is not always a patient, submissive faith. No doubt he would have found it much easier to lay down his life for Christ’s sake than to hold his tongue for Christ’s sake, just as Naaman would have found it easier to “do some great thing” than simply to bathe in the Jordan. Yet we need not think too hardly of him because he could not refrain his tongue. The man who can rule that member is a perfect man, for his faith covers his whole life down to its lightest action.—Cox.

The Leper and the Lord.

I. The leper’s cry.—There is a keen sense of misery. This impels him to passionate desire for healing. How this contrasts with the indifference of men as to soul-cleansing!

1. Note his confidence. He was sure of Christ’s power to heal.

2. Note his doubt. He is uncertain as to Christ’s willingness. He has no right to presume on it. Therefore he comes with a modest prayer, breathing entreaty quite as much as doubt. The leper’s doubt is our certainty. We know the principle on which Christ’s mercy flows.

II. The Lord’s answer.—Show Him misery, and He answers with pity. Christ’s touch accompanies His compassion. Those who would heal “lepers” must “touch” them. Christ’s word accompanies His touch. A word of dignity and conscious power, curt, authoritative, imperative.

III. The immediate cure.—“Straightway.” The healing of the leprosy of sin may be equally immediate. Forgiveness may be the act of a moment, though the conquering of sin be gradual and life-long. Do not suspect, but expect, immediate conversions.—Maclaren.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_5:12-16

Luk_5:12. Leprosy is Typical of Sin.

I. In virtue of its repulsiveness.

II. As suggesting impurity or defilement.

III. As leading to isolation or separation.—Laidlaw.

Leprosy a Symbol of Divine Anger.—Leprosy was the most frightful of all diseases, and was regarded by the Jews with special horror, as a symbol of God’s wrath against sin. In Jewish history we read of it as having been directly inflicted by God in punishment of

(1) rebellion (Miriam—Numbers 12),

(2) lying (Gehazi—2Ki_5:27), and

(3) presumption (Uzziah—2Ch_26:19). The sufferings of the leper arose

(1) from the physical malady, which gradually and slowly consumed the body, and could neither be cured nor alleviated by human skill, and

(2) from the ceremonial defilement which it involved, and which both excluded him from the Temple and imposed upon him separation from human society. We read of these unhappy outcasts as gathering together into companies outside towns (2Ki_7:3; Luk_17:12). Leprosy is taken as a symbol of the depth of spiritual defilement and death in Psa_51:7 and Isa_1:6. “Leprosy was nothing short of a living death, a corrupting of all the humours, 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 (Trench).

Leprosy and Death.—The leper was the type of one dead in sin: the same emblems are used in his misery as those of mourning for the dead; the same means of cleansing as for uncleanness in connection with death, and which were never used except on these two occasions.—Alford.

Human Nature typified by this Leper.—Leprosy was to the body what sin is to the soul. Christ heals the leper by His touch. Human nature was typified by this leper. Christ healed us all by His touch. He touched us by taking our nature (Heb_2:16), and thus cleansed us.—Wordsworth.

“Fell on his face.”—By this act of reverence we should not necessarily be led to suppose that this sufferer knew Jesus as a Divine being; but taken in connection with his belief in our Saviour’s omnipotence, and his use of the title “Lord,” it indicates that genuine worship was now offered to Christ and accepted by Him.

“If Thou wilt, Thou canst.”—He was convinced of Christ’s power, but not sure whether He would cleanse this sickness, as evidently this was the first case of leprosy which our Lord had been asked to cure.

“Make me clean.”

I. The prayer of faith.—No doubt of Christ’s ability to heal him. The only question is—Is Christ willing to help him? The prayer shows acquiescence as well as humility.

II. A prayer for physical blessing.—In such things we never can know what is really best for us. Threatened death, or loss of property. Are we to pray to have these averted? We are never sure. We must in such temporal emergencies ever say, “If Thou wilt, Thou canst.”—Miller.

An Exemplary Prayer.—Whether the leper consciously meant it or not, his words, “If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean,” are quite in the spirit of prayer as Christ has taught it to us and exemplified it Himself. It was a prayer for a temporal blessing—the restoration of his health, and is made conditional upon the will of the Lord. So is it with all temporal blessings. We may desire them earnestly and ask for them from God, but leave the bestowal or withholding of them to His gracious will. We accept this as the condition of prayer, because we feel that God in His wisdom knows better than we do what would be best for us. But no such condition attaches to prayers we offer for spiritual blessings, for we can be perfectly sure that all such are good for us. And we see that Christ Himself, in offering the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane to be saved from death (Heb_5:7), left the granting of His request to be determined by the will of God (chap. Luk_22:42). The same recognition of the Divine power to fulfil the prayers of the afflicted, together with an equally calm resignation to the will of God, whatever it may be, are to be found in Dan_3:17-18, and 2Sa_15:25-26.

Christ’s Omnipotence.—Christ’s omnipotence is the first attribute that impresses a spectator of His life and work: His calm bearing and air of authority produce a deep impression; His infinite goodness and compassion can only be fully realised as He becomes better known by us. Both anxiety and faith are manifest in this leper’s words.

Luk_5:13. “Jesus touched him.”

I. None of the Jews would have done this.—He was a leper. They kept lepers afar off, for fear of defilement. Jesus was not afraid of defilement. He could have healed him without a touch. But the man needed the touch of a warm hand to assure him of sympathy. Many wish to do Christian work from a distance—through agents and committees. It is much better to come close to those we wish to benefit. There is a wondrous power in a human touch. You put something of yourself into your gift.

II. The touch left no taint of defilement on Christ.—It left the leprous body clean without making the Healer leprous. There is no danger in touching the lowest outcasts, if you go to them with God’s love in your heart, and yearning to do good. Do not slip your tract under the door and hurry away as if you were afraid or ashamed. Go inside these homes. It will not soil your hand to clasp the hands of the poor. You will both bless and be blessed in the deed.—Miller.

Christ’s Union with our Nature.—When He took upon Him our flesh, He did not only deign to touch us with His hand, but was united to one and the same body with ourselves, that we might be flesh of His flesh.—Calvin.

“Be thou clean.”—“Such an imperative as the tongue of man had never hitherto uttered. Thus has hitherto no prophet healed. Thus He speaks in the might of God who speaks and it is done” (Stier). Contrast with Christ’s words those used by St. Peter in Act_3:6; Act_3:12.

Answers to Prayer.—The leper had known that Christ was able to heal him; now he knew that Christ was willing to do so. In his case there was no delay between the offering of the prayer and the gift of the blessing asked. But in our experience there may be delay in our receiving the blessing we crave. There may lie between the majestic and merciful words “I will” and the visible result sometimes weeks and years. The prayer of faith our Lord hears at once, and He gives the soul assurance of having been heard through the Holy Spirit; but the fulfilment of the prayer He often accomplishes only after a long time, and by the delay He would prepare us for a greater benefit than that for which we asked. In the holy sacraments which appeal to our senses we have Christ stretching forth His hands to touch and cleanse the soul.

Luk_5:14. “To tell no man.”—The soul that has received blessing from God, and is conscious of it, is apt to lose the freshness and beauty of its spiritual life by talking too freely to others of its secret experiences, just as a rose sprinkled with dew loses something of its freshness when it is plucked and passed from hand to hand. We are instinctively slow to speak of the things that touch us deeply, and a certain hardness and coarseness are observable in the character of those who are ready to speak of their deepest spiritual experiences to those who are willing to listen to them. No one can, indeed, receive great spiritual benefits from God without revealing the fact to others, but the unconscious testimony of a humble, devout life is often far more eloquent than words that come too readily from the lips.

“To tell no man.”—Besides the reason suggested above in the Critical Notes, Christ may have intended that the man who had been cleansed should lose no time in proceeding to the Temple—should go on this errand “without saluting any by the way” or pausing to tell about his cure. The reasons for the journey:

1. Obedience to the Mosaic regulations concerning leprosy.

2. The expression of gratitude to God for the benefit received.

3. That the priests might learn, and by their examination of the person cleansed attest, that a mighty work had been wrought by the power of God.

“Testimony.”—The priests and people of Jerusalem were inclined to be hostile towards Christ: the effect of this miracle notified to them should have been to produce faith in Jesus. It was now a testimony to them; it might, in case of persistent unbelief, become a testimony against them.

The King’s Touch.—This King’s touch cures all sorts of diseases. It did so while He walked in a low, despised condition on earth; and it does so still by that virtual Divine power now that He is in heaven. And although His glory there is greater, His compassion is not less than when He was here; and His compassion always was, and is, directed much more to souls diseased than to bodies, as they are better and more valuable.—Leighton.

Superstitious Inferences from the Narrative.—The use made of this passage by Roman Catholic theologians in support of confession to priests and the observance of penance seems farfetched. It is not the priests who heal, but Christ: they merely attest the fact, and their doing so is simply because of their administration of laws partly ceremonial and partly sanitary, which are now abolished. There is no record of powers corresponding to theirs being instituted in connection with the ministers of the Christian religion.

Luk_5:15. Grateful, but disobedient.—St. Mark informs us that the man who had been cleansed disobeyed the strict injunction of Christ and “blazed abroad the matter.” His disobedience was culpable, though natural. His joy at recovering health must have been very intense, and his instinctive feelings must have led him to say, like the psalmist, “Come ye and hear, all ye who fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul” (Psa_66:16). As a result, however, of his impulsive conduct, Christ was incommoded in His work by the multitudes that thronged to Him to be healed of their infirmities.

What the Miracles of Healing were.—Our Lord’s miracles of healing may be regarded—

I. As proofs of His Divine mission, His Messiahship, and His divinity.

II. As a means of disarming prejudice, and thereby securing a favourable reception for His teachings.

III. As encouragements to believing prayer under the ordinary trials of life.

IV. As emblems of the spiritual blessings which He bestows.

V. As examples to be copied by His disciples in all time.—Johnston.

Luk_5:15-16. “Great multitudes came together … and He withdrew Himself.”

I. The first cleansing of a leper was a trumpet-call to all sufferers to flock to the Emmanuel presence.

II. But He, whose praise was on all lips, and who was Himself the holy centre of all these activities and all these mercies, “withdrew … and prayed.” It was not one withdrawal, one wilderness, one prayer (all is plural in the original): the withdrawals were repeated, the wildernesses were more than one, the prayers were habitual. Solitary prayer was His custom. Is it ours? Does not the question humble us? Prayer divided His life with teaching and healing. We too need the desert. It is not safe to have the world always with us.—Vaughan.

The Prayers of Christ.

I. How different from ours!—No confession of sin. That topic was a blank to Him. No need of forgiveness.

II. How real His prayers!—For strength. How often is it said, “He looked up to heaven”! “Father, I thank Thee!” There was no acting, no feigning, in His devotions. He really prayed, and was really answered. Prayer was no luxury, no self-indulgence.

III. How continual His prayers!—He was ever withdrawing Himself from human sight and contact. Do we not need like withdrawings, and more of them?—Ibid.

Luk_5:16. “Withdrew Himself into the wilderness.”—By solitary communion with God and by holy meditation even Jesus was strengthened. It is a proof of the completeness of His assimilation to us that He sought and found help by those means of grace which are at our service. Could any argument for the duty of prayer to God be stronger than this which is afforded by the example of Christ? If He found prayer a necessity of His life, how much more should we!

A Testimony to the Truthfulness of the Gospels.—The insertion of this reference to Christ’s prayers is a testimony to the truthfulness of the Gospels. Had the writers invented the stories of His miraculous powers, and aimed at representing Him as altogether a supernatural being, the ideas of humility and dependence upon God, which prayer implies, would have seemed to them foreign and contradictory to their purpose.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The first Excursion from Capernaum to the surrounding Districts. The Son of Man the Physician of the Sick, the Friend of Publicans, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Lawgiver in the Kingdom of God

Chs. Luk_5:12 to Luk_6:49

a. The Son Of Man, The Physician Of The Sick (Luk_5:12-26)

(Parallels: Mat_8:1-4; Mar_1:40-45.—Paralytic: Mat_9:1-8; Mar_2:1-12.)

12And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy; who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thoucanst make me clean. 13And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: bethou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him. 14And he charged him to tell no man: but go, [said he,] and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thycleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 15But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him [did the report concerning him go abroad]: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him4 of their infirmities.16And [But] he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed [kept himselfsecluded in the solitary places, and gave himself to prayer]. 17And it came to pass on a certain day [on one of the days], as he was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors [teachers] of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town [village] of Galilee, and Judea, and Jerusalem: and the power of the Lord [God of Israel] was present18[in Jesus] to heal them. And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy [who was paralyzed]: and they sought means to bring him in, and to layhim before him. 19And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through thetiling with his couch [pallet] into the midst before Jesus. 20And when he saw theirfaith, he said unto him,5 Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.6 21And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Whocan forgive sins, but God alone? 22But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering 23said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether [Which] is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? 24But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. 25And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay [had been lying],and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26And they were all amazed [utter astonishment seized all], and they glorified God, and were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange [unheard of] things to-day.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

General Remarks.—Mark and Luke relate the healing of the leper immediately after the Saviour’s leaving Capernaum; Matthew, on the other hand, puts it after the Sermon on the Mount. To us the former order appears to be the most exact. A glance at Mat_8:9., compared with Mark and Luke, gives clear indication that in this chapter of the first Gospel many miracles are chrestomathically connected without respect to an exact chronology. As Luke relates (Luk_5:12) that this miracle took place when Jesus was in one of their towns, and Mark (Luk_1:43), that the Saviour drove from Him (ἐξέβαλεν) him whom He had healed (apparently from a house in which the leper had stopped), this of itself proves that this miracle could not have taken place as Matthew appears to indicate to us (Luk_8:7; comp. Luk_5:5), on the way between the Mount of Beatitudes and Capernaum, but after His entrance into an unnamed town. From Mar_1:45 it appears, moreover, that Jesus cannot have returned immediately after the healing of the leper to Capernaum, which we should otherwise conclude from Mat_8:1-13. From all these grounds we adhere to the order of Mark and Luke. Another view will be found represented by Lange, Matthew, p. 150. Audiatur et altera pars.

Luk_5:12. In a certain city.—The name is not given, but from the connection it appears that it was a town in Galilee which the Lord visited on this journey, undertaken (see above) in order to visit Jerusalem at the Feast of Purim, and ending there, and which, therefore, probably lay in the direction of Judæa.

Full of leprosy.—See Lange, Matthew, p. 150, and the there cited authors.

Lord, if Thou wilt.—It may be assumed that the faith of the leper had been aroused and strengthened by the report that had gone ut concerning Jesus (see Luk_4:37), and which may have extended even to his neighborhood.

Luk_5:13. And He.—Mark alone adds: σπλαγχνισθείς. The stretching out of the hand, a token of miraculous power, was at the same time a revelation of condescending love, since He by touching a leper might have been accounted Levitically unclean.

Be thou clean.—“Such an imperative as the tongue of man had hitherto never uttered. Thus has hitherto no prophet healed. Thus speaks only He in the might of God who speaks and it is done.” (Stier.) That here it is no declaring a leper clean by already discovering the beginning of recovery (Von Ammon, Leben Jesu, p. 113), but a miraculous cleansing of a sick man whom the physician Luke designates by πλήρης λέπρας, is self-evident. Why else should silence be imposed upon the man, and to what serves the εὐθέως of Mark?

Luk_5:14. And He charged Him.—According to Mark even in a sharp vehement tone, ἐμβριμησάμενος, from which, however, it by no means follows that the Saviour displayed any resentment against him whom He had delivered, as Von Ammon will have it.—To tell no man.—For the different explanations of this command by earlier and later expositors, see Lange, Matthew, p. 151.—In order to judge rightly here we must take special note of the place where, the time when, and the person on whom, the miracle was done. The Saviour finds Himself now in the heart of Galilee, in the land of longing after freedom, of enthusiasm, of insurrection. The fame of His miracles at Capernaum had undoubtedly intensified expectation in a high degree. The one healed was a man who by his coming and crying to Jesus had already shown great courage and strength of faith, who now was bound to his deliverer by bonds of most intimate gratitude, and who doubtless was thereby lacking in the necessary considerateness needful to apprehend when he should speak of Him or be silent. Here, therefore, a sharp reminder was just in place, and we do not, therefore, at all need to assume that the Saviour gave it from fear of being Himself accounted Levitically unclean, on account of His contact with the leper.

But go … and offer.—A transition from the oratio indirecta to the directa not strange in the usus loquendi of the New Testament. See Winer, § 63, 2. The here-mentioned sacrifice we find prescribed, Lev_14:10; Lev_14:21. The Saviour stoops so low as to permit His miracle to be judged by the priest as to its genuineness and completeness.

Εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς. For the priests themselves, and of what else than of Jesus’ Messianic dignity and redeeming power?

Luk_5:15. But so much the more went there a fame abroad of Him.—The cause Mark gives (Luk_1:45); the delivered one forgets the injunction, 1Sa_15:22. Thankful joy makes silence impossible for him. We will not censure his behavior too severely, for it must have come hard to him not to venture to utter the name of his deliverer. It is noticeable also, that in the Gospels we never find the behavior of those who transgress such a command very severely censured. Yet, certainly he did the cause of Christ no service, since, indeed, on every hand the enthusiasm of the people soon reaches such a height that the Saviour holds it advisable to abide in a desert region, where He devotes Himself to solitary prayer. This latter, moreover, is emphasized with peculiar force by Luke, agreeably to his custom.

Luk_5:17. And it came to pass.—In view of the slender thread by which this narrative is connected with the foregoing one, nothing constrains us to suppose that this miracle took place precisely on this journey and very soon after the former one. The variance mentioned here as existing between the Saviour and the Pharisees, testifies to a later period. (See Lange, Matthew, p. 166.)

Καὶ δύναμις κυρίου. Not to be understood of the Lord Jesus, who, in Luke, is commonly called ὁ κύριος (“the healing power dwelling in Him revealed itself,” Olshausen), but of the Father who operated through the Son. Here also the Divine energy does not manifest itself before faith has shown itself. But while in the foregoing miracle the faith of the sick man himself appears in the fore-ground, here the sufferer is passive, and is, not only in a bodily but also in a spiritual respect, borne by the faith of those who at any cost will bring him before the feet of the Lord. There is nevertheless no ground for the supposition that he himself did not share in this faith. Would he have been brought wholly against his will in so extraordinary a way to the Saviour? On the contrary, we may name him “infirm in limb but fresh in heart, a chief warrior of faith on the litter.” Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. p. 665.

Luk_5:18. Παραλελυμένος. The cessation of nervous activity is a disease that is found everywhere in various forms. Sometimes it attacks the whole body, sometimes only parts of it. “The old authors named the former ἀποπληξία, the latter παράλυσις; but now I see that they call both παράλυσις. Commonly those who are attacked in all their members by severe nervous debility, are quickly taken away; if not, they live, it is true, but seldom recover their health, and for the most part drag on a miserable life, losing, moreover, their memory. The sickness of those who are partially affected, is, it is true, never severe, but often long and almost incurable.” From the physician Corn. Celsus, L. 3. Medicinœ, Luke 27, cited by Hug, “Criticism upon the Life of Jesus by Strauss,” 2. p. 20.

Luk_5:19. They went upon the housetop.—Hug, l. c. p. 22, shows that such a thing could be done without any danger. Comp. the valuable statements of Winer, i. p. 283. Even if in this dwelling there was no stair-case outside, a way could have been made over the roof of another to gain access to the place where Jesus was stopping. A breaking up of the roof right over the place where Jesus was, is the less inconceivable, inasmuch as corpses were often in this way removed from the house of death. See Sepp, ii. p. 160.

Luk_5:20. Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.—Only the most superficial unbelief can from this word, spoken for an entirely definite case, draw the conclusion that the Saviour at all times regarded special suffering as punishment for special sins. Here, however, trouble of conscience appears actually to stand in the way of restoration of the body, and the Saviour, who with unerring glance looks through the outward and inward condition of the sick man, begins in this way to heal his soul.

Luk_5:21. Who is this.—This very wondering of the Pharisees shows plainly that here not only was forgiveness promised but also bestowed, which was exclusively a Divine work.—Who can forgive sins, but.—And, therefore, whoever forgives sins must be infinitely more than man. So think they, much more justly than many later scribes.

Luk_5:23. Which is easier.—Which was easier could be well made out without trouble. Miracles had other prophets also performed, but really to bestow forgiveness, that belonged to the Searcher of hearts alone, or His highest representative on earth. They think, however, that to say that sin is forgiven, is undoubtedly the easiest, particularly so long as inquiry is not made respecting the credentials of the speaker’s authority; that they may not, however, doubt longer of these latter, the Saviour accomplishes the miracle of healing, whereby the blessing of the forgiveness of sins is at once manifested and sealed.

Luk_5:25. Took up that whereon he had been lying.—Suavis locutio, lectulus hominem tulerat, nunc homo lectulum ferebat. Bengel.

Luk_5:26. They glorified God.—An admirable antithesis, the enthusiasm of the people over against the murmuring of the scribes. The dissonances dissolve themselves in harmony, the shadows in light and life.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Were we disposed with a certain school of criticism to make a distinction between more difficult and more easy miracles, the healing of the leper, undoubtedly, would belong to the category of the first. To make, by the utterance of a word, a man full of leprosy so clean that he can freely show himself to the most searching eye, is a deed which deserves a place not only in the sphere of the mirabilia, but also in that of the miracula in the strictest sense of the word. Comp. 2Ki_5:7. It is no wonder that the Saviour mentions this kind of miracle also with special emphasis to the disciples of John the Baptist as proofs of His Divine mission, Luk_7:22. Moreover, like all miracles, this kind of healing especially has a symbolical character. As even in the Old Testament leprosy was an image of sin, see Psa_51:9; Isa_1:6, and elsewhere, so was purification from leprosy a type of the forgiveness of sins. This and the following miracle give us to behold the Saviour as the living image of Him who once said to Israel: I am Jehovah, thy physician, Exo_15:26.

2. As the miracle itself is a symbol of the highest blessing of the New Covenant, the confirmation of the miracle takes place altogether in an Old Testament manner. The Saviour is not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them, Mat_5:17. Moreover, the priests must by the testimony here required of them be hindered from denying afterwards that the man had actually been leprous.

3. The forgiveness of sins bestowed by the Saviour on the paralytic is an unequivocal proof of His celestial dignity. With entire justice, therefore, does Bengel say: cœlestem ortum hic sermo sapit. But it may justly be called incomprehensible that sometimes men have imagined themselves to have found in the bestowal of this benefit of the Saviour before His death an argument against the indispensable necessity and power of His atoning death. Was not then, considered from the Divine point of view, the sacrifice of perfect obedience, an eternal deed? And could He who was to bring it, not bestow the highest gift of grace on a sinner even before this deed was as yet in the fulness of time perfected?

4. The connection between natural and moral evil is undoubtedly placed by the Lord here, but by no means everywhere in a similar manner, in the foreground. Before the assertion was ventured that Jesus was in this respect as much in error as the Jews with their limited notions, it would have been better first to take more account of declarations such as Luk_13:5; Joh_9:8. Is the Saviour to be regarded as standing below the author of the book of Job, or below Moses, who undoubtedly represents misfortunes of the people as punishments of the people (Deuteronomy 28), but by no means concludes from personal misfortune as to personal transgression? We must rather assume here an especially immediate connection existing between sin and sickness, which, it is true, was not known to the superficial view of the beholder, but doubtless well known to the Searcher of hearts. [The disease was certainly one which is one of the most frequent consequences of sinful profligacy.—C. C. S.] Besides, it might yet be a question, which stood the lower, the Jews who considered misfortune and punishment ordinarily as synonymous words, or so many nominal Christians who will never behold in their own fate a direct retribution of sinful action.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The cleansing of the leper, the image of the redemption of the sinner.—How the sinner stands with respect to the Lord and the Lord with respect to the sinner: 1. a. With an incurable malady, b. with awakened faith, c. with eager entreaty; 2, a. with a mighty arm, b. with a compassionate heart, c. with an earnest injunction.—Whither Jesus comes there He finds wretchedness; where Jesus finds wretchedness He is ready for healing.—Deep misery, great grace, imperfect thankfulness.—The prayer of faith; how sweetly it sounds; how much it desires; how richly it rewards.—The healing of the leper a revelation of the compassionate love, of the boundless might, of the adorable wisdom of the Saviour.—The redeemed of the Lord called: 1. To show himself, 2. to offer sacrifice, 3. to be silent when the Lord will not have him speak.—The injunction of silence which the Saviour here and elsewhere imposes on the healed: 1. Seemingly strange, 2. fully explicable, 3. most momentous: a. for our knowledge, b. for our faith, c. for our following the Lord.—Offer unto God thanksgiving and pay thy vows unto the Most High, Psa_50:14.—Obedience is better than sacrifice, 1Sa_15:22.—Un-enjoined testifying of Christ: 1. Whence it comes, 2. whither it leads.—Solitary prayer the best refreshment, consolation, strengthening, as for the Saviour so also for all His people.—The healing of the paralytic a proof of the truth of Simeon’s prophecy, Luk_2:34 : Christ to the one a Rock of hope, to the other a Stone of stumbling.—The great impulse to hear the word of God why: 1. Then often so great, 2. now often so slight?—The Saviour’s miraculous cures the revelation of a heavenly might.—No better service of friendship than to bring the sick to Christ.—Access to Jesus never barred.—Jesus the Searcher of hearts: 1. Over against praying faith, 2. over against murmuring unbelief.—The greatest message of joy for the sinner.—The connection between sin and sickness.—The first accusation of blasphemy in the public life of the Saviour: 1. Its occasion, 2. its injustice, 3. its result.—Two things, both alike impossible with man, both alike easy for the Son of Man.—The authority of the Son of Man upon earth: 1. An extended, 2. a beneficent, 3. a vehemently disputed, 4. a triumphantly vindicated authority.—The mournful coming to Jesus, the believing waiting on Jesus, the God-glorifying return from Jesus.—The result of this miracle, a confirmation of the old word of the sacred poet, Psa_2:11; Psa_12:1. Serve the Lord with fear, 2. rejoice with trembling, 3. kiss the Son—blessed are all they that trust in Him!—The benefit of the forgiveness of sins: 1. Missed with pain, 2. sought with earnest desire, 3. graciously bestowed, 4. unbelievingly denied, 5. convincingly sealed, 6. thankfully enjoyed.—Jesus: 1. The Searcher of hearts, 2. the Physician of the sick, 3. the Bestower of eternal life.

Starke (on the first miracle):—Temporal things we pray for with conditions, but spiritual things, for the most part, wholly without conditions.—Thus does it often fare with us that we doubt not, to be sure, of the might of God, but do doubt somewhat of His will, 2Ch_20:6; 2Ch_20:12.—It is to the almighty Saviour easy to help by a word.—Majus:—A faithful servant of Christ must seek neither honor or renown with his works.—Quesnel:—Sometimes, after Jesus’ example, we must prefer to the exercise of Christian love, solitude and prayer.—(On the second) Quesnel:—The faith, the prayer, and the love of pious people often help towards the conversion of the sinner.—It must needs come inwardly and outwardly to a thorough breaking through all hinderances to Jesus.—Majus:—The faith of another may well in some respects be serviceable to one, but to the forgiveness of sins he can give no help at all.—Brentius:—God gives us the most useful and best things always first.—A healthy soul in a healthy body a great benefit.—Hedinger:—Respecting Divine things and works partisan reason judges as the blind of color.—People of over-brisk wits must be met in love, and with speeches spiced with salt, Col_4:6.—Canstein:—The enemies of Christ must often against their purpose further the honor of Christ.

Heubner:—Jesus, the Pure, is infected by no impurity.—What would avail us an impotent even though benevolent Saviour?—The healing of the paralytic: 1. Christ begins it in the soul, 2. vindicates it against suspicious thoughts, 3. accomplishes it victoriously and gloriously on the body of the man.—Christ’s power to forgive sins: 1. The nature of this power (Luk_5:20), 2. its certainty (Luk_5:22-24), 3. its importance (Luk_5:26).—Rieger:—Jesus, a Saviour after the heart of the men who have begun to be heartily disposed towards God.—Steinhofer:—Three states of the soul in reference to the forgiveness of sins: 1. When one seeks it, 2. when one believes it, 3. when one has it.—Ranke:—Happy he who seeks his help with Christ, for: 1. For His love there is no man too mean, 2. for His power there is no misery too great, 3. the condition of His help is for no one too hard.—Rautenberg:—Pray for One another: 1. How this is done, 2. what fruit this brings forth.—Otto:—The leper: 1. The sufferer’s lamentation; he entreats: a. believingly, b. patiently. 2. The Physician’s gracious promise; He utters: a. words of comfort and promise, b. words of might and command.—Fuchs:—The paralytic; theme: the blessing of sickness: it leads: 1. To knowledge of ourselves, 2. to the Physician of our souls, 3. to the exercise of Christian virtues, 4. to the praise of the Lord.—Brastberger:—Forgiveness of sins, the source of all comfort.—Ahlfeld:—1. The sick man, 2. his friends, 3. the Physician.—Bachmann:—Christ’s power to forgive sins: 1. A most comforting, 2. a variously misapprehended, 3. an irresistibly attested, 4. a much to be glorified power.—Stier:—Concerning the comfort of the forgiveness of sins: 1. How much we all need it, 2. how Christ has it ready for us all, 3. how each one may receive for himself this comfort.—J. P. Hasebroek:—We have seen strange things to-day. A glance: 1. At the subject, 2. the means, 3. the fruit of true spiritual recovery, of which this miracle is a type.

Footnotes:

[4]Luk_5:15.—Rec.: ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ. To be omitted, as by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Meyer, [Alford,] &c, not only on account of authorities of weight, but also of its uncertain position [om. B., Sin.].

[5]Luk_5:20.—Rec.: αὐτῷ, apparently only a gloss [om. B., Sin.].

[6] Ἀφέωνται. The old grammarians are not at one as to the explanation of this form. … The correctest view explains it as perf. pass. of the Doric form, related to the perf. act. ἀφέωκα. Winer.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Healing of a Leper and of a Paralytic. Luk 5:12-26

Healing a leper:

v. 12. And it came to pass when He was in a certain city, behold, a man full of leprosy, who, seeing Jesus, fell on his face and besought Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.

v. 13. And He put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

v. 14. And He charged him to tell no man; but go and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

v. 15. But so much the more went there a fame abroad of Him; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.

Luke does not, as a rule, tell the Gospel-stories in the order in which they happened, except in a general way. This usually, as here, appears from the words with which he introduces the story. Jesus was at one time in one of the little cities of Galilee, where there was a man full of leprosy. The loathsome disease had reached its full virulence in his case, and he was suffering in proportion. When this poor man saw Jesus, he fell down upon his face in the attitude of abject supplication, as an unworthy slave might ask a favor of a mighty king. His earnest prayer was a model for all times. For, since he is asking for a temporal gift, for a thing concerning this life only, he makes no demand, he sets no time, but places the fulfillment entirely in the hands of Jesus: Lord, if Thou wilt. Thou canst make me clean. It is a prayer in the form of a statement, the strongest possible form. It throws the burden upon the Lord and pleads more effectively than a delineation of symptoms could possibly do. And since the matter was left to the will of the Lord, the Lord chooses to exercise that will and the almighty power behind that will in hearing the prayer of the sick man: I will, be thou cleansed. And the almighty words had the effect that the Lord intended: the leprosy immediately departed from the man. Jesus then gave him the earnest order not to speak of the matter, but above all to hurry to the priest, in order that the latter might make the proper declaration of cleanness, and accept the sacrifices which were prescribed at such a time, Lev 14:1-57. The Lord did not want the matter published abroad, in order that the news might not reach the priest before the former leper arrived and a spiteful examination refused to declare him clean. And Jesus at all times wanted the people to understand that the miracles were only secondary manifestations of His ministry, His chief work being the preaching of the Gospel. But the word concerning this miracle done to the leper went out all the more, with the usual result. Great crowds gathered to hear Him and also to be healed of their sicknesses, the latter reason being the more urgent for their coming to Jesus. But Jesus took the first opportunity that presented itself, and retired for prayer and spiritual communion:

v. 16. And He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed.

He asked and received strength from His heavenly Father to carry on His work according to the divine will. This constant communication with God was the secret of His being able to perform so much work; a hint that might well be applied in the case of all His followers.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 13:2-4; Mar 1:40-45; & Luk 5:12-16. Mark: “And a leper comes to Him, calling upon Him, and kneeling down before Him, and saying to Him, If You may wish, You are able to cleanse me. And Jesus being moved with compassion, and reaching forth His hand, touched him, and says to him, I am willing; be thou cleansed.” The Greek for “be thou cleansed,” is katristheti, which is in the imperative mode, passive voice, and aorist tense. Therefore it literally means, “Be thou completely cleansed instantaneously;” “Be thou clean,” E.V., is too weak a translation of the word our Savior spoke.

Luke says this man was “full of leprosy,” in contradistinction to a case of leprosy occupying a part of the body. No wonder he was exceedingly importunate, as he was leprous all over.

“And charging him, He immediately sent him away, and says to him, See that you tell nothing to any one; but go, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.” The lepers in Palestine still have their separate quarters in the cities, dwelling to themselves, as in the days of Christ. I met them at Shechem and at Jerusalem. The popular idea that the separation is because of the contagion of the disease is utterly incorrect. It is not contagious. If it were, what would become of the priests, who, in the discharge of their official duties, are in constant contact with it? See the law of the leper (Leviticus 14), and you will find that when the priest made the examination, and pronounced it leprosy, the victim must go away from society, and live in the leprous quarters. It was well understood among the Jews that leprosy was utterly incurable by human agency. Hence when God, the only Healer, had mercy on the poor leper, he must go to the priest, submit to his diagnosis, and receive from him a certificate of healing, before he was allowed to go into society. While leprosy is not contagious, and not so understood where it is prevalent this day — as I came in contact with them, laying a coin on each arm reached forth in supplication, both hands having been eaten off by leprosy — yet it is incorrigibly hereditary, from the fact that, like scrofula, it is a blood trouble, affecting every corpuscle of blood in the system, so that it is invariably transmitted to the succeeding generation. Leprosy is a most vivid emblem of inbred sin, which is not necessarily contagious, but inevitably hereditary. Infants born of leprous parents are bright and sprightly, exhibiting no signs of the disease. Yet, soon or late, it is certain to make its appearance, if they do not meet the Healer. So infants born into the world have no actual sin, but have inherited the sinward tendency, which, if not eradicated by grace, will certainly develop into actual transgression. The bite of the rattlesnake when a little thing, soon after evacuating the egg, will not hurt you. But the time will come when he will poison and kill you. While the leprous taint in the blood emblematizes inbred sin in the irresponsible infant, the eruptions on the body represent actual transgressions. e what a striking symbol, not only of inbred sin, but the awful spiritual death which supervenes! You have leprosy in your blood, and feel vigorous and healthy. Before you are aware, it develops on your finger and it drops off; continues its work of destruction till your hand drops off at the wrist. It begins on your face; takes away your nose, and then an eye; reaches your brain, and, fortunately, death comes suddenly to your relief. The reason why the law of Moses required them to live separate was because of the awful loathsomeness of the disease indescribable, horrific, living death! Leprosy, fortunately for us, is not common in America, though I have seen cases of it; but quite common in the Bible lands, where I met them during both of my tours, thus, like everything else in those countries, so wonderfully corroborating the Bible.

“And He, having gone out, began to proclaim everything, and spread abroad the history, so that He was no longer able to come publicly into the city; but was off in desert places, and they continued to come to Him from all parts.” Luke: “But He was away in the deserts, and praying.” Why was Jesus so much opposed to their publishing His mighty works, and why could He not come into the city at this time, but must hide away in the deserts — i.e., in an uninhabited region of country? From time immemorial, the Jews had all understood that Christ was to be their King. At that time the nation was in deep distress, because thirty years had elapsed since the death of Herod the Great, and during which they had no king, but had been reduced to a Roman province, and were ruled by a proconsul sent out from Rome, thus their liberties gone and their people subject to the Gentiles. Hence, throughout the Hebrew nation, there was a deep sigh, and a perpetual cry to God to break the Roman yoke, restore to them their independence, and give them a king of Hebrew blood to reign over them. These wonderful miracles, when published abroad, raised the people on tiptoe to crown Him King of the Jews. In that case the Roman authorities would have killed Him before He had completed the work He Came to do.

Hence, in order to prevent His own coronation, and the sudden outbreak of a terrible, bloody war, which would have interrupted His ministry and expedited His death, He found it necessary to avoid the multitude. These intervals, which He spent off in the desert in communion with His Father, were wonderful times of refreshing to His spirit, and invigoration for the arduous work and terrible ordeals which awaited him.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:12 an advanced case of leprosy: “Leprosy” does not refer specifically to the modern disease known as leprosy (Hansen’s disease), but to a variety of skin disorders. To avoid contagion, lepers were outcasts in the ancient world, required to live on the margins of society. The law of Moses set guidelines for the diagnosis and quarantine of leprosy (Lev 13–14).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 5:12. [Ἐν μιᾷ τῶν πόλεων, in one of the cities) See Gnom. on ch. Luk 1:1, Obs. 2, Not. marg. E. B. To wit, the particle ἐν, in, is not in this passage to be too closely pressed, as if it would not admit of the meeting with the leper having occurred in the neighbourhood of the city; comp. Mat 8:1-2. This seems to be the very reason of the Transposition, that Mark, whom Luke follows, chose to tell first the miracles wrought within the city, ch. Luk 1:21, etc.—Harm., p. 253.—πλήρης λέπρας, full of leprosy) Among those who hold that the leper mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew is a different one, there are not wanting some who unduly wrest this phrase, which is used by Luke alone, and not by Mark also, as if it implied that the leper mentioned by Mark and Luke was clean according to the law (where the leprosy covered all the flesh), Lev 13:13; Lev 13:17, and therefore had the power of entering the city. But still he is sent away to the priest: therefore he had not before this shown himself to the priest; wherefore he must have been separate, as one accounted impure, even though the leprosy was very full upon him.—Harm., p. 253.—ἐπὶ πρόσωπον, on his face) No common humiliation.—V. g.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_5:12-14. See on Mat_8:1-4; Mar_1:40-44. According to Matthew, immediately after the Sermon on the Mount; in Luke (comp. Mark), without any definite statement of place or time, as a fragment of the evangelic tradition.

ἐγένετο … καί] as Luk_2:15; Mat_9:10. Καί is not nempe (Fritzsche, ad Matth. p. 341), but, in accordance with Hebraic simplicity, the and, which, after the preparatory and yet indefinite ἐγένετο, leads the narrative farther on. The narrator, by means of ἐγένετο together with a note of time, first calls attention to the introduction of a fact, and then, in violation of ordinary syntax, he brings in afterwards what occurred by the word καί.

ἐν μιᾷ τ. πόλ.] according to Mark: in a house.

πλήρης] a high degree of the sickness.

Luk_5:14. καὶ αὐτός] and He, on His part.

ἀπελθὼν κ.τ.λ.] a transition to the oratio directa. See on Mar_6:8.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 5:12-16 . The leper (Mat 8:1-4 , Mar 1:40-45 ).

Luk 5:12 . ἐν μιᾷ τ . π . for ἔν τινι , one of the cities or towns of Galilee in which Jesus had been preaching (Mar 1:39 Luk 4:44 ). καὶ ἰδοὺ , after καὶ ἐγένετο , very Hebraistic. πλήρης λέπρας , full of leprosy ( λεπρὸς in parallels). Note here again the desire to magnify the miracle. ἐὰν θέλῃς , etc., the man’s words the same in all three narratives. His doubt was as to the will not the power to heal.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The Lepers: Luk 5:12-14.

In Mark (Mar 1:40), as in Luke, the cure of the lepers took place during a preaching tour. Matthew connects this miracle with the Sermon on the Mount; it is as He comes down from the hill that Jesus meets and heals the leper (Luk 8:1 et seq.). This latter detail is so precise, that it is natural to give Matthew the preference here, rather than say, with Holtzmann, that Matthew wanted to fill up the return from the mountain to the city with it.

Leprosy was in every point of view a most frightful malady. 1 st. In its physical aspects it was a whitish pustule, eating away the flesh, attacking member after member, and at last eating away the very bones; it was attended with burning fever, sleeplessness, and nightmare, without scarcely the slightest hope of cure. Such were its physical characteristics; it was a living death. 2 d. In the social point of view, in consequence of the excessively contagious nature of his malady, the leper was separated from his family, and from intercourse with men, and had no other company than that of others as unhappy as himself. Lepers ordinarily lived in bands, at a certain distance from human habitations (2Ki 7:3; Luk 17:12). Their food was deposited for them in convenient places. They went with their head uncovered, and their chin wrapped up; and on the approach of any persons whom they met, they had to announce themselves as lepers. 3 d. In the religious point of view, the leper was Levitically unclean, and consequently excommunicate. His malady was considered a direct chastisement from God. In the very rare case of a cure, he was only restored to the theocratic community on an official declaration of the priest, and after offering the sacrifice prescribed by the law (Leviticus 13, 14, and the tract Negaïm in the Talmud).

The Greek expression is: And behold, a man! There is not a verb even. His approach was not seen; it has all the effect of an apparition. This dramatic form reproduces the impression made on those who witnessed the scene; in fact, it was only by a kind of surprise, and as it were by stealth, that a leper could have succeeded in approaching so near. The construction of the 12th verse (καὶ ἐγένετο...καὶ...καὶ) is Hebraistic, and proves an Aramaean document. There is nothing like it in the other Syn.; the eye-witness discovers himself in every feature of Luke’s narrative. The diseased man was full of leprosy; that is to say, his countenance was lividly white, as is the case when the malady has reached an advanced stage. The unhappy man looks for Jesus in the crowd, and having discovered Him (ἰδών) he rushes towards Him; the moment he recognises Him, he is at His feet. Luke says, falling on his face; Mark, kneeling down; Matthew, he worshipped. Would not these variations in terms be puerile if this were a case of copying, or of a derivation from a common source? The dialogue is identical in the three narratives; it was expressed in the tradition in a fixed form, while the historical details were reproduced with greater freedom.

All three evangelists say cleanse instead of heal, on account of the notion of uncleanness attached to this malady. In the words, if Thou wilt, Thou canst, there is at once deep anguish and great faith. Other sick persons had been cured,—this the leper knew,—hence his faith; but he was probably the first man afflicted with his particular malady that succeeded in reaching Jesus and entreating His aid,—hence his anxiety. The older rationalism used to explain this request in this way: “Thou canst, as Messiah, pronounce me clean.” According to this explanation, the diseased person, already in the way of being cured naturally, simply asked Jesus to verify the cure and pronounce him clean, in order that he might be spared a costly and troublesome journey to Jerusalem. But for the term καθαρίζειν, to purify, comp. Luk 7:22, Mat 10:8, where the simply declarative sense is impossible; and as to the context, Strauss has already shown that it comports just as little with this feeble meaning. After the words, be thou clean (pronounced pure), these, and he was cleansed (pronounced pure), would be nothing but absurd tautology.

Mark, who takes pleasure in portraying the feelings of Jesus, expresses the deep compassion with which He was moved by this spectacle (σπλαγχνισθείς). The three narratives concur in one detail, which must have deeply impressed those who saw it, and which, for this reason, was indelibly imprinted on the tradition: He put forth His hand, and touched him. Leprosy was so contagious, that this courageous act excited the liveliest emotion in the crowd. Throughout the whole course of His life, Jesus confronted the touch of our impure nature in a similar manner. — His answer is identical in the three narratives; but the result is variously expressed. Matthew says: his leprosy was cleansed, regarding it from a ceremonial point of view. Luke simply says: the leprosy departed from him, looking at it from a human point of view. Mark combines the two forms. This is one of the passages on which they rely who make Mark a compiler from the other two; but if Mark was anxious to adhere so slavishly to the minutest expressions of his predecessors, to the point even of reproducing them without any object, how are we to explain the serious and important modifications which in so many other cases he introduced into their narratives, and the considerable omissions which he is continually making of the substance of what they relate? The fact is, that there were two sides to this cure, as to the malady itself, the physical and the religious; and Mark combines them, whilst the other two appear to take one or the other.

The prohibition which Jesus lays on the leper appears in Luk 5:14, in the form of indirect discourse; but in relating the injunction which follows it, Luke passes to the direct form. This form is peculiar to his narrative. Luke and Matthew omit the threat with which Jesus, according to Mark, accompanied this injunction (ἐμβριμησάμενος). What was the intention of Jesus? The cure having been public, He could not prevent the report of it from being spread abroad. This is true; but He wanted to do all in His power to diminish its fame, and not give a useless impetus to the popular excitement produced by the report of His miracles. Comp. Luk 8:56; Mat 9:30; Mat 12:16; Mar 1:34; Mar 3:12; Mar 5:43; Mar 7:36; Mar 8:26. All these passages forbid our seeking a particular cause for the prohibition He lays on the leper; such as a fear that the priests, having had notice of his cure before his reaching them, would refuse to acknowledge it; or that they would pronounce Jesus unclean for having touched him; or that the sick man would lose the serious impressions which he had received; or that he would allow himself to be deterred from the duty of offering the sacrifice.

Jesus said, “Show thyself,” because the person is here the convincing proof. In Luke we read, according as Moses...; in Matthew, the gift which Moses...; in Mark, the things which Moses...Most puerile changes, if they were designed!

What is the testimony contained in this sacrifice, and to whom is it addressed? According to Bleek, the word them would refer to the people, who are to be apprised that every one may henceforth renew his former relations with the leper. But is not the term testimony too weighty for this meaning? Gerlach refers the pronoun them to the priests: in order that thou, by thy cure, mayest be a witness to them of my almightiness; but according to the text, the testimony consists not in the cure being verified, but in the sacrifice being offered. The word them does indeed refer to the priests, who are all represented by the one who will verify the cure; but the testimony respects Jesus Himself, and His sentiments in regard to the law. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus repels the charge already preferred against Him of despising the law (Mat 5:17: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law”). It is to His respect, therefore, for the Mosaic legislation, that this offering will testify to the priests. During His earthly career, Jesus never dispensed His people from the obligation to obey the prescriptions of the law; and it is an error to regard Him as having, under certain circumstances, set aside the law of the Sabbath as far as He Himself was concerned. He only transgressed the arbitrary enactments with which Pharisaism had surrounded it.

We see by these remarkable words that Jesus had already become an object of suspicion and serious charges at Jerusalem. This state of things is explained by the narrative of the fourth Gospel, where, from the 2d chapter, we see Jesus exposed to the animosity of the dominant party, and accords to Joh 4:1. He is even obliged to leave Judaea in order that their unfavourable impressions may not be aggravated before the time. In chap. 5, which describes a fresh visit to Jerusalem (for the feast of Purim), the conflict thus prepared breaks forth with violence, and Jesus is obliged to testify solemnly His respect for this Moses, who will be the Jews’ accuser, and not His (Joh 5:45-47). This is just the state of things with which the passage we are explaining agrees, as well as all the facts which are the sequel of it. Notwithstanding apparent discrepancies between the Syn. and John, a substantial similarity prevails between them, which proves that both forms of narrative rest on a basis of historic reality.

The leper, according to Mark, did not obey the injunction of Jesus; and this disobedience served to increase that concourse of sick persons which Jesus endeavoured to lessen.

This cure is a difficulty for Keim. A purely moral influence may calm a fever (Luk 4:39), or restore a frenzied man to his senses (Luk 4:31 et seq.); but it cannot purify vitiated blood, and cleanse a body covered with pustules. Keim here resorts to what is substantially the explanation of Paulus. The leper already cured simply desired to be pronounced clean by authorized lips, that he might not have to go to Jerusalem. It must be acknowledged, on this view of the matter, that the three narratives (Matthew as well as Luke and Mark, whatever Keim may say about it) are completely falsified by the legend. Then how came it to enter into the mind of this man to substitute Jesus for a priest? How could Jesus have accepted such an office? Having accepted it, why should He have sent the afflicted man to Jerusalem? Further, for what reason did He impose silence upon him, and enforce it with threats? And what could the man have had to publish abroad, of sufficient importance to attract the crowd of people described Mar 1:45?

Holtzmann (p. 432) concludes, from the words ἐξέβαλεν and ἐξελθών, literally, He cast him out, and having gone forth (Mar 1:43; Mar 1:45), that according to Mark this cure took place in a house, which agrees very well with the leper being prohibited from making it known; and that consequently the other two Syn. are in error in making it take place in public,

Luke in a city, Matthew on the road from the mountain to Capernaum (Luk 8:1). He draws great exegetical inferences from this. But when it is said in Mark (Mar 1:12) that the Spirit drove out (ἐκβάλλει) Jesus into the wilderness, does this mean out of a house? And as to the verb ἐξέρχεσθαι, is it not frequently used in a broad sense: to go out of the midst of that in which one happens to be (here: the circle formed around Jesus)? Comp. Mar 6:34 (Mat 14:14), Luk 6:12; Joh 1:44, etc. A leper would hardly have been able to make his way into a house. His taking them by surprise in the way he did could scarcely have happened except in the open country; and, as we have seen, the prohibition of Jesus can easily be explained, taking this view of the incident. The critical consequences of Holtzmann, therefore, have no substantial basis.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Christ by healing the leper with his only touch, and sending him to the Priest, witnesseth that it is he, through whom and by whom, apprehended by faith, all we which are unclean, according to the Law, by the witness of God himself, are pronounced to be pure and clean.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 12. A certain city] This was some city of Galilee; probably Chorazin or Bethsaida.

A man full of leprosy] See this disease, and the cure, largely explained on Mt 8:2-4; and see it particularly applied to the use of public preaching, Mr 1:40, &c. See also the notes on Lev. 13, and 14. Le 13:1ff, Le 14:1ff

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(12-16) A man full of leprosy.—See Notes on Mat_8:2-4. The precise description is peculiar to, and characteristic of, St. Luke, as is also the man’s “falling on his face.” The latter is interesting as explaining the more general “worshipping” of St. Mark.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12–16. The Healing of a Leper

12. a certain city] Probably the village of Hattîn, for we learn from St Matthew’s definite notice that this incident took place on descending from the Mount of Beatitudes (Kurn Hattîn), see Mat_8:1-4; Mar_1:40-45. Hence chronologically the call of Matthew, the choosing of the Twelve, and the Sermon on the Mount probably intervene between this incident and the last.

a man full of leprosy] The hideous and hopeless nature of this disease—which is nothing short of a foul decay, arising from the total corruption of the blood—has been too often described to need further notice. See Leviticus 13, 14. It was a living death, as indicated by bare head, rent clothes, and covered lip. In the middle ages, a man seized with leprosy was “clothed in a shroud, and the masses of the dead sung over him.” In its horrible repulsiveness it is the Gospel type of Sin. The expression “full of” implies the rapid development and horror of the disease; when the man’s whole body was covered with the whiteness, he was allowed to mingle with others as clean (Lev_13:13).

fell on his face] We get the full picture by combining the three Evangelists. We then see that he came with passionate entreaties, flinging himself on his knees, and worshipping, and finally in his agony prostrating himself on his face.

thou canst make me clean] The faith of this poor leper must have been intense, for hitherto there had been but one instance of a leper cleansed by miracle (Luk_4:27; 2 Kings 5).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city,.... Or near it, hard by it, very probably Capernaum; Mat 8:1 Behold a man full of leprosy; a disease to which the Jews were very incident, and concerning which, many laws and rules are given, in Lev 13:1. The symptoms of the ancient "lepra", as laid down by Galen, Aretaeus, Pontanus, Aegineta, Cardan, Varanda, Gordon, Pharaeus, and others, are as follow. The patient's voice is hoarse, and comes rather through the nose than the mouth; the blood full of little white shining bodies, like groins of millet, which upon filtration, separate themselves from it; the serum is scabious, and destitute of its natural humidity, insomuch that salt applied to it, does not dissolve; it is so dry, that vinegar poured on it boils; and is so strongly bound together by little imperceptible threads, that calcined lead thrown into it swims. The face resembles a coal half extinct, unctuous, shining, and bloated, with frequent hard knobs, green at bottom, and white at top. The hair is short, stiff, and brinded; and not to be torn off, without bringing away, some of the rotten flesh, to which it adheres; if it grows again, either on the head or chin, it is always white: athwart the forehead, run large wrinkles or furrows, from one temple to the other; the eyes red and inflamed, and shine like those of a cat; the ears swollen and red, eaten with ulcers towards the bottom, and encompassed with little glands; the nose sunk, because of the rotting of the cartilage; the tongue dry and black, swollen, ulcerated, divided with furrows, and spotted with grains of white; the skin covered with ulcers, that die and revive on each other, or with white spots, or scales like a fish; it is rough and insensible, and when cut, instead of blood, yields a sanious liquor: it arrives in time to such a degree of insensibility, that the wrist, feet, or even the large tendon, may be pierced with a needle, without the patient's feeling any pain; at last the nose, fingers, toes, and even privy members, fall off entire; and by a death peculiar to each of them, anticipate that of the patient: it is added, that the body is so hot, that a fresh apple held in the hand an hour, will be dried and wrinkled, as if exposed to the sun for a week (e). Think now what a miserable deplorable object this man was, said to be full of it. Between this disease and sin, there is a very great likeness. This disease is a very filthy one, and of a defiling nature, by the ceremonial law; under which it was considered rather as an uncleanness, than as a disease; the person attended with it was pronounced unclean by the priest, and was put out of the camp, and out of the cities and walled towns, that he might not defile others; and was obliged to put a covering on his upper lip, and cry Unclean, Unclean, to acknowledge his pollution, and that others might shun him: all mankind, by reason of sin, are by the Lord pronounced filthy; and by their evil actions, not only defile themselves, but others; evil communications corrupt good manners; and when they are made sensible, freely own that their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and they themselves as an unclean thing: it is a very nauseous and loathsome disease, as is sin; it is abominable to God, and renders men abominable in his sight; it causes the sinner himself, when convinced of it, to loath and abhor himself: David calls his sin a loathsome disease, Psa 38:7 it is of a spreading nature: this was a sign of it, if it did not spread, it was only a, scab; if it spread, it was a leprosy, Lev 13:5. Sin has spread itself over all mankind, and over all the powers and faculties of the soul, and members of the body; there is no place free of it: and as the leprosy is of consuming nature, it eats and wastes the flesh, see Num 12:10 Kg2 5:10 so sin eats like a canker, and brings ruin and destruction upon men, both soul and body. This disease was incurable by medicine; persons that had it were never sent to a physician, but to a priest; and what he did was only this, he looked upon it, and if it was a clear case, he declared the person unclean; and if it was doubtful, shut him up for seven days, and then inspected him again; and after all he could not cure him; this was the work of God, Kg2 5:7. All which shows the nature and use of the law, which shuts men up, concludes them under sin, and by which they have knowledge of it, but no healing: the law heals none, it is the killing letter, the ministration of condemnation and death; Christ only, by his blood and stripes, heals the disease of sin, and cleanses from it. There is one thing in the law of the leprosy very surprising, and that is, that if there was any quick raw flesh, or any sound flesh in the place where the leprosy was, the man was pronounced unclean; but if the leprosy covered his skin, and all his flesh, then he was pronounced clean: this intimates, that he that thinks he has some good thing in him, and fancies himself sound and well, and trusts to his own works of righteousness, he is not justified in the sight of God; but if a man acknowledges that there is no soundness in his flesh, that in him, that is, in his flesh, dwells no good thing, but that his salvation is alone, by the grace and mercy of God, such a man is justified by faith in Christ Jesus: the parable of the Pharisee and publican will illustrate this, Luk 18:10. "Who, seeing Jesus, fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean"; See Gill on Mat 8:2. Christ could cure lepers, and did; and which was a proof of his Messiahship, and is given among the signs of it, to John's disciples, Mat 11:5 and as there is a likeness between the leprosy and sin, so between the cleansing of a leper under the law, and the healing of a sinner by Christ: for the cleansing of a leper, two birds were to be taken clean and alive, which were both typical of Christ, and pointed at the meekness of his human nature, his innocence, harmlessness, and purity, and that he had a life to lay down; one of these was to be killed, in an earthen vessel over running water, showing that Christ must be killed, his blood must be shed for the cleansing of leprous sinners; the earthen vessel denoted his human nature, his flesh, in which he was put to death; and the running water signified the purifying nature of his blood, and the continued virtue of it, to cleanse from all sin; and the blood and the water being mixed together, may put us in mind of the blood and water which flowed from the side of Christ, when pierced with the spear; which was an emblem of our justification and sanctification being both from him, on account of which, he is said to come both by water and by blood, Jo1 5:6. The other bird, after it was dipped with the cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop in the blood of the slain bird, was let go alive; which typified the resurrection of Christ, who was put to death in the flesh, and quickened in the Spirit; and who rose again, for the justification of his people from all sin: the cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop, which were used in the cleansing of the leper, may either relate to the sufferings, and death, and blood of Christ; the scarlet wool may denote the bloody sufferings of Christ, through which he was red in his apparel; the cedar wood may signify the incorruptibleness and preciousness of the blood of Christ, and the hyssop the purging virtue of it; or else these three may have regard to the three principal graces of the Spirit of God, which have to do with, and are in influenced by the sin cleansing blood of Christ: the cedar wood may signify the incorruptible and precious grace of faith; the green hyssop, the lively grace of hope; and the scarlet, the flaming grace of love, when it is in its full exercise: or else the grace of faith, by which dealing with the blood of Christ, the heart is purified, is only meant; signified by cedar wood, for its permanency; by scarlet, for its concern with the crimson blood of Christ; by which sins, though as scarlet, are made white as wool; and by hyssop, for its being an humble and lowly grace: now the cedar stick, with the scarlet wool, and bunch of hyssop bound unto it, was used to sprinkle the blood of the bird upon the leper seven times, when he was pronounced clean; and expresses the instrumentality of faith, in the application of the blood of Christ for cleansing: though after this, the leper was to shave off all his hair, and wash himself and clothes in water; suggesting to us, that holiness of life and conversation which should follow, upon cleansing through faith in the blood of Christ.

(e) Chambers's Cyclopaedia in the word "Leprosy".

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

12 And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

Ver. 12. If thou wilt, thou canst] It is a ready way to speed, to found our prayers upon the power of God.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See the notes at Mat 8:2-4.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By falling on his face, he shewed his humility and modesty, that all men might learn to be ashamed of the stains of their lives; but this, his bashfulness, did not prevent him from confessing his misery; he exposed his wound, he solicits a cure: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. He did not doubt the goodness of the Lord, but in consideration of his own unworthiness, he durst not presume. That confession is full of religion and faith, which places its trust in the will of God. (St. Ambrose)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

See Poole on "Mat 8:2", and verses following to Mat 8:5. See Poole on "Mar 1:40", and verses following to Mar 1:45. Matthew reports this miracle done when Christ came down from the mountain, and immediately after saith, that he entered into Capernaum, Mat 8:5. Mark also, concluding the first chapter with this piece of history, he begins the second with telling us, that he entered into Capernaum after some days. So that some think he was near Capernaum, within the bounds of it, when he wrought this miracle, but there is no certainty of that.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 12-16. The leper is healed in a certain city.

When he was in a certain city. From the scene in the boat on the lake with the fishermen, Luke abruptly passes to another memorable incident which took place probably soon after memorable because it is the first recorded instance of Jesus" contact with that most terrible of earthly maladies, leprosy. The certain city was probably the town of Hattim, for we read in St. Matthew that the famous cure took place as the Lord was coming down from the mount of Beatitudes. (This will be spoken of in its place in Lu 6) Behold a man full of leprosy. The expression "behold" reproduces exactly the scene as the eye-witness remembered it. There were many apparently with the Master on that occasion; but following him, suddenly, as he went on before the crowd, one of those ghastly victims of the frightful disease stood before him, apparently having eluded observation, for they were not allowed to appear in the ordinary haunts of men. The unhappy man fell down and knelt before the great Physician, of whom he may have heard so much, and asks him to exercise his mighty power on the dread malady which was eating away his life. The leper evidently had no doubt whatever of the power of Jesus; he was only anxious as to whether he had the will to cure him. The whole question respecting the exact nature of the disease is a vexed one. The word has been used with varying extent of meaning. As far as we can gather, the disease in its worst form seems to have been a progressive decay arising from the poisoning of the blood. The face and different members of the body were attacked and gradually destroyed, till the sufferer became a hideous spectacle, and literally fell to pieces. It is much disputed whether or not the malady in any of its varied developments and stages was contagious. The strict separation which in well-nigh all forms of the disease was rigidly insisted on would seem at all events to point to the conclusion that, in the popular estimation, it certainly was so; some phases of the malady, however, appear to have been considered as perfectly free from contagious effect for instance, Naaman, the captain of the host of Syria, was a leper. It is hot conceivable that one who was infected with so grave a malady, considered incurable, would, if contagious, have been permitted to have exercised a function which would have brought him into constant contact with masses of his fellow-countrymen. These cases, however, were apparently few in number, and those afflicted with what was usually called leprosy were rigidly separated from their fellows, not only to dwell apart, but positively forbidden to approach the dwellings of men. In the Egyptian legends of the Exodus, the Israelites were said to have been expelled because they were lepers.

Vers. 12-26. The power present to heal.

In the setting forth of facts, there is another principle of guidance than chronology. We may group them around some thoughts with the view of illustrating the meaning and scope of the thought. On this principle let us regard the events related from the twelfth verse to the twenty-sixth. What they evidence is the power of the Lord that was working in Jesus as a power of healing. Strange, blessed things we shall see to-day.

I THE WORK OF SALVATION AS REALIZED IN THE LEPER. (Vers. 12-14) He is "full of leprosy," a mass of corruption, dying bit by bit. Notice the cry of this miserable outcast. When the father of the epileptic child met the Lord on his descent from the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice of his agony was, "If thou canst do anything, have mercy on us and help us." Jesus replied, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." He had not yet got to the mountain of faith, and the father says with tears, "Lord, I believe; but oh, help me to that mountain-height, help thou mine unbelief." This wretched leper is already on the mountain height. It is not, "If thou canst," but "If thou wilt." The Jewish proverb was, "As God sends the leprosy, so God alone can heal it." God is in this Jesus; therefore he can. Such was the logic. How he had seen the secret of the Lord, we do not know; but the trust was his it had been sown into his heart in the urgency of his need. Now, mark the response. Sometimes the Lord seems to tarry. But in this case the way is quite ready for the blessing. "We are never told," says Dr. Farrar, "that there was a moment"s pause when a leper cried to him." "If thou wilt." "I will." And the touch. To touch a leper was an infraction of law. He had to withdraw into the wilderness immediately afterwards. He did not wish to provoke any violent opposition. But he broke the ceremonial law at the demand of a higher law the law whose source is the Divine compassion, and whose agent is the power present to heal. The foul body could not pollute the hand; but the hand of the Infinite Purity could cleanse the foul body. "Be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him." How wonderfully this strange thing brings out what is characteristic of the Saviour in his thoughts and ways to the sinner! None is beyond the reach of the love that could bid away at once and for ever that leprosy. No cry can escape the ear of a love that has the answering "I will" ready for the praying "If thou wilt." We have a High Priest who has touched our sin in its exceeding sinfulness. For ever and ever there stands the pledge of the world"s Healer "I will: be thou clean.

II But see THE SAME WORK REALIZED IN "THE MAN THAT WAS PALSIED." The time is "one of those days that he was teaching." A crowd has gathered so great that "there is no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door." In this crowd there are Pharisees and doctors of the Law sitting by. Significantly it is added, "The power of the Lord was present to heal." A notable instance of this power is supplied; its occasion being the letting down of the pallet-bed, on which was laid the paralytic, through the tiles into the midst of the crowd before Jesus. There is no resisting of such faith. Seeing it, the Healer says what? "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." Now, as to this fulfilment of the imperial "I will," which proceeds from the compassion of the Lord, remark:

1. The work which represents the supreme Saviour blessing. "That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." He will listen to the appeal made in behalf of the palsied man; but there is a palsy hidden and spiritual with which first he must deal, for until it is dealt with there can be no effectual healing. Yes; the true healing begins within. "Create a clean heart." And the point at which the Redeemer lays hold of us is the need of forgiveness. This action of Christ is the first in which he makes himself fully known, the first in which his spiritual authority is declared. And from this moment the organized opposition of scribe and Pharisee dates. "His kingdom ruleth over all." All agencies of relief and kindness are his, and are to be used in his name; but his kingdom is the kingdom of heaven to all believers, because the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins.

2. The condition on which the power of Christ is realized. "When he saw their faith." Observe, not his faith. No one, it is true, can stand proxy for another as to salvation. There must be the personal touch of Christ; and the narrative, when attentively regarded, shows that Jesus secured this from the sufferer. He helped out the sick man"s trustfulness; he established a relation with himself. And then and thus he did exceeding abundantly above all that could be asked. But he does attach value to faith in friends for another friend, in the loving for the loved, in those who have salvation for those who have not. Think of the four bearing the weak and wanting man, seeking the means to realize the blessing for him, their interest wholly unselfish, and unresting until the doure man is really brought to Jesus. Oh, is not this the miniature of the Church of Christ in its intercession and labour for heathendom, for the sick and perishing through lack of knowledge? Should it not indicate the truth to be exemplified in the anxiety of parents as to their children? Should it not remind us of the highest aim of all relatives of friendship or confidence? Jesus does" perceive" this faith. It is the security of blessing unspeakable; for "So the whole round earth is every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. Were there more of this faith, there would be more abundant sign of "the power of the. Lord present to heal.

3. The hindrance and limitation of the power of the Lord. "Pharisees and doctors of the Law sitting by," and the power present. It is always present with the word of his grace. We never need to seek it as if it were sometimes here and sometimes there. But these Pharisees and doctors are not healed. The grace is present for them too, but they do not realize it. They sit by as spectators, critics, censors, watching for grounds of reproach and accusation. "The word of hearing did not profit them, because they were not united by faith with them that heard." Is not this the limitation still? Are there not many in our assemblies who, like these Pharisees, "sit by"? They scarcely believe what is said. As old Matthew Henry writes, "It is to them a tale that is told them, not a message that is sent them. They are willing that we should preach before them, not that we should preach to them." It is this sitting by which checks the work of grace. More and more, as the ministry of Christ proceeds, does the shadow of the Pharisees sitting by fall on it. A withering, desolating shadow. Thou Pharisee of town and village, thou critic, sceptic, thy seat the seat of the scornful. Mighty power to heal may be present, but mighty work of healing cannot be done in thee until the story of the Pharisee of the Pharisees is repeated in thee, and thy self-sufficiency smitten down, thou art cast to the earth, to ask, trembling and astonished, "Who art thou, Lord?

Vers. 12, 13. The cleansed leper.

Three points suggest themselves to our thoughts.

I THE WAVERING OF A STRONG HUMAN HOPE. Outside the outer circumference of that congregation was a man to whom pity would have drawn us, but from whom an instinctive repugnance would have repelled us. He was one in whom were not only signs and spots of that dire plague of leprosy, but in whom it was seen in its most virulent form he was "full of leprosy." Suffering in body, and afflicted far worse in mind by the terrible isolation which that disease imposed, there suddenly enters his heart a new and bounding hope; in the dense darkness of his night there rises that morning star. A new Prophet has come to the people of God. He hears of his Name and fame; (Luk_4:37) he comes to see; he witnesses the wonderful works which are wrought. (Luk_4:40) Will not this great Healer have mercy upon him? Will not he who casts out the devil cure the leper? If the poor paralytic, at his bidding, could rise and walk away with his friends, why should not he, at the command of that strong Voice, be healed of his foul disease, and go home to his family again? So he comes where Jesus is, and listens as he speaks, and when he hears him say, "Ask, and it shall be given you," he resolves that he will ask that a new life may be given him; he will seek: what if he should find? We have never made to man any request on which so much has hung as that which was now hanging on the answer he should receive at the lips of Jesus Christ. To him it was not success or failure merely; it was life or death that was at stake. How must the most eager expectation have wrestled in his heart with tremulous and agonizing fear! with what faltering voice must he have uttered those prayerful words, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean"!

II THE TOUCH OF THE DIVINE HAND. "Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him." All three evangelists record this significant fact. There were three reasons why he should not do this.

1. Strong instinctive human aversion.

2. The risk he ran in so doing.

3. The prohibition of the Law combined with social usage disallowing it.

But our Lord set aside all these objections. Why? Was it not to show by instant action the kindness and compassion of his heart, to place himself practically by his side as One who felt deeply for and with him, and to teach us that, if we wish to heal the worst disorders, we must do that, not standing afar off, but, coming into close personal contact with the men we are seeking to save, by "laying our hand upon them"? We, too, must be ready, like our Lord, to do that which is distasteful, to run some risks, to disregard conventional proprieties, if we would remove from the land the leprosies which still afflict it.

III THE RESPONSE OF DIVINE LOVE. That leper must have known, when Jesus laid his hand kindly upon him, that he meant to heal him; yet sweeter to his ear than are the most melting strains of music to the lover of melody and song were these words of the Lord when he said, "I will: be thou clean;" and then he who "speaks, and it is done," spoke the unheard word, and forces of nature came into play, and the life-blood leapt in the leper"s veins, "and immediately his leprosy departed." Sin is the leprosy of the soul.

1. It is loathsome.

2. It is diffusive, spreading from faculty to faculty over the whole nature.

3. It exiles; it separates man from God, and man from man also.

4. It is deathful; it is death in life.

When the sinful soul, though he be far gone in sin, "full of leprosy," makes his application to the great Physician, he has nothing to fear as to the result of his appeal..

(1) Be not troubled, far less hindered, because hope is streaked with fear; there may be an "if" in the heart, as there was in that of this leper; the very intensity of the hope arising out of the magnitude of the issue at stake will perfectly account for that such fear is only the shadow of a prevailing hope.

(2) Be assured that you have no need to fear. Christ"s readiness to save is beyond the shadow of a doubt; if we are only in real earnest to be saved from the leprosy of sin, it is certain that the hand of Divine love will be laid upon us, and that the voice of Divine mercy will address us, saying, "I will: be thou clean. C.

Vers. 12-26. The healing of the leper and the paralytic.

We noticed how Jesus called the fishermen to be fishers of men, and how they nobly responded to his call, and forsook the fish and boats and friends that they might follow him. We have now before us two instructive miracles performed during his evangelistic work, and resulting in an extension of his influence. Between them there is interposed a significant remark about our Lord"s private prayer, so that the order of our thought is miracle, prayer, and more miracle. It is thus that Divine work goes on. We must, consequently, give ourselves unto prayer as well as the ministry of the Word if we would follow Jesus or his apostles.

I CONSIDER THE CURE OF THE LEPROSY. (Vers. 12-15) It was manifestly a very serious case the man was" full of leprosy." It was the disease in its worst stage. Humanly speaking, it was incurable. So far as man was concerned, the case was hopeless. Now, in this respect, the leprosy is a type of sin. Sin is leprosy in the soul. It is so far incurable by man. But further, the leper was isolated from his kind, not because the disease was infectious through contact, which seems to be quite disproved, but because in this way God would show his abhorrence of sin and its essentially separating power. The poor lepers, as they went up and down the land with rent garments, and crying, "unclean!" were virtually dead men mourning over their lost and hopeless condition. But this poor leper had heard of Jesus, had come to him, convinced that he was able to save him. He throws himself down consequently at Christ"s feet, saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." He was convinced of the Saviour"s power, and he threw himself upon his sovereign mercy in the matter of the willingness to save. And it is just to this that every sinner must come. Persuaded of Christ"s ability to save, he must throw himself upon his sovereign clemency. For the Saviour might justly refuse to save any, though, as a matter of fact, he is anxious to save all. And now let us notice Christ"s method in saving him. He might have saved him by a word, but to show his sympathy and freedom from all fear of defilement, he heals him by a touch, saying, "I will: be thou clean." And immediately the leprosy departed from him. In the very same way can the Saviour heal the leprosy of sin. If we only ask him, he will tenderly touch us, and instantaneously the soul"s disease will depart. But, when healed, the man has certain duties to discharge at the instigation of Jesus. He is directed first to tell no man; for Jesus wants to be something more than a physician of the body, and he might, through the patient"s report, be so overwhelmed with physical cases as not to have sufficient time for the preaching and spiritual work which with him was paramount. Secondly, he is directed to repair to the priest, and fulfil all that the Law of Moses required, "for a testimony unto them." In this way our Lord desired to demonstrate that he had not come, as they basely insinuated, to destroy the Law and the prophets, but to fulfil them and to get them fulfilled. Notwithstanding these precautions, his fame so spread that multitudes came flocking together to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. We have thus presented to us the way of salvation and its results. It is by coming to Jesus that we are saved from sin; it is by doing what Jesus requires that we are made useful among men. Let us test Jesus as the appointed Saviour, and live as our Lord directs.

II CONSIDER OUR LORD"S RETIREMENT TO THE WILDERNESS FOR PRAYER. (Ver. 16) There is a certain measure of exhaustion in such work as was performed by Jesus. He bowed to the necessity of private communion with God. Even Jesus could not be always in public; solitude was as needful for his soul"s health as society for his opportunity of usefulness. Vinet, in a fine sermon on this passage, says, "We do not believe that we exaggerate when we say that those who do not love solitude do not love truth."It is in the secret place with God that we renew our spiritual strength and are fit for further service. And what perfect prayers our Lord"s must have been. No personal sin to confess, but simply to confer with the Father about the salvation of the world and how best he could promote the welfare of men. The time of solitude with God is the most fruitful time. Without it how barren all else proves!

III CONSIDER THE HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC. (Vers. 17-26) It was in Capernaum, it is believed, and in the house of Peter, that the miracle happened. The audience was a critical one with whom Jesus was dealing, composed of Pharisees and doctors of the Law, out of every town of Galilee and Judaea and Jerusalem. They had come to pass judgment on the new movement under Jesus. And the Spirit was waiting there as the Agent to apply the healing Word of the Messiah to those not unwilling to be healed. But alas! these hard-hearted lawyers gave him no opportunity. But four friends bring along the street a paralytic neighbour, in the hope that he may be healed by Jesus. They cannot at first get near, and so they repair to the house-top, and proceed to tear up the tiles in sufficient numbers to allow of their lowering their helpless friend to the feet of Jesus. Here was the Spirit"s opportunity. And here let us notice the twofold paralysis under which the poor man laboured the one was the paralysis of the soul, the other the paralysis of the body. Both appealed to the sympathy of Jesus. Besides, he is pleased to notice the faith of the bearers. We are not told that the paralytic at this time had faith in Jesus, but his friends had for him. They believed that if they could only get their friend before Jesus, they would not have to carry him home again. And disinterested faith for a blessing upon others Jesus respects and rewards. But which of the two paralyses will Jesus cure first? The more serious the paralysis of soul through sin. Hence, in endearing accents he says, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee." It was a case of absolution, as Robertson boldly puts it in his sermon upon this passage. And to absolution by one whom they regarded as a mere man the scribes and Pharisees secretly objected. They rightly said that none but God alone could forgive sins as against God; they wrongly concluded that Jesus was not Divine. There was no blasphemy, for this was God incarnate. Their objection was not publicly taken. It was a mental note they took of the matter. Jesus soon shows them that he can read their thoughts, by laying bare their objection, and putting his prerogative to the proof. The demonstration he proposes is this: he has pronounced the absolution. It may be deemed easy to do this, since no one can tell that it has not taken place. But he is willing to rest his claim to absolving power by saying the harder word, "Rise up and walk." According as this takes place or fails is he willing to be judged. And so, before his enemies and to the palsied patient, he says, "Arise, and take up thy conch, and go into thine house." Here was a demonstration of his ability to forgive sins as against God, for the paralysis departs and the powerless patient starts to his feet and reaches home with his bed as Jesus commands him. In doing so, moreover, he glorifies God, doubtless, for the double blessing. Now, these miracles are signs and symbols of spiritual things. This healing of the body is a sign of what Jesus is willing and waiting to do for our souls. Paralysis is what has seized on many. What a living death it is! It is only Jesus who can free our spirits from it. If we look to him he will give us his Spirit to strengthen us with all might in the inner man, and to help us to earnestness and action. And first we shall show to all about us that we are able to help ourselves, and will no longer be burdens upon others. The four burden-bearers here were spared their hard work ever after. This is the first manifestation of spiritual strength in the carrying honestly our own share of life"s responsibilities! Secondly, we shall glorify God through our spiritual powers. We shall praise him for his loving-kindness and tender mercy towards us. And lastly, we shall lead others to fear and to glorify God too. Hence the great importance of getting rid of spiritual paralysis and of rising into the exercise of spiritual power. We should also learn distinctly from this miracle what possibilities lie awaiting intercessory prayer and disinterested faith. We may do much in bringing helpless souls to Jesus, that they may be healed by him. He is able to do much for our friends as well as for ourselves, and the joy of bringing others to Christ is only exceeded by the joy of coming ourselves. Let us keep coming to Jesus for ourselves and with others, and strange and blessed experiences shall still be ours. R.M.E.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Matt. viii, 2; Mark i, 40.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

if thou will

The leper, knowing the Lord’s power to heal, seems to question His willingness.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. The petitioner, that in a very humble and submissive manner sues unto Christ for cure and healing: A leper fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

He does not question Christ’s power, but distrusts his willingness to help and heal him. Christ’s divine power must be fully assented to, and firmly believed, by all those that expect benefit by him, and healing from him.

Observe, 2. The great readiness of Christ to help and heal this distressed person: Jesus touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.

By the ceremonial law, the leper was forbidden to be touched; therefore Christ touching this leper, shows himself to be above the law; that he was the Lord of it, and might dispense with it. And his healing this leper, by the word of his mouth and the touch of his hand, showed him to be truly and really sent of God; for leprosy among the Jews was accounted an incurable distemper, called the finger of God; a disease of his sending, and of his removing.

Our Saviour, therefore, as a proof of his being the Messiah, tells John’s disciples, That the lepers were cleansed, and the dead raised by him; Mat 11:5 which two being joined together, do imply, that the cleansing of the leper is as much an act of divine power, as the raising of the dead; and accordingly, it is said, Am I God, that this man sends unto me to cure a person of his leprosy? 2Ki 5:7

Observe, 3. The certainty and the suddenness of the cure was a farther proof of Christ’s divine power; Immediately the leprosy departed. Christ not only cured him immediately, but instantaneously; not only without means, but without the ordinary time required for such a cure. Thus Christ showed both power and will to cure him miraculously, who believed his power, but questioned his willingness.

Observe, 4. A twofold charge and command given by Christ to the leper.

1. To tell it to no man. Where the great modesty, piety, and humility of our Saviour are discovered, together with the prudent care he took of his own safety: his modesty, in concealing his own praises; his humility, in shunning all vain-glorious applause and commendation; his piety, in referring all the honor and glory to God his Father; and the care of his own safety appeared, lest the publishing of his miracle should create untimely danger from the Pharisees.

2. The next part of the charge given to the recovered leper, is, to go and show himself to the priest, and to offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them; that is, to testify to the Jews, that he did not oppose the ceremonial law, which required a thank- offering at his hand; and also that the miracle might testify that he was the true and promised Messiah.

Learn hence, that our blessed Saviour would have the ceremonial law punctually observed, so long as the time of its continuance did endure; though he came to destroy that law, yet while it stood he would have it exactly observed. See note on St.Mat 8:2

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XXXIV. Heals a Leper].

XXXIV. JESUS HEALS A LEPER AND CREATES MUCH EXCITEMENT. aMATT.VIII. 2-4; bMARK I. 40-45; cLUKE V. 12-16.

c12 And it came to pass, while he was in one of the cities [it was a city of Galilee, but as it was not named, it is idle to conjecture which city it was], behold, bthere cometh acame bto him a leper [There is much discussion as to what is here meant by leprosy. Two diseases now go by that name; viz., psoriasis and elephantiasis. There are also three varieties of psoriasis, namely, white, black and red. There are also three varieties or modifications of elephantiasis, namely, tubercular, spotted or streaked, and anæsthetic. Elephantiasis is the leprosy found in modern times in Syria, Greece, Spain, Norway and Africa. Now, since Lev_13:1-59., in determining [176] leprosy, lays great stress on a white or reddish-white depression of the skin, the hairs in which are turned white or yellow, and since it also provides that the leper who is white all over shall be declared clean, and since in the only two cases where lepers are described-- Num_12:10, 2Ki_5:27--they are spoken of as "white as snow," scholars have been led to think that the Biblical leprosy was the white form of psoriasis. But the facts hardly warrant us in excluding the other forms of psoriasis, or even elephantiasis; for 1. Leviticus xiii. also declares that any bright spot or scale shall be pronounced leprosy, if it be found to spread abroad over the body; and this indefinite language would let in elephantiasis, cancer and many other skin diseases. In fact, the law deals with the initial symptoms rather than with the ultimate phases of the fully developed disease. 2. Elephantiasis was a common disease in our Saviour's time, and has been ever since, and would hardly be called leprosy now, if it had not been popularly so called then. The word "leprosy" comes from "lepo," which means to peel off in scales. It is hereditary for generations, though modern medical authorities hold that it is not contagious. However, the returning Crusaders spread it all over Europe in the tenth and eleventh centuries, so that according to Matthew Paris there was no less than nine thousand hospitals set apart for its victims. The facts that the priests had to handle and examine lepers, and that any one who was white all over with leprosy was declared clean, led scholars to think that the laws of Moses, which forbade any one to approach or touch a leper, were not enacted to prevent the spread of a contagion, but for typical and symbolic purposes. It is thought that God chose the leprosy as the symbol of sin and its consequences, and that the Mosaic legislation was given to carry out this conception. Being the most loathsome and incurable of all diseases, it fitly represents in bodily form the ravages of sin in the soul of a man. But there must also have been a sanitary principle in God's laws, since we still deem it wise to separate lepers, and since other people besides the Hebrews (as the Persians) prohibited lepers from mingling with other [177] citizens. Elephantiasis is the most awful disease known. The body of its victim disintegrates joint by joint, until the whole frame crumbles to pieces. Psoriasis is milder, but is very distressing. Mead thus describes a case: The "skin was shining as covered with flakes of snow. And as the furfuraceous or bran-like, scales were daily rubbed off, the flesh appeared quick or raw underneath." In addition to the scaly symptoms, the skin becomes hard and cracks open, and from the cracks an ichorous humor oozes. The disease spreads inwardly, and ends in consumption, dropsy, suffocation, and death], ca man full of leprosy [Some have thought that Luke meant to indicate one so completely covered with leprosy as to be clean ( Lev_13:28, Lev_13:29, Lev_13:36, Lev_13:37). But the fact that Jesus sent him to the priest, shows that he was not such a clean leper. Luke meant to describe a leper in the last stages of the disease--a leper past all hope]: and when he saw Jesus, bbeseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying to him, che fell on his face, aand worshipped him, cand besought him, saying, bunto him, cLord [The Jews, in addressing any distinguished person, usually employed the title "Lord." They were also accustomed to kneel before prophets and kings. It is not likely that the leper knew enough of Jesus to address him as the Son of God. He evidently took Jesus for some great prophet; but he must have had great faith, for he was full of confidence that Jesus had power to heal him, although there was but one case of leper-cleansing in the Scriptures-- 2Ki_5:1-19, Luk_4:27], if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. [The leper believed in the power of Jesus, but doubted his willingness to expend it on one so unworthy and so unclean. In temporal matters we can not always be as sure of God's willingness as we can be of his power. We should note that the man asked rather for the blessing of cleanness than for health. To the Jew uncleanness was more horrible than disease. It meant to be an outcast from Israel, and to be classed with swine, dogs and other odious and abhorrent creatures. The leper, therefore, prayed that the Lord would remove his shame [178] and pollution.] b41 And being moved with compassion, he stretched forth his hand, and touched him [Mark habitually notes the feelings, and hence also the gestures of Jesus. It was not an accidental, but an intentional, touch. Popular belief so confused and confounded leprosy with the uncleanness and corruption of sin, as to make the leper feel that Jesus might also compromise his purity if he concerned himself to relieve it. The touch of Jesus, therefore, gave the leper a new conception of divine compassion. It is argued that Jesus, by this touch, was made legally unclean until the evening ( Lev_13:46, Lev_11:40). But we should note the spirit and purpose of this law. Touch was prohibited because it defiled the person touching, and aided not the person touched. In Jesus' case the reasons for the law were absent, the conditions being reversed. Touching defiled not the toucher, and healed the touched. In all things Jesus touches and shares our human state, but he so shares it that instead of his being defiled by our uncleanness, we are purified by his righteousness. Moreover, Jesus, as a priest after the order of Melchizedek ( Heb_5:6), possessed the priestly right to touch the leper without defilement-- Heb_4:15], and saith unto him, { csaying, I will; be thou made clean. [The Lord's answer is an echo of the man's prayer. The words, "I will," express the high authority of Jesus.] b42 And straightway the ahis cleprosy departed from him, awas cleansed. band he was made clean. ["Luke says, 'departed', giving the merely physical view of the event. Matthew says, 'was cleansed', using ceremonial language. Mark combines the two forms"--Godet.] 43 And he strictly charged him, cto tell no man [The language used indicates that Jesus sternly forbade the man to tell what had been done. The man's conduct, present and future, shows that he needed severe speech. In his uncontrollable eagerness to be healed he had overstepped his privileges, for he was not legally permitted to thus enter cities and draw near to people ( Num_5:2, Num_5:3); he was to keep at a distance from them, and covering his mouth, was to cry, "Tame, [179] tame--unclean, unclean" ( Lev_13:45, Lev_13:46, Luk_17:12, Luk_17:13). The man evinced a like recklessness in disregarding the command of Jesus]: band straightway sent him out, a4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; bsay nothing to any man: [Several reasons are suggested why the Lord thus commanded silence: 1. It may have been better for the man not to mention his cure ( Joh_9:34). 2. He required the decision of the priest to make him legally clean; and too much talk might so prejudice the priests as to lead them to refuse to admit his cure. 3. But the best reason is that it accorded with our Lord's general course, which was to suppress excitement, and thus prevent too great crowds from gathering about him and hindering his work. To take this view is to say that Jesus meant to prevent exactly what happened] cbut go, and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, bthe things which athe gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. [Though healed of his leprosy, the man was not legally clean until declared so by the priest. The priest alone could readmit him to the congregation. The local priest inspected the healed leper, and if he was found clean or cured, he was purified by the use of two birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop, razor and bath. After seven days he was again inspected, and if still cured the priest repaired with him to the temple, where he offered the gift for his cleansing, which was three lambs, with flour and oil; or if the leper was poor, one lamb and two doves or pigeons, with flour and oil ( Lev_14:19-22.). The healed leper was a testimony that Messiah, the great Physician, had come, and that he respected the law of Moses. This testimony was given both to priests and people.] 45 But he went out [from the presence of Jesus and from the city], and began to publish it much, and to spread abroad the matter, { c15 But so much the more went abroad the report concerning him:. [The leper was so elated that he could scarcely refrain from publishing his cure, and he must also have thought that this was what Jesus really [180] wanted--that in commanding him not to publish it he did not mean what he said] and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. binsomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into a city [Not a natural or physical inability, but the inability of impropriety. Jesus could not do what he judged not best to do. The excitement cause by such an entry was injurious in several ways: 1. It gave such an emphasis to the miracles of Jesus as to make them overshadow his teaching. 2. It threatened to arouse the jealousy of the government. 3. It rendered the people incapable of calm thought. Two things constantly threatened the ministry of Jesus, namely, impatience in the multitude, and envious malice in the priests and Pharisees. Jesus wished to add to neither of these elements of opposition. Thus the disobedience of the leper interrupted Jesus, and thwarted him in his purpose to visit the villages. Disobedience, no matter how well-meaning, always hinders the work of Christ], c16 But he withdrew himself in the deserts, bwas without in desert places: [That is, the the remote grazing-lands like that desert in which he afterwards fed the five thousand. Such was our Lord's unexampled meekness that he preferred the silent deserts to the applause of multitudes. His meekness was as high above the capacity of a merely human being as were his miracles] cand prayed. [Luke's gospel is pre-eminently the gospel of prayer and thanksgiving] band they came to him from every quarter.

[FFG 176-181]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12–16. A man full of leprosy. See notes on Matt. 8:2–4 and Mark 1:40–45.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Jesus heals a leper in a different city that is not named.

It came about

This phrase marks a new event in the story. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

a man full of leprosy

"a man who was covered with leprosy." This introduces a new character in the story. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)

he fell on his face

Here "fell on his face" is an idiom that means to bow down. AT: "he knelt and touched the ground with his face" or "he bowed down to the ground" (See: Idiom)

if you are willing

"if you want to"

you can make me clean

It is understood that he was asking Jesus to heal him. This can be stated clearly. AT: "please make me clean, because you are able" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

make me clean ... Be clean

This refers to ceremonial cleanness, but it is understood that he is unclean because of the leprosy. He is really asking Jesus to heal him of his disease. This can be stated clearly. AT: "heal me from leprosy so I will be clean ... Be healed" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the leprosy left him

"he no longer had leprosy"

translationWords

leper

lord

clean

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

12–16. THE HEALING OF A LEPER

12. ἐν μιᾷ τῶν πόλεων, ‘in one of the cities.’ Probably the village of Hattin, for we learn from St Matthew’s definite notice that this incident took place on descending from the Mount of Beatitudes (Kurn Hattin), see Mat 8:1-4; Mar 1:40-45. St Mark seems to imply that it was in a house. Chronologically the call of Matthew, the choosing of the Twelve, and the Sermon on the Mount probably intervene between this incident and the last.

ἐγένετο … καί. See note on Luk 2:15. The paratactic (comp. Luk 5:17) arrangement of the sentence again points to an Aramaic original.

ἀνὴρ πλήρης λέπρας. The hideous and hopeless nature of this disease—which is nothing short of a foul decay, arising from the total corruption of the blood—has been too often described to need further notice. See Leviticus 13, 14. It was a living death, as indicated by bare head, rent clothes, and covered lip. In the middle ages, a man seized with leprosy was “clothed in a shroud, and the masses of the dead sung over him.” In its horrible repulsiveness it is the Gospel type of Sin. The expression “full of” implies the rapid development and horror of the disease; when the man’s whole body was covered with the whiteness, he was allowed to mingle with others as clean (Lev 13:13).

πεσὼν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον. We get the full picture by combining the three Evangelists. We then see that he came with passionate entreaties, flinging himself on his knees, and worshipping, and finally in his agony prostrating himself on his face.

δύνασαί με καθαρίσαι. The faith of this poor leper must have been intense, for hitherto there had been but one instance of a leper cleansed by miracle (Luk 4:27; 2 Kings 5). Comp. however Exo 4:7; Num 12:10.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12-16.] Healing of a leper. Mat 8:2-4.Mar 1:40-45Mar 1:40-45. In Matt. placed immediately after the Sermon on the Mount; in Mark and here, without any note of time: see notes on Matt.

12.] πλήρης λ. (a touch of medical accuracy from the beloved physician) implies the soreness of the disease.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12-16. The Healing of a Leper. Here we certainly have an incident which is recorded by all three Evangelists. The amount: of verbal agreement is very great, and we may confidently affirm that all three make use of common material. Mt. (8:1-4) is the most brief, Mk. (1:40-45) the most full; but Mt. is the only one who gives any note of time. He places the miracle just after Jesus had come down from delivering the Sermon on the Mount.

On the subject of Leprosy see H. V. Carter, Leprosy and Elephantiasis, 1874; Tilbury Fox, Skin Diseases, 1877; Kaposi, Hautkrankheiten, Wien, 1880; and the literature given at the end of art. Aussatz in Herzog; also in Hirsch, Handb. d. Pathologie, 1860.

12. καὶ ἰδού. Hebraistic; in Mat 8:2, but not in Mar 1:40: the καί is the apodosis to ἐγένετο as in ver. 1. No verb follows the ἰδού as if the presence of the leper were a surprise. Had the man disregarded the law in approaching the crowd? Or had the people come upon him suddenly, before he could avoid them? What follows shows a third possibility. Syr-Sin. Omits καὶ ἰδού.

πλήρης λέρας. This particular is given only by the beloved physician. His face and hands would be covered with ulcers and sores, so that everyone could see that the hideous disease was at a very advanced stage. This perhaps accounts for the man’s venturing into the multitude, and for their not fleeing at his approach; for by a strange provision of the law, “if the leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that path the plague, from his head even to his feet … then the priest … shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague” (Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13).

ἐδεήθη αὐτοῦ. Excepting Mat 9:38, the verb is peculiar in N.T. to Lk. and Paul. It is especially freq. in Lk. (8:28, 38, 9:38, 40, 10:2, etc). In LXX it represents a variety of Hebrew words, and is very common. Here Mk. has παρακαλῶν.

ἐὰν θέλῃς, δυνασαί με καθαρίσαι. All three accounts have these words, and the reply to them, Θέλω, καθαρίσθητι, without variation. The δύνασαι is evidence of strong faith in the Divine power of Jesus; for leprosy was believed to be incurable by human means. It was “the stroke” of God, and could not be removed by the hand of man. But it is characteristic of the man’s imperfect apprehension of Christ’s character, that he has more trust in His power than in His goodness. He doubts the will to heal. He says καθαρίσαι rather than θεραπεῦσαι or ἰάσασθαι because of the pollution which leprosy involved (Lev 13:45, Lev 13:46). In O.T. “unclean” and “clean,” not “sick” and “healed,” are the terms used about the leper. The old rationalistic explanation, that καθαρίσαι means “to pronounce clean,” and that the man was already cured, but wanted the great Rabbi of Nazareth to absolve him from the expensive and troublesome journey to Jerusalem, contradicts the plain statements of the Gospels. He was “full of leprosy” (Lk.); “immediately the leprosy departed from him” (Mk. Lk.). If καθαρίσαι means “to pronounce clean,” then καθαρίσθητι means “be thou pronounced clean.” Yet Jesus sends him to the priest (Lk. Mk. Mt.). Contrast the commands of Christ with the Prayers of Moses, Elijah, and Elisha, when they healed. See Deissmann, Bible Studies, p. 216.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Full of leprosy. Matthew and Mark have simply a leper. The expression, full of leprosy, seems to be used here with professional accuracy. Leprosy was known among physicians under three forms : th dull white, the clear white, and the black. Luke means to describe an aggravated case. The word full in this connection is often used by medical writers, as, full of disease; the veins full of blood; the ears full of roaring. Make me clean [καθαρισαι] . All three evangelists say cleanse instead of heal, because of the notion of uncleanness which specially attached to this malady.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.