The Life of Christ

Mk. 1:41 And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand, and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Jesus was willing to do everything considered abhorrent to the natural mind.

• More amazing than healing him, He stretched out His hand and actually touched him.

• With His words , “Be cleansed,” He countered the thousands of times the man had uttered “unclean.”

• This all happened because He was “moved with compassion.” It was compassion not only for the dread of this disease, but for the human humiliation which had wrapped itself around such a man, all in the name of God. Mk. 1:42-44 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. 43 And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, 44 and He said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”

With near vehemence, Jesus sent the man away.

The Greek reads, “cast him out.”

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• It was imperative to Jesus that this man go directly to the priest and conform to the ritual requirements of the Mosaic Law for such cases.

• The legal reason for doing this is that only a priest could declare a leprous person healed — that is, “clean” (Lev. 13:6,13,17,23). After being declared clean he would be reinstated into society. • Jesus ’ primary reason to visit the priest was to create “a testimony to them.”

Lev. 13 & 14 employ 116 verses to carefully explain the correct procedure for inspecting a leper and then offering the sacrifice assigned to the case of a cleansed leper.

• This would most likely would be the very first time such a sacrifice would have ever been carried out.

• Such news would spread rapidly throughout the Levitical community, providing the most poignant testimony possible for this particular subculture.

Mk. 1:45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news about, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.

Word of this soon got out to nearly every leper in Israel, and now they are on the move!

• It is doubtful that the man ever went to the priest, thus spoiling what would have been a grand opportunity to impact the entire priesthood.

• Can we blame him? Of course not; all he cared about was being healed! Suddenly his life started over again!

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