Matthew 8:1–4

¹ When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. ² And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ³ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ⁴ And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Commentary

Vs. 1 “When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.”

Having given what was essentially the Kingdom of heavens treatise, or what essential laws and principals will guide and direct His disciples. The Lord Jesus now comes down from the mountain where He spoke them to His disciples and the crowds who followed Him. And having come down great multitudes follow Him, for having fueled their hunger for true knowledge of God and just what the Kingdom of heaven looks like, and is to be manifested like down here through us who believe in Him, the people having heard good Word of the Lord are compelled to follow Him.

Vs. 2 “And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Having come down from the Mountain and given us His Kingdom Sermon a leper now approaches the Lord Jesus and worships Him, saying “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” It seems most touching then that the first to approach the Lord Jesus after His Sermon on the mountain is a leper. A man who is by cultural definition is an outcast, unfit to live in the community, and so he is left to his own resources to beg and scrounge on the outskirts of it. Now what is poignant about this moment is that this leper is all of us, he is what we are all naturally when we look at the Kingdom of heaven (or better when it looks back at us). And so having drawn near and worshipped the Lord Jesus, the leper has but one heartfelt desire and request of the Lord and that is that he be made clean, cleansed forever of his leprosy and restored to the community where Gods Presence and people always dwell as One.

Vs. 3 “Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

The Lord Jesus then in what must have been a very busy and noisy environment with the multitudes all around Him, all seeking to see and hear Him, and yet when the leper approached Jesus the people would have parted away from him leaving the leper and Jesus alone and with that Jesus puts out His hand and touches the man and says: “I am willing; be cleansed.” And so in that instant, his life is forever transformed as the Lord Jesus touching him heals him. What he felt at that moment when the Lord touched him and his leprosy left him is something known to him and the Lord alone. But what is revealed to us all by Jesus doing this for him is that there is healing and cleansing for each and every one of us who likewise see our own need to be healed from our sins and transgressions and in repentance and faith come to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation from sin and death, asking Him alone to heal us and restore us back to God, making us citizens of the Kingdom of heaven, all by God’s grace through faith in Him alone.

Vs. 4 “And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Having then healed the man the Lord Jesus now tells the man to tell no one, but to go show himself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded (see Lev. 14:10-32), as a testimony to them. Now the Lord Jesus by healing this man and then saying as much to him, was not trying to convince the crowds of His being the Christ, God’s Son who has come in God’s Name, Authority, and Power to heal not just a man, or the nation of Israel, but the whole world; whoever believes in Jesus Christ as Lord will be saved from all their sins and transgressions and thus the eternal consequences and destruction that no one can escape apart from Redemption through Christ alone. And so it is priests that the Lord Jesus wanted at that time to reveal Himself too, for they sat in Moses seat and the Lord Jesus Christ having declared His Kingdom on the Mountain must now be acknowledged as the rightful Ruler and Heir of all that God His Father assigned to them to do and govern and rule until His arrival. 

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.