40 And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
Leprosy although today being a specific thing, back in the first century it was used to describe a variety of skin disfigurement problems. It was considered a death sentence that only God could heal, it could lead to blindness and loss of limbs. Since it has such physical disfiguring effect it was perceived as not only physically unclean but ceremonially unclean, this would cause lepers to be exiled from the covenant community as is laid out by the Mosaic Law. They were also required to wear rags and wear their hair loose, this was to indicate from some distance that they were lepers so people would not approach them.
Following the healing and exorcising of all those in Capernaum Jesus is approached by a leper. This leper kneels before him, an action typically reserved for nobility, so he perceives Jesus to be of something above him. The leper states that if Jesus wanted, he could make him clean. He does not ask to be cured necessarily but asks to be made clean, his priority is ceremonial cleanliness before God which would include being healed but that is not the root of his request.
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
Jesus is “moved with pity” or “with compassion” so he stretches out to the leper with his hand and touches him. This is completely against the norms of this society, the only reason Jesus does it is because he can actually cleanse the leper, typically people kept a very large distance between themselves and lepers.
After touching the leper with his hand, Jesus responds “I will; be clean.” Jesus without any other action except the statement “be clean”. He simply agrees to do as the man asks because he is moved by his suffering. Some healings have more actions going on, others he just states things, altering reality as he does so. This speaks to the many methods that Jesus can heal us.
42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
The leprosy leaves the man “immediately”, Marks favourite word to denote instantaneous action. There is no gradual healing. The man is cured of the leprosy AND he was made clean. Important to note that two things are going on here. He is healed and is made clean, ceremonially speaking. Jesus cures him of the illness and makes him clean before God.
43 And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once,
44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.”
Jesus sends that man away at once, sternly charging him. More immediacy and action even after the healing episode for Mark’s Roman audience, there is never a dull moment in his Gospel, everything is happening immediately, at once, all the time.
In order to keep the messianic secret, the purposeful retention of Jesus’ divine identity from spreading too far, Jesus says to the man to say nothing to anyone. All the man is to do is to show himself to the priest, offer a sacrifice for thanksgiving for his cleansing as Moses commanded. After being cured of leprosy you could not just re-join the covenant community, leprosy was a dangerous disease and was taken very seriously from ancient times.
A priest would have to inspect the now cured leper, outside the city limits before he would be welcomed back in. He is also to make an offering in the temple, an animal sacrifice of thanksgiving for his cleansing. This offering in the temple and the priests acknowledgement of being healed will act as the public declaration that he could re-join the covenant community and live amongst the people again.
45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
The now cured leper does not do as Jesus asked, he speaks freely about his healing. This was a miracle, something that only God could do, even in the Old Testament such healings were still done by God just through a prophet. That means Jesus is like one of great prophets of old or he is God, that is something that would be very difficult to not talk about especially if you had been suffering for so long outside the covenant community as a leper.
Ironically the lepers desire to sing Jesus’ praises causes Jesus to suffer like a leper. As we had mentioned, a leper was forced to live outside the city limits, away from the covenant community and now that the cured man has spoken so freely and spread the news of the miracle, Jesus is unable to enter the towns freely and was restricted to being outside the geographic limits of the community. Despite this, similar to John the Baptist out in the wilderness, people will come from all over to the countryside to try and find Jesus.
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