The first thirty-nine verses of Mark chapter one, introduces the reader to Jesus, who He is, what He said, and what He did at the start of His ministry. Mark’s intent in writing this gospel was to show Jesus is who He said by showing His ministry. After His baptism by John the Baptist and God’s proclamation that Jesus is His Son, Jesus walked to and stayed in the wilderness for forty days without food or drink, and He did not succumb to Satan’s temptations.
Upon exiting His wilderness experience, Jesus walked to the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee and called four fishermen–Simon, Andrew, James, and John–to follow Him. The men immediately left their boats and walked with Him. Jesus and the four men walked to the synagogue in Capernaum, Galilee. He stood in the synagogue and taught from God’s word with power and authority, then cast evil spirits out of a possessed man. The people began talking among themselves with amazement. Afterwards, Jesus walked with Simon and Andrew to their home. Simon told Jesus about his mother-in-law being sick in bed with a fever. Jesus walked to her, helped her sit up, and willed her to be well. He helped her to her feet, and she began serving the men. When the Sabbath ended, the people brought to Jesus those who were ill and demon possessed. Mark said, “The whole city had gathered at the door. And He (Jesus) healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons” (Mark 1:33-34 [NASB]). People commented throughout Jesus’ actions about His power and authority.
After these activities, Jesus retreated to a quiet place early in the morning to pray. Simon and others searched earnestly for Him. When they found Jesus, Simon told Him everyone was looking for Him. Jesus told Simon and his companions they must go with Him to towns nearby so He could preach there, too. In these four verses (Mark 1:35-38), Jesus modeled and explained ministry for these people. Ministering includes praying to God and proclaiming the gospel. Jesus then took them into synagogues throughout Galilee, preaching and casting out demons.
Compassion
40And a man with leprosy came to Jesus, imploring Him and kneeling down, and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” 41Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” 42And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. (Mark 1:40-42 [NASB])
While in a district in Galilee, a man with leprosy approached Jesus. This man understood the law forbade him from entering the city walls because of his disease. He knew the law forbade him to approach a clean person, a person who was not an outcast because of illness or demon possession. This leper learned about Jesus’ miracles. He wanted Him to cure him, too. Perhaps he had listened to the religious leaders teaching that God judges sinners with infirmities. We do not know what this leper knew and understood. He wanted to go to the temple to worship God. The leper wanted to be around other people. He did not want to be an outcast.
This leper listened to people talk about Jesus and risked further shunning by approaching Him, a non-outcast, a clean person. He begged. This man used the most humbling way to approach a person for a favor. He kneeled before Jesus. He lowered himself physically and in status before Jesus begging Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean” (vs. 40). After hearing about the people Jesus healed and the demons He cast out, he believed Jesus could heal him. The leper recognized Jesus as being greater than himself and risked shunning to implore Him for favor, grace.
The leper stated Jesus had the power to heal him when he said if He “willed.” When Jesus willed something, He gave His best offer. He was disposed-chose-to do something. When Jesus died on the cross, He gave His absolute best offer-salvation and eternal life. This leper did not realize Jesus had that ability, but he trusted Jesus could heal him and stated that fact in this verse. “If You are willing.” The leper begged Jesus to give His best offer that he had noted from overheard conversations–healing that made him ceremonially and socially clean. His curing would make him clean. This man desired for the people to accept him.
Jesus disposed Himself toward this man. He listened to the man and acted upon it. Mark said, “Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed’” (vs 41). Jesus willed-desired-to give His best offer to this man. He desired the leper to receive ceremonial cleansing. Jesus used the same word the leper did when he asked for cleansing. The leper wanted ceremonial and social cleansing. He wanted to be in the city and the synagogue. Jesus proved to the leper, the watchers, and the later-hearers He is able and willing to heal and cleanse people. Jesus can do more than that, as Mark tells later in His gospel, but the time was not right yet. At the right time, Jesus would declare His purpose on earth.
Another factor to consider in this meeting with the leper is Jesus touched him. Jesus risked getting leprosy by touching Him, but He did not contract it. If Jesus had contracted leprosy, the priest would have proclaimed Him an outcast, too. This would have made Jesus unable to go to the areas in which the people lived. Jesus did not become infected with it. He, a clean man, touched an unclean one and made him clean, while Himself not becoming unclean. If the leaders considered this action in depth, they would have realized only a truly “clean” person can make another clean. Only a person who is absolutely clean can make another person clean. If the religious leaders dived deeper into their theology, they would remember their belief that God gives disease and death to those who sin against Him. By making this leper clean, Jesus’ actions said He forgave the leper and He Himself is God. Only God could forgive sins. The religious leaders had not pondered Jesus’ actions and teachings deeply yet. Soon, Jesus’ ministry would encounter negative reactions.
Again, Mark used one of his favorite adverbs. He wrote the word “immediately.” He wrote in such a way that it appeared Jesus rapidly encountered and interceded with power and authority for people one after another. In verse forty-two, Mark wrote, “And at once, the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.” Jesus willed the man to be well, and he was. He did not instruct the man to make a wish or do anything before he received healing. Jesus willed it and it occurred. Immediately, the leprosy left him. At once, the man became clean. Jesus willed, reached out, and touched. He did everything necessary for the man to be healed/cleansed. The man did nothing to receive healing other than approach Jesus, the One whom he trusted could heal him.
Command
43And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, 44and 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, as a testimony to them.” 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, 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. (Mark 1:43-45 [NASB])
Once again, Mark used his favorite adverb, immediately. Mark pushed along the gospel about Jesus. He made it look as if no time elapsed between when Jesus healed the leper and when He sent him on his way with a stern command. With a strong warning, Jesus sent the once-leper away. What was the firm/stern warning Jesus gave the man? He commanded him not to tell anyone what happened, that Jesus healed him. Instead, Jesus firmly told him to show himself to the priest and give the offering Moses wrote in the Pentateuch. Notice Jesus willed the man to be well and touched him. He had compassion for the former leper. Now Jesus commanded the man what to do next, show himself to the priest. The man did nothing to be well and clean. He had to go to the priest for his declaration of cleanness. This once-leprous man had to give the offering, which Moses wrote about, at the synagogue. With his cleansing, the former leper had obligations in the world. Jesus had compassion and commanded.
Why did Jesus not want the man to tell people about Him? Why did He tell him first to go straight to the priest? Perhaps, Jesus did not want the leper to tell people because then they would constantly want Him to do miracles. Possibly, Jesus might not have wanted people to know He is the Messiah yet. Their expectation of the Messiah was as a political deliverer, a warrior king who would throw the Romans out of Israel. What Mark emphasizes in his gospel is that at the right time, Jesus would fulfill the requirements for the salvation of humanity. Jesus commanded this clean man to tell nobody. The time was not right yet.
Jesus commanded the clean man not to tell anyone but to go straight to the priest and give the offering required according to Moses’ command. This man trusted in Jesus and received the healing He willed for him. Yet, he did not obey His command. The once-leper walked and proclaimed his experience with Jesus freely and openly so that the news spread (vs. 45). Why did Mark highlight this part of the man’s story? Because by proclaiming about Jesus, it made it harder for Jesus to speak in populated places and have relative anonymity. He could not enter a city publicly, but had to stay in sparsely populated areas. Yet, what God planned, no human can stop. People from everywhere sought Jesus. Later in his Gospel, Mark will recall the 4000 and 5000 people who followed Jesus out of the city. They would need food because they were so far away from their money and a source of food.
The once-leprous man was now ceremonially and socially clean, but he did not obey Jesus’ command. He finally arrived, in his own time, at the synagogue to show himself to the priest and offer the sacrifices. The first part of Jesus’ directions. Showing himself to the priest and giving an offering were to be the first public testimonies of his cleanness. Instead, his first offering was to disobey Jesus. It was lip service, not heart service. It might have hindered more people from learning about Jesus. Humanity cannot thwart God’s plans, though. Jesus’ fame grew, and people sought Him.
Application and Conclusion
Mark’s telling about the leprous man Jesus healed is more than about what Jesus can do. Any time a person encounters another, a reaction happens. A person may say, “Hello,” in passing. The recipient of the greeting may respond similarly. If the person does not respond vocally to the first person, the lack of response is the person’s reaction to the greeting. People react with action or inaction.
In this retelling of Jesus healing the leper, Mark noted for readers who did which actions. He began and ended with the leper’s actions. Most actions, though, were in the story’s body. At the start, the man kneeled before and begged Jesus to make him clean. In the end, that man disobeyed Jesus and told people about his healing before going to the priest as commanded. Jesus’ compassion moved Him to will the man’s healing, so He touched him and cleansed him. As the recipient of Jesus’ favor because of his acknowledgment of His compassion and power to heal, Jesus commanded the man not to tell people about Him. Instead, He commanded the man to go to the priest and then offer the sacrifices required in the Old Testament. These would show his ceremonial and social cleanness.
Jesus’ reaction to the man’s entreaty and humility was compassion and action that showed His love. The leper’s reaction to Jesus’ compassion and command was disobedience and personal satisfaction. The man could legally be among people at last. He wanted that more than he wanted to obey the One he recognized as greater, Jesus. This once-leprous man did what he wanted before he did what Jesus commanded. Jesus did not need the man to show himself to the priest before He healed the leper. He healed him out of compassion, with no strings attached.
Jesus comes to each of us with no strings attached. He did everything necessary for each person to receive salvation from the judgment his or her sins deserve. We do not have to do anything except believe in Him as God’s Son, our Savior, and confess and repent of our sins. If you have done that, have you followed the command He gave to each of His disciples? Jesus said, the greatest commandment is to love the Lord, God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:36-40). In neither of these is a person to exalt self above God nor the neighbor. The desires of oneself are not greater than Jesus’ commands. The command to love our neighbors includes proclaiming about Jesus and the salvation He gives to each person who believes. Proclaim about God’s love for each person. Follow Jesus’ model for ministry. Have compassion on people, your neighbors. Tell them about Him.
If you refuse to obey Jesus’ commands, how much must you hate your neighbors that you do not tell them about Jesus and salvation? What caused that hate or disdain toward them? Is it because you love yourself more than them and more than God? Yes, that precisely is what causes that reaction to Jesus. The choice not to obey what Jesus commands, even though not overtly stated by you, is a reaction to His command. Disobedience by omission is disobedience, outright defiance. These reactions to Jesus are self-satisfaction, not obedience.
Jesus gives several imperatives in the Bible. To unbelievers and Christians, He says, “Come to Me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). What keeps you from accepting His rest? Jesus told the men who would become His disciples, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of people” (Matthew 4:19). If you follow Jesus, then refuse to do as He commands that disobedience is your reaction to Jesus’ call. If you recognize Jesus’ call to follow Him, but ignore it and go your own way, you are reacting to His imperative by going the other way.
With each encounter in life, we have the choice to engage positively, negatively, or completely ignore the encounter. The leper engaged with Jesus. He humbled himself and begged for mercy. Jesus had compassion for Him and healed him. He reacted to the man’s plight and plea positively. The healed leper reacted to Jesus with joy and immediately disobeyed the One whom he sought. This leper was like many people throughout history and into the endless future. He overtly disobeyed Jesus’ command. The leper was like Judas Iscariot. Alternatively, people who listen to others speak about Jesus but choose not to engage with Him shun His compassion. Their reaction is inaction to Jesus’ call. These people are like the priests who learned about or who listened to Jesus for themselves but ignored and persecuted Him.
Whether a person believes, then rebels, or chooses not to believe after hearing about Jesus, ignoring Jesus for self-satisfaction is the cause. Where are you in life? Who are you in this story of the leper? Are you the leper who sought Jesus, received His healing, then disobeyed Him? Are you the people who heard about what Jesus did for the leper, but did not believe in Him?
Today, since you have gotten this far in the lesson, these two questions affect you. You have heard about Jesus. Will you believe in Him for salvation, then continue to choose to live for your own satisfaction, in rebellion to Him? Will you push Him away and disobey because you wish to do something besides what He commanded you? Jesus wills for us to receive His salvation that He freely gives. He wants to have an eternal relationship with us.
Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28 [NASB])
God is everywhere. We cannot go anywhere that He will not see us and know what we are doing and thinking. If you think by turning your back on God, you get away from Him, that is not accurate. He will keep making the offer of the salvation Jesus made possible for every person who believes in Him. He desires for you to be saved from your sins, the judgment of your sins, and an eternal separation in Hell away from Him.
Will you believe in Jesus?
Will you accept the salvation He offers you?
Will you obey Him no matter the cost?
What are you willing to do now that you have heard about
Jesus?
7Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9If I take up the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10Even there, Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will take hold of me.
(Psalm 139 7-10 [NASB])
