Cleansing of the leper.

(Mat. 8:1-4)

After the Sermon, when the Lord Jesus Christ came down from the mountain, a great multitude of people followed Him — undoubtedly deeply shaken. And as it happened once before, here again (about which Evangelists Mark 1:40-45, and Luke 5:12-16 describe) He is approached by a leper, pleading to be cured of this terrible disease. Needless to say, this was far from being an isolated incident of curing a leper - bearing in mind the many miraculous healings, which the Lord performed during the period of His ministry to the people. It is also not surprising that this occurrence is very similar to the first; not surprising also, is that the Lord directed the cured leper to appear before a priest so that he - in accordance with the Law of Moses — be officially recognised as being cured. Without this, the former leper would not be able to return to society, as everybody would avoid him, afraid in the knowledge that he had the dreaded and contagious disease. The Lord commanded the cured leper to keep silent about the healing and to go immediately to the priest and appear before him.

Some thinkers surmised that had the cured leper not gone to Jerusalem to the priest, but instead started to spread the news of his cure, this information would have reached Jerusalem before his arrival. Then the priests that treated the Lord with animosity would start to assert that the purportedly cured leper was never ill.