Whenever I read this particular narrative, I'm inevitably start wondering to myself, "why does Jesus command this man not to tell anyone?" and that is the question that I really end up meditating on.

But as I was preparing to preach on these verses it suddenly hit me, that in doing so, I am skipping over the most important details of the story. I'm almost unconscious to the fact that this is the story of a man afflicted with leprosy who is healed by Jesus. Do you ever do that? Do you ever just read these miracles and think: Jesus heals a leper, well that's what Jesus does, Jesus heals people. Ok, what's next in the gospel? Now I seriously doubt anyone here has gotten to the point where you might read them in the same way you read the so and so begat so and so's in the genealogies, but have you perhaps, like me become a little bit benumbed to the stories of Christ's healings?

46 "He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp." (Lev. 13:45-46)

You cannot imagine the sadness, loneliness, despair, and pain that must have attended this man's life.

But then he heard that there was a man called Jesus who was preaching the coming of the kingdom of God. Perhaps, he had heard it directly, lingering on the edges of one of the crowds that gathered in open places to hear the savior speak. He knew from the writings of the prophets, that when the Messiah came that He would come bringing healing and doing many great miracles, for this Messiah would be more than a prophet He would be Immanuel – Hebrew, meaning God with Us.

Matthew makes it quite explicit in Matt. 8:2. There he uses the word proskuneo, meaning to worship, to describe what the Leper does. Yet Jesus does not implore him to get up. Again and again in the gospels, Jesus accepts the worship of men, and even the bold declaration of the no longer doubting Thomas: "My Lord and My God" in John 20:28. Jesus does this because He is who the Prophets declared He was, who He said He was, and Who the Apostles declared Him to be: God, the Son.

What does this Leper say: he calls Jesus "Lord", and says "if You are willing, You can make me clean."

Who, merely by willing it, can cleanse a man of Leprosy? And yet this Leper is absolutely convinced that Jesus has that power. He is offering up a powerful prayer to God, asking if it is in accordance with his will, that he be cleansed.

This is an act of great faith, and reveals this afflicted man's believing heart.

Mark tells us that at this Jesus was moved with Compassion for Him. He is willing to do what he has asked.

Now Jesus could have healed this man, with merely a word. You remember how in Matthew 8:13 he heals the Centurion's servant without even entering into his house, he merely says "Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed"

And in that very moment the servant recovers.

Yet Jesus does not do that. He reaches out and touches this man to heal him. Under the ceremonial Law this man was defiled, and his disease was quite possibly highly infectious. And yet when Jesus touches him He is neither defiled nor infected as we might be. Instead, it is this man who is made clean in a moment. Purified at the touch of the Savior.

Then Jesus immediately sends Him to the priests so that in accordance with the ceremonial law, he might be certified as clean and formally readmitted into Jewish society. Although the ceremonial law, as signs and shadows that pointed to Christ the reality they prefigured is even at that moment passing away, Christ is zealous to see it observed until the moment at which it expired when he finished His work of Redemption on the Cross. He also, no doubt wants all the glory for this healing to be given to God, and to be a testimony to the Priests themselves, that the one whom they served in the Temple had come to them bearing Glad Tidings.

And of course now we come to the part I admitted always struck me as curious. Why does Jesus order the man to tell no one about his healing? Why on earth would the Messiah not want the evidence of His coming spread abroad?

The answer lay in what Jesus told the Apostles in Chapter 4:43: "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose."

Whenever the news of His healings was spread abroad, great crowds would gather, pressing in on Him from every side, and it became impossible for Jesus to do what he came to do => Preach the Good News! To tell people that the one who would free them from bondage to sin and death had come.

You remember that in the last chapter it had gotten so bad that the only way he could preach in one locale was to get into a boat and address the crowd from the water.

Now there are many in our own congregation who are afflicted, who live with constant pain in their lives, and if I could, I would like nothing better than to heal you with a word or a touch. If word got about that I could do that, then we all know that the size of our Sunday services would quickly outgrow this little chapel and even probably every mega-church we could build – but let me ask you, how many do you think would be coming to hear the preaching of the Gospel?

So as he had before, Jesus goes to a deserted place to pray. Our Lord needs to be in daily communion with God the Father, and it was this daily faithful attendance on an ordinary means that sustained Him and gave Him the strength to complete the mission He was sent for. As I said before if Christ, the Son of God, found it necessary to be often, in prayer, how much should we who are merely mortal men and women be at prayer? How many of our failures and disappointments are directly attributable to our LACK of prayer? As JC Ryle points out: "The most successful workmen in the Lord's vineyard are those who, like their Master, are often and much upon their knees"

Well let me leave you with 2 applications from these verses, one minor and one major:

1. You see in these verses that zeal for the gospel can actually be harmful to the progress of the gospel, if your zeal is not expressed in accordance with the commands of Christ. The man here who was healed, wanted to share the news of His miraculous healing far and wide. But Jesus Christ had clearly commanded Him to tell no one. Now we don't know whether it was because He thought he knew better than the savior, or just because He allowed his excitement to overcome his desire to obey but this man disobeyed the Lord, and in so doing, although it was never his intention to do so, he actually made it MORE difficult for Jesus to do what He was sent to earth to do.

   I hear all the time these days, that Christians may and should do whatever they want as long as they are conveying the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Even if that means disobeying the commands of Jesus Christ and employing methods He has not authorized or promised to bless. For instance, I spoke last year with a Presbyterian pastor who proudly told me that he canceled the worship service on the day of the Superbowl and held a Superbowl Party at the church instead. He argued that this was the best way to reach the surrounding culture with the Gospel. Now I don't doubt this brother's zeal to see the name of Christ spread abroad for one moment, but I have real problems with the idea that we should do it that way. At the time I asked him if he thought the Apostles would have canceled Sunday worship and instead held a party in the Circus Maximus on the day of the big chariot race. I'd argue that what you're actually doing is converting the church the church to the surrounding culture not vice versa.

    

2. This is most important: It is possible to read these verses and think they aren't directly applicable to you, because you are not physically afflicted with Leprosy. But what of your soul? In modern times, people afflicted with leprosy are taught to constantly be checking, themselves, because the disease kills nerve endings, so they hurt themselves, don't realize it, and then get infections which can in turn become gangrenous. A small cut on the bottom of a foot can lead to an amputation, if you never see or sense the spread of the corruption.

We are all born spiritual lepers; as Isaiah 1:6 puts it – "From the sole of the foot even to the head, There is no soundness in it, But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;"

Unfortunately, we are all to prone to live our lives either ignorant of or in open denial of our own corruption. You can have the blackest of hearts, and be totally convinced that all you do is good and proper. The realization that members of Al Qaeda actually think that they are doing good deeds acceptable in the eyes of God, should be a sobering reminder to us of how pervasive and deceptive sin is.

When then, can we hope to see ourselves aright, as we really are, to see the Spiritual leprosy that afflicts us? It isn't when we compare ourselves to Hitler or the neighbor, or what the culture happens to be doing at the moment. It is when we compare ourselves to the perfect holy law of God, and the only one who kept it perfectly – Jesus Christ. Men and Women who are blessed with that particular vision, will see that they too are "full of leprosy."

What can you do then? How can you can be healed of your spiritual leprosy, how can you have a new heart cleansed of inquity?

Friends, you can know that you have a compassionate savior in Jesus Christ. If you will but go to Him in Faith and say "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Then I tell you today that His words to you are: "I am willing; be cleansed."