Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone,” … But he went out and began to talk freely about it. Mark 1:43-45 ESV1
Read Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45 & Luke 5:12-16
Are you a questioner? Do you have to be fully convinced before you take action? Do you have to know the reason why a command is given before you obey? Do you have to know all the facts before you proceed? Or, are you unconditionally obedient? When one in charge gives you a command, do you obey completely even when you don’t understand the why behind the request? Do you trust the integrity of authority figures; therefore, you obey without question? Do you act in faith without justification? Or, are you somewhere in the middle, evaluating each situation separately, obeying fully sometimes, choosing to disobey at other times? The recipient of Jesus’ next healing had to decide as to whether he would fully obey the command given to him.
This healing seems to have also taken place in Capernaum. The exact timing of this miracle is unclear, but the story is the same in all three of the Gospels in which it is mentioned. We may not know when this happened, but we can be pretty sure what happened.
“And a leper came to [Jesus], imploring Him, and kneeling said to Him, ‘If You will, You can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean” (Mark 1:40-42).
“Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms, legs, and skin areas around the body. The disease has been around since ancient times, often surrounded by terrifying, negative stigmas and tales of leprosy patients being shunned as outcasts …
Leprosy primarily affects the skin and the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, called the peripheral nerves. It may also strike the eyes and the thin tissue lining the inside of the nose. The main symptom of leprosy is disfiguring skin sores, lumps, or bumps that do not go away after several weeks or months. The skin sores are pale-colored …
Complications of leprosy can include: Blindness or glaucoma, disfiguration of the face (including permanent swelling, bumps, and lumps), … kidney failure, muscle weakness that leads to claw-like hands or an inability to flex the feet, permanent damage to the inside of the nose, which can lead to nosebleeds and a chronic, stuffy nose, permanent damage to the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, including those in the arms, legs, and feet.
Nerve damage can lead to a dangerous loss of feeling. A person with leprosy-related nerve damage may not feel pain when the hands, legs, or feet are cut, burned, or otherwise injured.”2
No wonder this man came to Jesus asking for healing from this horrible, disfiguring disease. No wonder he begged for mercy with, “If you will.” Leprosy isn’t only a terrifying disease; it is a contagious disease. Even if anyone else wanted to help this man, they would have been unable. Jesus did what this man believed Jesus could do; He gave him healing. And Jesus did what the man only hoped Jesus would do; He gave him mercy. But Jesus went above and beyond the expectations of anyone; He gave the leper touch. Likely, this man had not received the touch of another human in a long time. Let me tell you why.
“God had given the Israelites very specific instructions on how to deal with leprosy and other skin infections (Leviticus 13). Anyone suspected of having this disease had to go to a priest for examination (Leviticus 13:2-3). If found to be infected, “the leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp” (Leviticus 13:45-46). The leper then was considered utterly unclean—physically and spiritually.
[During Bible times, leprosy was] incurable by man, [and] many believed God inflicted the curse of leprosy upon people for the sins they committed. In fact, those with leprosy were so despised and loathed that they were not allowed to live in any community with their own people (Numbers 5:2) … A leper wasn’t allowed to come within six feet of any other human, including his own family. The disease was considered so revolting that the leper wasn’t permitted to come within 150 feet of anyone when the wind was blowing. Lepers lived in a community with other lepers until they either got better or died. This was the only way the people knew to contain the spread of the contagious forms of leprosy.”3
Today, due to the grace of God and modern advancements in medicine, leprosy can be cured with multiple rounds of antibiotics. Now, “about 180,000 people worldwide are infected with leprosy, according to the World Health Organization, most of them in Africa and Asia. About 100 people are diagnosed with leprosy in the U.S. every year, mostly in the South, California, Hawaii, and some U.S. territories … In the last two decades, 16 million people with leprosy have been cured. ”2
Thank God leprosy is not the suffering death sentence it used to be. Yet, I’m sure everyone who has been cured of it has a reason to rejoice and tell others of the horrible circumstance they have averted.
The man who was cured of leprosy in this account wanted to share his story, too. But “Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and 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, for a proof to them’” (Mark 1:43-44).
We don’t know for sure, but this man probably followed part of Jesus’ command. He probably performed the required procedure for those who had been cleansed of leprosy. This procedure can be found in Leviticus 14:1-32. It involves an inspection by a priest, a sacrifice, a ritual cleansing, a bath and shave, a week-long partial separation from others, another bath and shave, another sacrifice, the sprinkling of blood, and an anointing with oil. Then, and only then, would the leper’s sins be atoned for and he/she would be considered clean and able to go about normal activities.
What we do know is that the former leper did not obey all of Jesus’ command. “He went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news” (Mark 1:45a). It really is hard to blame the guy for not completely obeying. He had to be extremely excited and incredibly grateful. People had to be questioning him about what happened. His family and friends undoubtedly joined him in his excitement. He had been an outcast; now he was a celebrity. So, even if he wanted to honor Jesus’ request, he probably gave in to the temptation to talk about his experience to any captive audience.
The problem was, his disobedience hurt the ministry of the One who had taken pity on him, the One who had touched him, the One who had given him the healing which made him so popular. Because of the testimony of this man, “Jesus could no longer openly enter a town but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to Him from every quarter” (Mark 1:45b).
Without realizing it, this man actually prevented those who may have needed Jesus’ help the most from getting to Him. He prevented people just like himself who had serious infirmities from having a healing experience similar to the one he had had. No longer was Jesus able to come to the weak and the sick and the hurting. It was primarily those who were strong enough and free enough from limitations who were able to make it to Jesus. And many of those only followed Jesus for the excitement, the challenge, or the occasional free meal.
What seemed to the former leper as a tiny, justifiable disobedience (especially after he probably religiously went through that whole required rigmarole with the priest to be fully cleansed) turned out to be a much bigger deal than he could have ever dreamed. But this man isn’t the only one with a partial obedience problem. We all have a partial obedience problem. We all have the tendency to obey in the things we feel are important while we let the matters we consider minor slide. But every time we disobey God, even in seemingly small, insignificant areas, we hurt Jesus and His ministry. We may not realize this side of Heaven the damage we have done to the Name of Christ by our disobedience in areas we think are irrelevant, but when our eyes are opened, we will be heartbroken.
This is not a call to legalism; Jesus abhors the pride and bondage of legalism. Nor is this a demand for perfection; that would be an impossible request. But it is a call to seriousness. “So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).
Also, this is not a call to judge others for disobeying a command Jesus gave you. This command was for this man, and Jesus had a reason for asking it. Elsewhere, Jesus told another man He had healed, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). Jesus also had a reason for that command. Obedience is between you and Jesus.
Resolve now to obey Jesus even when His commands don’t make sense or even when you don’t understand the reasoning behind them. Ask God to show you where you are failing Him with incomplete obedience. Repent and ask for His forgiveness. Accept His help in obeying Him fully. You won’t be alone; I will be doing the same thing.
1 Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.
2https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/guide/leprosy-symptoms-treatments-history#3
3 https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-leprosy.html