Moving on in our study from the Sermon on the Mount, we come to Matthew 8. We need to ask ourselves, at what point in Jesus’ ministry did this take place – was it early or late?. Was this during the period when He was well-known and greatly appreciated by the people? Was this when people knew little about Him, or was it when the Jews were against Him. Did this take place in Galilee or Judea, and would this have changed the context? Such questions help us to understand what sort of things were going on.
Answering these questions about Matthew 8, I believe this was still very early in our Saviour’s life and ministry. If we removed Matthew 5-7 and jumped back to chapter 4, the Lord had just called His primary disciples. These events might have been recorded in Mark 1 and some were recorded in Luke 4. Why do I mention this? Because that makes this leper’s faith that much more spectacular. He had very little on which to base his faith, other than the gift of faith itself.
In this chapter and the next, the Lord shows us examples of great faith, and He praises people for it. I can’t recall an occasion where you will find Jesus praising a man for his proper application of justice. There are a few cases when He commends a man for his doctrine, especially His God-given recognition of the deity of Christ. But in this and the next few verses the Lord expresses His delight in different people’s faith. It’s not in regard to this leper, but rather to the Centurion in the next story, but verse 10 says, “When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” It would be improper to say that this infinite God was ever “amazed” at anything. But our Saviour delights in faith, even if it was He who gave it to the believer in the first place.
For the next few minutes let’s think about what these few verses teach us about true faith.
First, real faith can be found in what appears to be the most DEFILED HOST.
The Sermon on the Mount was a hard-hitting message on the rules of the Christian life. It plunged into the heart of the very nature of human society, condemning even the best human religion. It is impossible to know how many of the multitudes flocking around Him at that moment, heard it. But some of them did, and they were still following Him. But how many put into practice what the Lord Jesus had just preached? And there was only one who on this occasion came and “worshiped” Him – verse 2. Truly, “many are called, but few are chosen” to receive the blessings of God. I can imagine someone say, “But this worship might have been nothing more than bowing out of respect.” Not so. There is no doubt about the genuineness of this man’s worship of Christ, as we shall see.
The man of this passage was a leper; he suffered with the horrible disease of leprosy. The first Biblical reference that we have to this disease is found in Exodus. Moses had been arguing with the Lord about his qualifications for God’s service. “And the LORD said … unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow” – Exodus 4:6. The next reference is found in Leviticus where we begin to find some of the extensive laws about lepers. It seems to have been introduced to the people of God through the Egyptians. It came into Israel by way of the wicked world of Egypt. And perhaps in these two things we begin to see that leprosy is special among the diseases of humanity. It is the only one which rendered the afflicted unfit for fellowship with God, according to Biblical rule. A person may have leukemia, cancer, Alzheimers, or a bad cold, and he is not forbidden to enter the house of the Lord. But according to the Old Testament law, the leper faced prohibition.
Leprosy has been chosen by God to illustrate the contamination of sin. Can you name any other disease that was sent by God as punishment for sin? Yes, I have heard that about AIDS, but I’m looking for something stated in Scripture. There were a few people who died suddenly as a result of sin. But it can’t be proven that Ananias, Saphira or any others actually had heart disease. And even if that were the case, an heart attack isn’t proof of the wrath of God. And yes, the arm of Jeroboam was crippled when he held out his hand against the Lord’s anointed. But those were few and isolated cases. On several occasions, however, the Lord directly and unmistakably afflicted overt sinners with leprosy. Two notable cases were Gehazi the servant of Elisha, and Miriam the rebellious sister of Moses. And those people were then forbidden to fellowship with God or the people of God. Out the hundreds of diseases, only this one excluded the sufferer from fellowship with God and with communion with his neighbors. If a man suffered from Multiple Sclerosis or cancer of the liver, was he ordered out of town and forced to live in a cancer colony? If someone had pneumonia was he excluded from the priesthood? Leprosy was chosen by God, above all other possible choices, to illustrate sin and the effects of sin. It was, and is, a hideous and loathsome disease. It spreads corruption and disability throughout the body, and it was, and still is, basically incurable. It is a contagious disease under certain circumstances. It generally ended, after a long period of time, in an horrible death. The leper was ordered to bewail his disease as if he was already dead; it was considered a living death. And he was commanded to warn everyone who approached him that he was contaminated.
This particular man had suffered with leprosy for a long time. Luke tells us that he was “full of the disease.” His skin, rather than fleshly pink was primarily white, but there might have been a few red patches. The disease was killing the nerves to his flesh and skin, and the cells there were dying or dead. There was the likelihood that his eyes were failing, and that he was nearly blind, because he wasn’t or couldn’t keep them moist. Perhaps he had lost some of his nose, ears, fingers or toes. The rotting and decaying flesh of his body probably gave off a loathsome odor. The man may have been grotesque to look upon, and even worse to touch. Little children threw stones at people like this, and their parents pulled them off and quickly walked away. He was probably a man unloved and undesired in the world.
And yet here was a man who had a special faith in the Lord. It doesn’t matter how low anyone has fallen, your condition is not as important as your faith. If the Lord can show grace to Saul of Tarsus He can show grace to anyone, even a leper like this.
The depth of a man’s sin, or the seriousness of his condition, doesn’t negate or destroy his faith.
Second, TRUE faith can even be a WEAK AND SICKLY faith.
The Lord Jesus healed several lepers throughout His three year ministry. The Bible tells us that on several occasions He visited certain areas, and when sick people were brought to Him, He healed every single one of them, without exception. And there were several specific cases of lepers that were healed by Christ – but this was the first. This miraculous healing has been recorded in all three of the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. The record in Mark is found in the first chapter. In Luke the record is given only after the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and a crippled man. In Matthew we have the accounts of Jesus’ birth, baptism and the beatitudes – then this. My point is this – when this leper came to Christ, he had never seen or heard of the healing of any of his fellow lepers. So far there had been no one raised from the dead, or any sort of case that even came close to his own. So we are not surprised that his faith isn’t as well honed as it might have been – and yet it was superb.
“Lord, if you wilt, thou canst make me clean.” The man didn’t say, “I BELIEVE that you can cleanse and heal me.” Even that would be a statement of genuine faith, but what he said was stronger than that. It wasn’t “I believe” but simply, “You CAN cleanse me.” The weakness of this man’s faith wasn’t directed towards the power of the Lord. The man had no doubt about Jesus’ omnipotence over this disease. When he threw himself down in the dust before the Master, it was not out of respect for a powerful man. Without any precedent, this man was acknowledging Jesus’ ability to raise the dead and to cure the living dead. This leper was worshiping the divine Son of God.
So where was the weakness of his faith? It is easier to believe in the miracles of Christ than in the love of Christ. Especially is this true as our hearts begin to grasp the wretchedness of our own sins. One says, “I am a leper,” and another has destroyed his life through crime and drugs. One man says, “I am an adulterer; I have taken another man’s wife.” A second man says, “I am a murderer and have taken another man’s life.” A third person says, “How can God save a person like me, I am the very chiefest of sinners.” It is far easier to believe in the ability of the Lord to cleanse our hearts than it is to believe that He has a will to do so. It is easier to believe in the miracles of Christ than in the love of Christ.
But it’s not the strength of our faith, or the depth of its theology, that is important. What is important is the Lord in whom we are putting our trust. “Lord, if you wilt, thou canst make me clean.”
True faith TOUCHES THE OMNIPOTENCE of God and can’t see help anywhere else.
I can’t be absolutely sure, but in all probability, when the first signs began showing up in his skin, this man denied that it was leprosy. He tried calling it one thing or another, instead of leprosy – eczema, hives, just a scrape. He tried putting on various creams and home remedies for a while. Certainly he delayed visiting the doctor until he was actually forced to go, because the doctor would have been forced to send him straight to one of the priests.
It is the nature of sinners to deny that they are sinners. They have bad genes from their parents, but they aren’t sinners. They were raised in the ghetto, but they aren’t sinners. They have certain weaknesses and diseases like alcoholism, but they aren’t drunks or sinners. If at all, most come slowly, very slowly to the realization of what and who they really are. Most people die in total ignorance– or denial – of their sinful condition. But unfortunately ignorance about sin isn’t bliss.
This man turned to Christ Jesus, because he was an incurable leper without anywhere else to turn. He had come to the realization of who and what he was. May this be true of us.
But his true faith FOUND AND ACCEPTED THE CURE which he needed.
Mark 1:41 says that the Lord Jesus was “moved with compassion” toward this sorry creature. Did he deserve the Lord’s compassion? To some degree the answer would be “yes,” but in other more important ways – “absolutely not.” How did this man contract the disease? Probably by touching someone else who had leprosy. I am told that this is not an airborne virus. He was sinner because he touched another sinner; because he was the son of another sinner. What is the likelihood that as a child he, too, laughed at an earlier generation of lepers and perhaps threw stones at them before his mother quickly hurried him away?
The Lord’s compassion wasn’t generated by the leper or his disease; it was generated by the heart of Christ. “How can you be so sure of that preacher? You’re reading things into the text that aren’t there.” It’s true that I’m reading between the lines, but my mind is also filled with what I read of the Lord Jesus in so many other places in the Word of God. In addition to the love of Christ elsewhere, I see something more than common action here. The compassion of the Lord caused him to touch the hideous skin of this man. Remember that this was the same Saviour who, at a distance of several miles, commissioned a servant to be healed of his malady. This is the Saviour who ordered life to return to the body of Lazarus on the other side of a tomb door. This is the same Saviour who turned water into wine without hardly looking at it. And remember that this is also the same God who said in Leviticus that if a man touched a leper he became unclean and possibly infected with the disease himself. There was no reason for Christ to touch this man, but the compassion that welled up in His heart forced Him to stretch his hand toward the disease.
This illustrates the truth that there is only one way to destroy the power of sin over us. “The Lord Jesus took upon himself our sins in His body as He hung upon the cross.” “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”
When the man asked for cleansing, the Lord Jesus didn’t wait a single moment. He didn’t deliberate or question the man about his motives or about his faith. He didn’t strike any bargains with the man. “If you behave yourself, or if you go down to the river to be baptised by John, I will heal you.” Jesus unhesitatingly touched the man and instantly healed him. The man’s skin was probably as smooth and blemish-free as it was as a new born baby. And notice that when Jesus spoke he said, “I WILL; be thou clean.” The man didn’t have any doubts about Jesus’ ability, only about His will. And the Lord didn’t mention His ability; only His will, “I WILL; be thou clean.”
What was the thing within the man which linked him to his healing? His faith. “Jesus said unto (another), I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” – John 11:25. “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” – John 20:30-31. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” – John 5:24.
An incidental lesson here is that true faith is not necessarily linked with TRUE OBEDIENCE.
It was not the man’s obedience which guaranteed his deliverance, it was the power of the Lord Jesus. After the healing, the Christ gave the man an unusual command: “And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.” This was not the only time that the Lord commanded one of the recipients of His miracles to be quiet. And in this case He didn’t really give us an explanation. This forces us either to be quiet ourselves or to make some conjectures. Since we have the command recorded, I think that the Lord would like to hear the conjectures.
The primary reason for the prohibition is explained in Mark’s account of the miracle. The former leper went out, “and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city.” Remember that this was the first miracle of this kind and magnitude. It apparently so excited the crowd that the Lord Jesus was forced to flee into the desert. This was a Messianic miracle; one which incited Millennial ideas in the people. Some were ready to crown Christ and to enrobe Him in the ermine and velvet of David’s royal garments. Some were prepared to pick up arms to follow Christ into battle against the inferior Romans. But Jesus came not at this time to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. It wasn’t time for the crown, and it wasn’t even time for the cross quite yet. “And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.”
But in addition to this, there might have been other reasons why Jesus told the man to be silent. First, according to the Law of God, this cured leper had some legal and religious responsibilities. He was to immediately begin a journey towards Jerusalem. He was to present himself to the priests there in order to be declared clean, beginning his newly resurrected life. The Lord Jesus even reminded the man of this Old Testament law. You might wonder why he couldn’t just visit the local synagogue or find one of the off-duty priests who lived in scattered villages around the country. It was because the man had also the responsibility to offer various blood sacrifices and thank offerings. These could only be presented to the Lord at God’s chosen location, the Temple in Jerusalem. As I see it, the cleansed sinner has the responsibility to present himself before the Lord’s people in one of Christ’s churches. He should be baptized as the Bible clearly declares. He should there and then publically confess the Lord Jesus Christ as His Saviour. The Lord demands true obedience to go along with our true faith.
But there might be other reasons for this initial prohibition. The more that men insert themselves into the work of God, the more that work is tarnished. Why not let the new life in Christ speak for itself for a while. I’m not sure what this man’s skin looked like at this point. The average man of Israel had leathery hard skin, baked by the sun, blasted with the occasional storm, and tanned to the point of blackness. Did the Lord give to this man regular adult skin which –typical for his age group? Or, as I imagine, did He give him the skin of a babe – all pink, soft, and easily sunburned? The new skin of this man was probably as out of place as a blond haired, blue eyed, light complected Canadian newly arrived in Afghanistan. Mr. Leper, why not just let the miraculous change speak for itself.
And then finally, if the man did start publishing and blazing abroad what had happened, how quickly would it have become a matter of pride? Perhaps it wouldn’t have so affected some people, but others might have become really conceited over what the Lord had done. This man had a job to take care of in Jerusalem. He didn’t have any business becoming too occupied with himself.
I have no Biblical authority for these next thoughts, so you may take them or leave them. But towards the end of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry, we find Him being entertained by a man named “Simon, the Leper.” Judging from the circumstances mentioned in Matthew and Mark, the man appears to have been cured of his leprosy. Could it that man of Matthew 26, be this same unnamed leper? Could it be that he began to serve his Master and to support Him in various ways, such as meals and money? Could it be that, like Levi the tax collector, he encouraged other lepers to come to the Saviour for forgiveness and healing?
The LORD IS LOOKING for true faith even yet today.
He is looking for His elect upon whom He would bestow His blessings of forgiveness and cleansing. Look inside that heart of yours to see if the Lord hasn’t put a tiny bit of faith which you can give back to Him. You are as defiled as this man, perhaps not by disease, but at least by sin. You are going to die a horrible death in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, if you are not cured. But if you’ll just reach out to the Saviour as this man did, you too can be saved.
Have you ever heard the Saviour say to you personally, “I will, be THOU clean?” Why don’t you plead with Jesus as this man did: “Lord, if you WILT, thou canst make me clean.”