Mark 1:40-45--Jesus Cleanses a Leper

Mark 1:40-45
English Standard Version
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Jesus Cleanses a Leper
40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 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.” 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

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We have reached the end of chapter 1 in the book of Mark (there are only 16 chapters in Mark).  The chapter ends with a story showing that Jesus is filled with compassion for those who are suffering, but more than that, Jesus can do that which was humanly impossible.  There was no human cure for the disease called leprosy in the Bible.  We have another disease that we call leprosy today, but it's not the same.  This disease was highly contagious, so those infected needed to live in isolation in colonies with other lepers, and they were to make sure if they had to come into the city for anything that they stayed away from people and that they they covered their mouths and yelled "Unclean! Unclean!" so that everyone would move to the other side of the street.  The disease would make their flesh decay while they were still alive, so people could usually smell them coming anyways.  They experienced neuropathy, so they were unaware that rats came and ate their fingers and toes and whatever else they could chew off.  This was a very real disease, but God also used it in the Old Testament and New Testament to be a picture of sin for us.  Sin brings death and decay, it makes us unclean so we are separated from God and cannot enter His presence.  Our uncleanliness has to become our identity.  We are desensitized to the work of the flesh and the devil that are eating away at us, and the only hope of healing is a miracle that will not just cleanse us, but make us now.  Stopping all the rot and decay would be insufficient.  The person would need to have all of the wounds closed up and healed to be made ceremonially clean again.

This leper breaks all the rules to approach Jesus because he knows that Jesus can heal him.  He implores (begs) Jesus to do what is only possible for God to do meaning that he at least believed Jesus to be a prophet of God that God worked through, but this man may have realized Jesus was God in the flesh.

Jesus had compassion and was moved with pity when.  I'm sure He was also moved by this man's faith.  So, Jesus touched the man and the man became clean.  This is the opposite of how people expected it to work, because everything that a leper touched became unclean, but Jesus willingly touched this man and He didn't become unclean--instead, the leper became clean.

Jesus then told the man to go show himself to the high priest and make the sacrifices required by the Law for when someone was cleansed of leprosy by God.  Jesus also instructed the man to not tell anyone that He was the one who healed the man, but the man did not follow these instructions.  He wanted to tell everyone that Jesus healed him.

So many people came to hear Jesus after this that Jesus could no longer openly go into the towns because there wasn't enough room for all those that followed Him.  instead, He had to keep His travel plans secret when He was going to a village or town and spend most of His time in the countryside.  We then see what is described as multitudes (uncountable numbers of people) following Jesus.