Don’t Tell Anyone

“When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him.  And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.  And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean.  And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  And Jesus said unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.”  Matthew 8:1-4

Have you ever wondered why, on some occasions, when Jesus healed someone, He would tell them to not tell anyone about it?  I think that in this case, Jesus intended for the man to go to the priest and offer his gift before he told anyone.  However, other times, I think that Jesus was attempting to avoid others so that He wouldn’t be bombarded with people seeking to see a miracle or in order to avoid stirring up the religious leaders who had been relentless in hassling Jesus all during His earthly ministry.  I can’t imagine how tiring that it was seeing His persecutors everywhere He went, but, even so, that did not stop Him from His ministry.

This was the same day that Jesus gave His Sermon on the Mount to the multitudes who had come to hear Him.  After He finished His sermon, He came down from the mountain, and the people followed Him.  These were some of the same people who later would leave Him because He wasn’t the conquering hero over the Romans that they expected or because they found following Him too great of a challenge.  A man who had leprosy approached Jesus.  We don’t know if he had heard the sermon, but he apparently had heard about Jesus and the miracles that He was doing.  Leprosy was a terrible disease.  It caused the immune system to shut down, allowing sores and ulcers to develop on a person’s skin.  It was spread by contact with a person who had the disease.  Lepers were outcasts of society.  They were not permitted entry into the synogogues nor anywhere near other people.  This reminds me of the COVID pandemic that we recently endured.  The life of a leper was a depressing and lonely existence.  However, it is the lost and lonely, oppressed and shunned whom Jesus came to seek and to save.

The very first thing that the leper did when he met Jesus was to worship Him.  In my mind’s eye, I can picture this leper as being “skin and bones” covered with running sores, dirty, his hair all matted, wearing rags, and emitting a very foul odor.  I can see him falling prostrate on the ground in front of Jesus’ feet.  Had he approached any other Jewish man, even one of the leaders, they would have fled from him fearful of contracting his disease or becoming ceremonially unclean.  All the people who looked upon this man were likely disgusted at his appearance and appalled at his boldness to come before Jesus, but all Jesus saw was a soul worth saving.  This man knew enough about Jesus to have the faith that Jesus could heal him if it was Jesus’ will to do so.  How did this man know that to receive answers to prayer, one must pray for God’s will?  The New Testament had not yet been written.  Matthew Henry wrote, “…when we cannot be sure of His will, we may be sure of His wisdom and mercy, to which we may cheerfully refer ourselves…”  We can always trust Christ for the right outcome.

Jesus wasted no time.  He put forth His hand and touched the leper.  Immediately the man’s skin became as soft as a newborn baby.  Again, I can picture this man standing before Jesus, disease free, and I believe Jesus even cleaned him up.  He likely had clean clothes, his hair combed, and he smelled like a rose!  Jesus doesn’t do anything halfway.  Can you imagine the gasps in the crowd when they saw Jesus reach out and touch this man in his leprous condition?  And then can you imagine their utter surprise to see the man handsome, clean, and smiling?  Those whom man deems unacceptable, Jesus can make respectable.

Jesus then gave the man some instructions.  When Jesus saves a person, He always gives them something to do.  The first thing Jesus said to the man was to “tell no man” what had just happened to him until he showed himself to the priest.  In those days, doctors could not help the leprous, thus, lepers were put under the supervision of the priest.  It was the task of the priest to make the determination as to the status of the leper’s condition.  If he was found to be clean, there were certain procedures to follow:  sacrifices, washing, shaving, more sacrifices, and inspection of the leper’s house (Leviticus 14).  Christ was very conscientious that the law of Moses be followed.  He desired to give no occasion whereby others might accuse Him of circumventing God’s law.  Thus, it was important for the healed leper to follow the law before he told everyone how Jesus had healed him.

I remember another occasion of healing when Jesus told the man who was healed to not tell anyone.  In Luke 7:31-37, Jesus healed a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment.  Jesus told him and the crowd gathered around the two of them that they should not tell anyone, but the more that He insisted, the louder they got about broadcasting this good news.  Another reason for Jesus’ instructions to not tell of these particular healings could be that He didn’t want everyone to focus on physical healing, but more so on the spiritual healing that He brought to mankind.  The healings were chiefly to prove His deity because only God can completely heal a person physically and spiritually.  Jesus’ mission was so much more than healing the physically ill and afflicted.  He came to bring the complete remedy for the worst sickness of all–sin sickness.