And when he had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
The Sermon on the Mount has just ended, and the King now walks back down into the world His words described. Two questions open here. What happens when the teaching of the kingdom meets the real condition of the people at the foot of the hill? And what is the following of a great crowd worth?
Chapters 5 to 7 were words. What follows is proof.
In these two chapters, eight and nine, we have a series of ten miracles. They begin with the leper and end with the man who had a demon and could not speak... At the bottom of the mountain the Lord now shows that He has the power of the kingdom to carry out everything He had said in word on the mountain. Paul later told the Corinthian believers that the kingdom of God is not a matter of word but of power (1 Cor. 4:20).
Notice the two places: the top of the mountain, and the bottom.
It is suggestive that the lofty moral principles were declared from the summit of the mount, while the actual condition of man is set forth (in the leper) at the foot. What we ought to be and what we are are two different things. Grace meets us where and as we are, and brings us into conformity with the purpose of God.
Coming down was more than a change of place.
Now the King comes down among the people from the height from which He had given them wise instruction. For He is not only their teacher: He will experience their sorrows, and show His heart of compassion in the middle of adverse circumstances.
Commentators read the miracles that follow as the mark of Israel's own God at work on earth.
Notice that Matthew 8:1-27 shows the Lord's power at work — and this power is truly that of Jehovah on the earth. From verse 28 we see how the world received that power, and what influence ruled the world, whether as power or in the moral state of men's hearts.
The same writer turns to the leper who meets Him at the foot of the hill.
As He came down from the mountain with the crowd, a leper came to meet Him. Now only Jehovah healed leprosy... Here was God, able to do everything, with the love and goodwill to do it. Here too was man, in the middle of a polluted race that He touched in His grace. The evil did not drive Him back. The defilement did not stain Him, though He touched it to heal it.
The events gathered in this chapter did not all happen in the same few days. One writer treats that as design, not carelessness.
Matthew sets aside the plain order of history here. He brings together facts that took place months apart... Of all the chapters in this Gospel, perhaps none sets aside the order of dates so completely as this one.
Kelly gives the reason for that arrangement:
It was the Holy Spirit who chose to shape these Gospels in the form best suited to bring out the person, mission, or various relations of Christ.
The word "followed" here carries less than it seems. Later in the same chapter the crowd thins out.
The crowds still hear Him. Astonished at His teaching, they follow Him. But they have no true faith in His person, and no grasp of where His path would lead. So later the Lord says what following Him involves: as Son of Man, He had "nowhere to lay His head." Then He gets into the boat to cross to "the other side," and none but His disciples follow Him. They had no real attachment to Him, and so no readiness to face danger, or loss, or opposition, for Him and with Him.
- Word. Chapters 5 to 7 announced the kingdom in words. Chapters 8 and 9 prove it in power.
- Descent. He comes down from the place of teaching to the place of need. The summit told us what we ought to be; the foot shows what we are.
- Identity. Commentators read this power as Jehovah's own on earth — and it comes with a hand that touches a leper and stays clean.
- Design. Matthew gives no date here on purpose. He groups events months apart to bring out the Person, not the calendar.
- Following. A great crowd followed. But when the Lord named the cost, only the disciples got into the boat. Nearness in a crowd is not attachment to Him.
And behold, a leper came up to [him] and did him homage, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou art able to cleanse me.
This happens right after the great sermon on the mountain. Jesus comes down, and the first person to reach Him is a man the law had shut out of the camp. He is certain Jesus has the power to cleanse him — the only thing he is unsure of is whether Jesus wants to.
Where this meeting happens is part of the message. One writer sets what was taught on the mountain against who stands at its foot.
It is striking that the lofty moral principles were declared from the top of the mountain, while the leper at the foot shows man's real condition. What we ought to be and what we are, are two different things. Grace meets us where and as we are, and brings us into conformity with the purpose of God.
Leprosy was not just an illness. It left a person unclean before God, and no ceremony could undo it.
The Lord is met by a leper. You know what a loathsome thing leprosy was. Everyone knew it was not only deeply offensive, but hopeless, as far as man was concerned. It is true that in Leviticus we have ceremonies for cleansing a leper. But who could give a ceremony for the cure of a leper? … The Spirit of God uses leprosy as a type of sin, in all the loathsomeness that it produces. Palsy brings out the thought of powerlessness. Both are true of the sinner. He is without strength, and he is unclean in the presence of God.
The law had rules for a leper once he was healed, but no power to heal him.
The law decreed his exclusion while he was unclean. It laid down what he was to do once he was healed, before he could return to the camp and to his tent. But the grace displayed in healing was another matter.
The ESV says he "knelt before him." Older translations read "worshipped him." He bows first, then speaks.
The leper knew very well that only God could meet his case. Coming to the Lord Jesus he acknowledged His glory by worshipping Him. By this action he owned the deity of the Lord Jesus. He then spoke of His ability to heal him: "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." The faith of the leper was not lacking in this respect, but he did lack confidence as to the Lord's gracious disposition towards him.
Jesus does not correct the man for bowing. One writer notes what He did with that homage: "A leper came to Him, worshipping Him… Did our Lord rebuke him? No, He answered his petition by cleansing him" (A J Pollock).
One writer sees Israel's own condition in this man, and presses the doubt in his "if."
The chosen people were morally what he was physically, but they knew it no more than they bowed to His glory. … Even the leper, who did pay Him homage then, had a feeble grasp of the grace that was in Him — "Lord, if You will." Why question? Why doubt? Why had He come, and come Himself, the Holy One, to live among a people of unclean lips? A man, yet the King, the Lord of Hosts! Prophecy had promised that when the Messiah came the blind would see, the deaf would hear, and the lame would leap like a deer. Was the leper to be an exception? Was he outside the reach of mercy?
The Lord answers the doubt with a word and a touch.
The leper was sure of the power, but did not know the love that was there. He carries the love right up to the leper, and touched him, saying, "I will; be clean." If a man touched a leper he was unclean and put out of the camp. But He cannot be defiled. … Holiness undefiled and undefilable carries to sinners the love they need.
The leper's "if" is one many people still carry. One writer turns it around.
With them the question is of God's will, not of theirs. In Scripture the question is of man's will, not of God's. "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." "I will; be clean." … So, if we will, there is no difficulty. For lost ones God has provided salvation, through the work of Jesus. If we are that, and would have that salvation, it is ours.
- Condition. Leprosy pictures sin as uncleanness: offensive, excluding, beyond human cure. The sermon showed what we ought to be. The leper shows what we are.
- Coming. He does not wait to be sought out. He comes and bows, confessing who Jesus is — and the Lord accepts the honour instead of rebuking him.
- Confidence. His faith reaches the power fully — "You can" — and stops short at the heart: "if You will."
- Correction. The touch and the "I will" close that gap. Holiness that nothing can defile carries love right up to the defiled man.
- Consequence. After this story, the doubt can never be about God's willingness — the question moves to ours.
And he stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be cleansed. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
A leper comes to Jesus with a real doubt. He does not doubt what Jesus can do. He doubts whether Jesus wants to. The answer is a hand stretched out, the words "I will; be clean," and a disease gone on the spot.
The leper never questioned the power. He questioned only the willingness. Commentators note that the outstretched hand answered the part he had left open.
Nothing showed who He was more strikingly than what came out in the leper. He trusts His power more than His heart: "If you will, you can." Yet who could heal the leper but Jehovah? But if He was there with divine power to do so, His action of stretching out His hand to touch him tells of His heart. As Man, the only one who was undefiled and could not be defiled, He touches him in human tenderness; as God He says, "I will; be clean."
This disease stood apart from every other. Commentators explain why healing it was a matter for God and not for a doctor.
Leprosy is a type of sin. People under its terrible power were as unfit for God's dwelling place on earth as sinners whose sins have not been washed away are for His home in heaven. God Himself was the only physician for leprosy, and that same gracious One alone can meet the need of those made unclean by sin.
Two short words carry the weight of the verse. Commentators point out that only one Person on earth had the right to say them.
But He added words, recorded in all three Gospels, of the greatest weight — "I will; be clean." No one on earth but He was free to speak like that. His Person gave Him the right. He who could truly say "I am," had the right to say "I will." In anyone else born of a woman it would have been not only presumption but sin... "Be clean" was followed at once by power that no one could dispute.
A leper made unclean everyone who came near him. With Jesus it ran the other way. Commentators ask what that shows about the One doing the touching.
Was He the One who had come down low enough to touch this defiled man who defiled everyone else who came near him? Yes, the only One. But it was God who had come down. It was love that had reached so low, and in reaching so low it showed itself mighty for everyone who trusted in it. It was purity that could not be defiled, purity in power, which could therefore serve the vilest in love, and delights to do so. He came to defiled man, not to be defiled by the contact, but to remove the defilement. He touched the leper in grace, but the leprosy was gone.
Why touch him at all, when a word alone would have healed him?
He does not merely speak. He goes further, and with a touch at once breaks through the barrier of law, and removes what the law could only brand, not remedy.
The verse marks how fast the healing came. One writer weighs that against everything medicine can do.
"And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." People know a great deal about medicine now, but they cannot do this. They cannot bring about a result like this at once. Cure has its stages and its progress, just as disease has stages. Here the whole order of things changed in an instant. That is the mighty power of God.
The leper's "if you will" is a hesitation many people bring to their own case. One writer asks whose willingness is really in doubt.
For such people the question is God's will, not their own. In Scripture the question is of man's will, not of God's. "How often would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not."... "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." "I will; be clean."... So if we are willing, there is no difficulty. For lost ones God has provided salvation, through the work of Jesus.
- Shut out. Leprosy pictures sin: it made a person unfit for God's dwelling place, and God alone could heal it.
- Half a faith. The leper trusted the power and doubted the heart — the common shape of hesitation about sin.
- The hand. Jesus touched what defiled everyone else. He stayed clean, and the cleanness passed from Him to the man.
- The word. "I will" is the speech of the One who says "I am" — and what the law could only label, His word removed.
- At once. No stages, no delay. The leprosy was gone at once. The one question left open is whether a person will take what God is willing to give.
And Jesus says to him, See thou tell no man, but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses ordained, for a testimony to them.
Jesus has just cleansed the leper with a word and a touch, and at once He sends him away — silenced, and pointed to the priest. Why hush a miracle, and why send a healed man back to the ritual of the law?
(Older translations say "for a testimony to them" where ESV has "for a proof to them." The writers below use that older wording.)
Jesus had just healed in the open, yet He wanted no word of it spread. One writer traces the reason not to enemies but to the crowds.
Notice how the Lord touches the leper, suggesting how He came to meet our sin and put it away. The command here to tell no one does not seem to come from opposition. It is more that the crowds were treating Him as a mere healer, and that threatened to get in the way of His true service. Miracles themselves were only acted parables. Our Lord came from heaven to do more than cure the ills of the body.
Under the law of Moses the priest could declare a healed man clean, but he could not cure anyone. That makes him the one man least able to explain what had happened.
The law made no provision for healing leprosy. It only gave directions for purifying a man, for cleansing him, once he was healed. None but God could heal. So when the healed leper came to the priest with his offering, it was proof that God was there in power and grace. This would force the priest to see that God was there in Christ — above the law, yet not overthrowing the law's authority.
The errand put a question before the priest.
Showing himself to the priest should have raised the question there, if the priest kept knowledge or if his heart sought it: Who has healed him? Faith would have given the answer — Jehovah is here; Jehovah has healed him. For no one knew better than the priest that man is powerless here.
The ceremony for a cleansed leper had sat unused in the law books for centuries. Its sudden use was itself the message.
A striking testimony indeed. As far as Scripture tells us, this was the first Israelite leper cleansed since God gave the instructions of Leviticus 13 and 14, nearly 1,500 years before. A cleansed leper standing at the altar with his two birds in his hands was proof that God had come into the land. He was meeting men's need quite apart from priestly service and religious ceremonies. This principle matters greatly for our souls today. Cleansing for the soul is found, not in human doing of any kind, but in the fountain of the Saviour's blood.
Obedience to the ritual pointed past the ritual to the One who had healed him.
He hides Himself from human praise, and tells the man He had healed to go and show himself to the priests according to the law of Moses. Yet this submission to the law was in fact a witness that He was Jehovah. Under the law, Jehovah alone cleansed the leper, by His own sovereign act. The priest was only the witness that it had been done.
Christ sends the man to an order of priests He did not belong to. Commentators note that He upheld that whole system while it stood.
When our Lord Jesus Christ was here on earth, before His death and resurrection, He was careful to acknowledge the priesthood set up by the law. That priesthood belonged to Aaron and his sons. It was in no way His own. And as He respected the Jewish priesthood, so He maintained all the shadows of the law. In other words, He threw His own divine weight into the support of the ritual system until the cross closed it. The time had not yet come for God's grace and glory to displace it.
The phrase also names the author of the law. Jesus treats those books as carrying real authority:
He mentions several of the writers by name, and gives them an authority that could only belong to someone inspired. To the cleansed leper He says, "offer the gift that Moses commanded."
The proof sent to the priests went nowhere, and the writer sees God turning to the Gentiles.
They would not worship Him as the poor leper did. The testimony to the priest would be disregarded. They become more and more opposed to His claims. God says, as it were: if you Jews will not have My Son, I will send a testimony to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles will hear.
- Cleansed — the law had a ceremony for a healed leper, but no cure for a sick one. Only God heals leprosy, so the cure itself named the Healer.
- Silenced — the charge to tell no one guarded His mission. He came to do more than relieve bodies, and He would not let the crowds make Him a public healer.
- Sent — the priest could witness a cure but never work one, so the errand put one question before him: who has healed this man?
- Testified — a ceremony unused for some 1,500 years was needed again. The offering announced that God had come into the land, and that no human doing can cleanse.
- Refused — Israel set the testimony aside, so God sent word to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles heard.