When
he came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. Behold, a leper came to him and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Jesus said to him, “See that you tell nobody, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Matthew 8:1-4
Matthew 7 [28.] When Jesus had finished saying these things, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them with authority, and not like the scribes.
Matthew 8 [1.] When he came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. Behold, a leper came to him and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
Matthew 8 [3.] Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Jesus said to him, “See that you tell nobody, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Matthew 8 [5.] When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him, and saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”
Meaning:
The Sermon on the Mount has ended, and the crowds are amazed at Jesus’ authority (Matthew 7:28-29). Now Matthew shows that authority in action. Chapters 8 and 9 present a series of miracles, and the first is the healing of a man with leprosy. The one who taught with authority also heals with authority, and with compassion.
- “Behold, a leper came to him”
In the Bible “leprosy” covered several serious skin diseases. The law of Moses required a leper to live apart: “He shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ … He shall dwell alone. Outside of the camp shall be his dwelling” (Leviticus 13:45-46). A leper was cut off from family, worship and community, and people avoided touching him. Healing leprosy was considered as hard as raising the dead. When a foreign king asked for Naaman to be healed, the king of Israel cried, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to heal a man of his leprosy?” (2 Kings 5:7).
- “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean”
The man came boldly into the crowd, knelt and worshiped. He did not doubt Jesus’ power; his question was whether Jesus would be willing to help someone like him. His words are a model of humble faith: he trusts Jesus’ ability and leaves the outcome to his will. Mark records the same plea (Mark 1:40).
- “Jesus stretched out his hand, and touched him”
Jesus could have healed with a word, as he did for the centurion’s servant in the next account (Matthew 8:5-12). Instead he touched the untouchable. Under the law, touching a leper made a person unclean. But with Jesus the movement went the other way: his cleanness overcame the man’s uncleanness. For a man who may not have felt a human touch in years, this was compassion as well as healing. Mark notes that Jesus was “moved with compassion” (Mark 1:41).
- “I want to. Be made clean.”
Jesus answered the man’s exact question. He was willing. The healing was immediate and complete. Later, when John the Baptist asked whether Jesus was the Coming One, Jesus pointed to signs like this one: “the lepers are cleansed” (Matthew 11:5).
- “Show yourself to the priest”
The law described how a healed leper was to be examined by a priest and to bring an offering before returning to society: “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest” (Leviticus 14:2). Jesus honored the law and ensured the man’s full restoration to community life. The priest’s declaration would also be “a testimony to them” that God was at work through Jesus. The command to tell nobody guarded against crowds seeking only miracles; Mark records that the man spread the news anyway, so that Jesus could no longer enter a city openly (Mark 1:45).
The Significance of Matthew 8:1-4
- Jesus is willing
Many people believe God is able but doubt that he is willing to help them. This account shows that Jesus welcomes those who come to him in humble faith, even those who feel unclean or excluded.
- The touch that restores
Sin, like leprosy, separates people from God and from others. Jesus does not keep his distance from our uncleanness; he touches it and makes us clean. His followers are called to show the same compassion to people others avoid.
Cross-References:
Mark 1:41: "Being moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand, and touched him," Mark’s account of the same healing.
Leviticus 13:46: "He shall dwell alone. Outside of the camp shall be his dwelling." The leper’s isolation.
Matthew 11:5: "the lepers are cleansed," A sign of the Messiah’s work.
Conclusion: In Matthew 8:1-4 a leper kneels before Jesus and says, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus touches him, declares his willingness and heals him instantly, then sends him to the priest to be restored to his community. The account reveals both the authority and the compassion of Jesus, who is willing to cleanse all who come to him in faith.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible