1When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. 2And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean."
3Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
4And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
This is not the first healing Jesus did, for in Matthew 4:23-24 it says Jesus healed many. But is this the first one that is considered cleansing? In Leviticus 13:43-44, it says:
| 43Then the priest shall examine it; and indeed if the swelling of the sore is reddish-white on his bald head or on his bald forehead, as the appearance of leprosy on the skin of the body, 44he is a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall surely pronounce him unclean; his sore is on his head. |
So when someone has a sore, the priest is to examine it, and if he determines that it is leprosy, the priest will pronounce him unclean.
Then in Leviticus 5:1-4 it says:
| 1Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2"This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest. 3And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper, 4then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop. |
The text continues on explaining the ritual that must be followed to perform the cleansing. So if someone is healed from leprosy he must go to a priest who will determine if he truly is healed and will then cleanse him.
In Matthew 4:23-24 it lists many afflictions and diseases that Jesus healed. Leprosy was not in that list. There seems to be a distinction between healing a leper and cleansing a leper. This leper was not only asking Jesus to heal him, but to cleanse him. In so doing, he was indicating his belief that Jesus had the ability to cleanse which was only to be performed by priests. He had faith in Jesus as a priest to do this for him.
Jesus cleansed him. So why go to a priest and offer the gift as Moses commanded? Footnotes in my Bible say Jesus sent him to the priest in order to show authority over the law by touching a leper, balanced with his commitment to it by sending him to a priest who is supposed to perform the cleansing ritual. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said of the Law, "I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." So what happens to all these laws laid out in Leviticus such as the cleansing of a leper? If the footnotes in my Bible are correct, and Jesus sent the cleansed leper to the priest for the ritual cleansing, why don't we still do these rituals today?
We all know that Jesus fulfilled the law by offering the ultimate sacrifice, his life, for our sins. Did he fulfill the law of other sacrifices for us as well, such as the sacrifices that were needed to cleanse a leper? Jesus said the leper is now clean, why would he send him to the priest? The words used were "show yourself to the priest", not to the priests. But then it says as a testimony to them. Who are "them"? It says to tell no one, so who is the testimony to?
I looked up the word testimony in my dictionary. It says a testimony is a declaration or affirmation of fact or truth. It also says it may be a public declaration regarding a religious experience.
Jesus said to tell no one, but to anyone who knew of him as a leper, he will be a living testimony of what was done for him. Jesus probably sent him to a priest as a priest was accepted as one who would be able to confirm if a leper was healed. Note, Jesus used the word gift when he said what he should offer to the priest. I wonder if maybe Jesus didn't say to give the gifts that Moses commanded as a sacrifice in order to be cleansed, but as a thank offering because he had been cleansed. We are a testimony of the good things God has done for us not by what we say, but by what we do.
Jesus can not only heal us, but He can cleanse us, regardless how dirty we feel our soul is. All we need to do is ask and believe. Jesus doesn't wait for us to gather the right sacrifices before cleansing us. He provided the sacrifice for us. Instead of offering sacrifices to earn what we are given, we should offer gifts in appreciation of all that we are given. We are to live a life in testimony to what we were given.