The Cleansing of the Leper

St Matthew Chapter VIII : Verses 1-4

Contents

• Matt. viii. 1-4 (Douay-Rheims text) & Latin text (Vulgate).
• Notes on the text
• Additional Notes

Matt. viii. 1-4

A leper came and adored him. J-J Tissot.
Brooklyn Museum.

1 And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him:

Cum autem descendisset de monte, secutæ sunt eum turbae multæ :

2 And behold a leper came and adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

et ecce leprosus veniens, adorabat eum, dicens : Domine, si vis, potes me mundare.

3 And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed.

Et extendens Jesus manum, tetigit eum, dicens : Volo. Mundare. Et confestim mundata est lepra ejus.

4 And Jesus saith to him: See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.

Et ait illi Jesus : Vide, nemini dixeris : sed vade, ostende te sacerdoti, et offer munus, quod præcepit Moyses, in testimonium illis.

Notes

    1. great multitudes. Those who had been privileged to hear the Sermon on the Mount. We note that Jesus had worked miracles of healing immediately before preaching, since St Luke says : All the multitude sought to touch him, for virtue went out from him, and healed all (vi. 19). He now continues His blessed work of healing. The multitudes came to hear and to he healed (St Luke). All were not intent on bodily cures, and even those who were sick often desired to receive spiritual blessings as well as bodily health, as we may infer from the example of the paralytic.

    2. a leper came. Our Lord was now in one of the cities of Galilee, not Capharnaum, since in the second gospel we read that, after having cleansed the leper, Jesus entered again into Capharnaum (ii. 8).

    adored him. St Mark has beseeching him and kneeling down, while St Luke notes that the man fell on his face. All the Synoptists refer to the leper’s humility, shewn by his prostration at the feet of Jesus. St Mark tells us that the man was full of leprosy.

    These words denote an advanced stage in the disease. Leprosy was a terrible skin disease, very common in the East.

    The Jews called it “the Finger of God,” or “the Stroke.” It is also extremely loathsome in its worst stages. Scales cover the body, and the members gradually drop off. It resembles a universal cancer. Leprosy is a type of sin. Lepers were considered unclean in general, and were forbidden to approach the dwellings of those not so affected.

    Lord, if thou wilt, etc. All three Synoptists give this petition in the same words. The request shews confidence, submission to God’s will, and a firm faith in Christ’s healing power.

    make me clean. — i.e. restore me to health, when I shall be legally pure.

    3. stretching forth his hand. St Mark gives the motive — having compassion.

    touched him. Jesus touched the leper in spite of the Mosaic prohibition, possibly —

    (a) To shew that He was “ the Lord of the law.”

    (b) To prove the virtue of His human nature.

    (c) To shew His loving compassion for the leper.

    Priests were allowed to touch the lepers in pronouncing them clean, and Jesus is our High-Priest. Although the Jews were forbidden to touch a corpse, yet Eliseus touched the dead child whom he restored to life (4 Kings iv. 34), thus shewing that divine miracles are above ritual precepts. “Jesus is the source of purification, whether of body or soul, and even of what is most defiled ” (Tertullian).

    4. See thou tell no man. St Mark adds a graphic touch : He strictly charged him. Jesus strictly commanded the leper not to noise abroad the miracle. He did not wish to confirm the Jews in their idea concerning the temporal reign of the Messias. On other occasion our Lord commanded silence respecting miraculous cures (see ch. ix. 30).

    Jesus, in dismissing the leper, bids him practise —

    1. Humility. See thou tell no man.

    2. Obedience. Go, shew thyself to the priest.

    3. Gratitude. Offer for thy cleansing, etc.

    In its worst forms, leprosy was considered incurable. Hence .Joram’s exclamation when Naaman came to him with the letter from the king of Syria : Am I God, to be able to kill and give life .... to heal a man of his leprosy ? (4 Kings v. 7). The only examples in the Old Testament of lepers being cured are Naaman, and Mary the sister of Moses.

    shew thyself to the priest. To the priest who presided over the weekly course, or perhaps to the high-priest himself. Cf. Go, shew thyself to the high-priest (St Mark i. 44).

    which Moses commanded. Two living sparrows, cedar-wood, scarlet and hyssop (a kind of wild marjoram).

    for a testimony to them. Possibly for two reasons : —

    1. That the priests might see that Jesus kept the law of Moses.

    2. That they might bear witness that the man was really cleansed.

    Both St Mark and St Luke call attention here to the results of this miracle. The fame of him went abroad (St Luke).

    This was partly due to the leper, who, when cleansed, began to publish and to blaze abroad the word ; so that he could not openly go into the city, hut was without in desert places, and they flocked to him from all sides (St Mark i. 45).

    In disregarding Jesus’ command, probably the man did not sin, as it is most likely that he regarded the prohibition as being prompted by our Lord’s humility. Doubtless the man, in his excitement, could not refrain from expressing joy and gratitude ; moreover, even if he himself had not published it, the leper’s friends and acquaintances must have perceived his sudden return to perfect health.

    St Luke explains that the great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And he retired into the desert and prayed. St Matthew omits to mention that our Lord retired into the desert, between healing the leper and entering into Capharnaum.

Additional Notes

On Leprosy.

    There are three kinds of leprosy —

    (1) A mild form, in which only small scales form on the body, and this form is less revolting than the other two, and is often cured.

    (2) A more serious form, which assumes a cancerous appearance. Dark livid spots cover the body, the joints swell and the limbs rot away.

    (3) The “ white leprosy,” which was the kind spoken of in the present case. It begins with red shining elevations of the cuticle, turning into white scales, and accumulating into thick crusts ; the hair on the infected spots becomes white, the extremities swell up, the nails fall off, the sense of touch grows dull, and the sufferers finally die of consumption and dropsy. When the disease develops very rapidly there is a good hope of recovery, and such a patient is not deemed “unclean” (Lev. xiii. 12, 13). Lepers were forbidden to approach those in health (Lev. xiii. 46). They kept at a distance and called out “ unclean,” that passers-by might avoid touching them.

    Lepers were excluded from the Jewish dwellings, but not from the Christian assemblies, i.e. they were allowed to hear mass outside the church or in chapels which were screened off. The lepers, however, could see the altar through the “ leper holes ” in the partition. Leprosy is a type of sin, for as it separated a man from his fellows and gradually produced death, so mortal sin separates and cuts off the soul from the society of the blessed in heaven, and leads to the sinner’s eternal death. The ceremony of the purification of a leper was very solemn and complex. The leper, when he was to be cleansed, that is, pronounced clean by the priest (not healed by him), was commanded to offer “two living sparrows which it is lawful to eat, and cedar-wood, and scarlet and hyssop. And he shall command one of the sparrows to be immolated in an earthen vessel over living waters. But the other that is alive he shall dip, with the cedar-wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, in the blood of the sparrow that is immolated ” (Lev. xiv. 4-6). The priest then sprinkled the leper seven times with the blood of the dead sparrow and restored the other to liberty. The man had to perform certain ablutions, to shave his hair and beard, to wash his clothes, and to remain outside his tent for seven days. On the eighth day he took two lambs and a ewe lamb, “ three-tenths of flour tempered with oil,”

and “ a sextary of oil.” The priest then offered a sin offering and also a holocaust. The significance of these ceremonies is fully explained by the translators of the Douay Bible.

    3. I will, he thou made clean. Commenting on these words, St Ambrose draws attention to the fact that, by His miracles, our Blessed Lord refuted heresies and taught the truth. For He said “ I will,” thus condemning Photinus, a heretic of the fourth century, who denied the Divinity of Christ. He commanded “ be thou made clean,” thereby refuting Arius, who denied that the Son was equal to the Father. Then He touched the leper, and thus proved Himself to be no mere phantom (as the Manicheans taught), but really and truly Man.

    Note, too, that Eliseus did not touch Haaman the leper, but sent him to bathe in the Jordan, and “in this the prophet conformed to the law of Moses, which forbade contact with a leper under pain of legal defilement ; but Jesus healed as the Lord, not as the servant. His hand, which cleansed the whole body of the leper, was not rendered unclean thereby ” (St Jn. Chrys.).

    4. See thou tell no man. It may be asked why our Lord enjoined secrecy on this and on other occasions when He had worked a miracle. The subjoined motives have been put forward by different commentators ; of these, the last is the more generally accepted : —

    (а) To teach a lesson of humility, and to warn against vainglory (St Jn. Chrys., Dion., Cajetan).

    (b) To avoiding exciting the jealousy of the Jewish teachers.

    (c) In order to keep the miracle a secret, until the priest had formally declared the man was cleansed.

    (d) To avoid exposing the man to persecution, as being a disciple of Christ.

    (e) In order not to encourage the Jews in their popular delusion concerning the establishment of a temporal Messianic kingdom.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.