1When he came down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. 2Behold, a leper came to him and worshiped him, saying, “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.”
3Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I want to. Be made clean.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4Jesus 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.”
5When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him for help, 6saying, “Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented.”
7Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8The centurion answered, “Lord, I’m not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and tell another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and tell my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, “Most certainly I tell you, I haven’t found so great a faith, not even in Israel. 11I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, 12but the children of the Kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way. Let it be done for you as you have believed.” His servant was healed in that hour.
14When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15He touched her hand, and the fever left her. So she got up and served him. 16When evening came, they brought to him many possessed with demons. He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, 17that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
18Now when Jesus saw great multitudes around him, he gave the order to depart to the other side.
19A scribe came and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
20Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
21Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.”
22But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
23When he got into a boat, his disciples followed him. 24Behold, a violent storm came up on the sea, so much that the boat was covered with the waves; but he was asleep. 25The disciples came to him and woke him up, saying, “Save us, Lord! We are dying!”
26He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then he got up, rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm.
27The men marveled, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
28When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way. 29Behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” 30Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them. 31The demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs.”
32He said to them, “Go!”
They came out and went into the herd of pigs; and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and died in the water. 33Those who fed them fled and went away into the city and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons. 34Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.
One receives several items of information from this short account of the healing of an Israelite man. First, this is the second occasion in the Bible of an Israelite being healed. The other example is in the Old Testament, in Numbers 12:10-15, in which Miriam, sister of Moses, had opposed Moses because he had married a Cushite woman. Since she did so, Yahweh struck her with leprosy. God healed her due to the intercession of Moses, but was required to be quarantined from the camp of Israel for seven days.
Second, the interchange between Jesus and the leper is important to consider. The text reveals a strong faith in the heart of the leper. He worshipped Jesus and expressed complete belief that Jesus was capable of healing him, if he chose to do so. In view of this Jesus replied, "I want to," a direct response to the statement of the leper, "if you want to, you can make me clean." God does not always choose, or want to, heal someone, or do a miracle, because this does not fit within His plan. Simply because someone wants God to do something, such as healing, is not an indication that this request is answered "yes" by God. The kind of faith that this man expressed is found in the account of the three Hebrew men who faced a fiery furnace because of obeying God by not worshipping an idol (Dan 3:1-30). When faced with punishment for this refusal, they responded "If it happens, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace . . . But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up" (Den 3:17, 18). The lesson is plain in both instances. Even if people of great faith ask God for a miracle, whether God chooses to perform one does not indicate a lack of faith, and not due to His inability. God does not do His works in the world but according to His own purposes (see Eph 1:3-12).
Third, in this text Jesus violates the Old Testament prohibition against touching a person with leprosy. According to the rules on touching a leper there would be a ceremonial defilement (Lev 14:45; Num 5:2, 3; Deut 24:8), though it is clear medically that a casual touch or contact does not pass the disease. What is unique is that touching the leper made the "person of faith" physically, and told him to make the long journey from the Sea of Galilee to the city of Jerusalem to fulfill his obligations of the law by seeing a priest and giving a gift for the healing (Lev 14:4-32). The leper was healed through his faith, and the sovereign will of God, but this faith was to be demonstrated through obedience.
Last of all, there is a matter to resolve in whether Jesus wanted to hide His identity from the authorities (sometimes called the Messianic secret), by telling the man "to tell nobody" or whether He was desiring to focus the healed man to his duties of the law rather than talking about who did it.