Jesus was able to heal by a touch

JESUS WAS ABLE TO HEAL BY A TOUCH
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Mark 1:40-4240A man with leprosycame to him and
begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can
make me clean."41Jesus was indignant. He reached
out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he
said. "Be clean!" 42Immediatelythe leprosy left him
and he was cleansed.
The Lord And The Leper BY SPURGEON
“And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him and kneeling down to
Him and saying unto Him, if You will, You can make me clean. And
Jesus, movedwith compassion, put forth His hand and touched him and
said unto him, I will, Be you clean. And as soonas He had spoken,
immediately the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed.”
Mark 1:40-42
BELOVED, we saw in the reading that our Lord had been engagedin special
prayer. He had gone alone on the mountainside to have communion with God.
Simon and the rest searchfor Him and He comes awayin the early morning
with the burrs from the hillside upon His garments, the smell of the field upon
Him, even of a field that the Lord God had blessed. He comes forth among the
people, chargedwith power which He had receivedin communion with His
Father. And now we may expect to see wonders. And we do see them. For
devils fear and fly when He speaks the Word.

And by-and-by, one comes to Him–an extraordinary being, condemned to live
apart from the rest of men–lesthe should spread defilement all around. A
leper comes to Him and kneels before Him and expresses confidentfaith in
Him that He can make him whole. Now is the Sonof Man glorious in His
powerto save.
The Lord Jesus Christ at this day has all power in Heaven and in earth. He is
chargedwith a Divine energy to bless all who come to Him for healing. Oh,
that we may see today some greatwonder of His powerand grace!Oh, for one
of the days of the Sonof Man here and now! To that end it is absolutely
needful that we should find a case forHis spiritual powerto work upon. Is
there not one here in whom His grace may prove its omnipotence? Not you,
you good, you selfrighteous!You yield Him no space to work in. You that are
whole have no need of a physician–in you there is no opportunity for Him to
display His miraculous force.
But yonder are the men we seek for. Forlorn and lost, full of evil and self-
condemned, you are the characters we seek. Youthat feel as if you were
possessedwith evil spirits and you that are leprous with sin–you are the
persons in whom Jesus will find ample room and space enoughfor the display
of His holy skill. Of you I might say, as He once said of the man born blind–
you are here that the works ofGod may be manifest in you. You, with your
guilt and your depravity–you furnish the empty vessels into which His grace
may be poured–the sick souls upon whom He may display His matchless
powerto bless and save. Be hopeful, then, you sinful ones!Look up this
morning for the Lord’s approachand expect that even in you, He will work
greatmarvels.
This leper shall be a picture–yes, I hope a mirror–in whom you will see
yourselves. I do pray that as I go over the details of this miracle many here
may put themselves in the leper’s place and do just as the leper did and
receive, just as the leper received, cleansing from the hand of Christ. O Spirit
of the living God, the thousands of our Israelnow entreat You to work, that
Jesus, the Son of God, may be glorified here and now!
1. I will begin my rehearsalof the Gospelnarrative by remarking, first,
that THIS LEPER’S FAITH MADE HIM EAGER TO BE HEALED.
He was a leper. I will not stop just now to describe what horrors are
compactedinto that single word. But he believed that Jesus could
cleanse him and his belief stirred him to an anxious desire to be healed
at once.

Alas, We have to deal with spiritual lepers eatenup with the foul disease of
sin. But some of them do not believe that they ever canbe healedand the
consequence is that despair makes them sin most greedily. “I may as well be
hanged for a sheep as for a lamb,” is the inward impression of many a sinner
when he fears that there is no mercy and no help for him. Becausethere is no
hope they plunge deeperand yet deeperinto the slough of iniquity. Oh, that
you might be delivered from that false idea! Mercystill rules the hour. There
is hope while Jesus sends His Gospelto you and bids you repent.
“I believe in the forgiveness ofsins”–this is a sweetsentence ofa true creed. I
believe also in the renewalof men’s hearts. For the Lord can give new hearts
and right spirits to the evil and unthankful. I would that you believed it. For if
you did, I trust it would quicken you into seeking that your sins might be
forgiven and your minds might be renewed. Do you believe it? Then come to
Jesus and receive the blessings of free grace.
We have a number of lepers who come in among us whose disease is white
upon their brows and visible to all beholders and yet they are indifferent–they
do not mourn their wickedness, norwish to be cleansedfrom it. They sit
among God’s people and they listen to the doctrine of a new birth and the
news of pardon and they hear the teaching as though it had nothing to do with
them. If now and then they half wish that salvationwould come to them, it is
too languid a wish to last. They have not yet so perceivedtheir disease and
their danger as to pray to be delivered from them.
They sleepon upon the bed of sloth and care neither for Heaven nor Hell.
Indifference to spiritual things is the sin of the age. Menare stolid of heart
about eternal realities. An awful apathy is upon the multitude. The leper in
our text was not so foolish as this. He eagerlydesiredto be delivered from his
dreadful malady–with heart and soulhe pined to be cleansedfrom its terrible
defilement. Oh that it were so with you! May the Lord make you feelhow
depraved your heart is and how diseasedwith sin are all the faculties of your
soul! Alas, dear Friends–there are some that even love their leprosy! Is it not a
sad thing to have to speak thus? Surely, madness is in men’s hearts. Men do
not wish to be savedfrom doing evil. They love the ways and wagesof
iniquity.
They would like to go to Heaven but they must have their drunken frolics on
the road. They would very well like to be savedfrom Hell but not from the sin
which is the cause of it. Their notion of salvation is not to be savedfrom the
love of evil and to be made pure and clean. But that is God’s meaning when
He speaks ofsalvation. How can they hope to be the slaves of sin and yet at the
same time be free? Our first necessityis to be savedfrom sinning. The very

name of Jesus tells us that–He is calledJesus, because“He shall save His
people from their sins.” These persons do not care for a salvationwhich would
mean self-denial and the giving up of ungodly lusts.
O wretched lepers, that count their leprosyto be a beauty and take pleasure in
sin which in the sight of God is far more loathsome than the worstdisease of
the body! Oh, that Christ Jesus would come and change their views of things
until they were of the same mind as God towards sin. And you know He calls
it, “that abominable thing which I hate.” Oh, if men could see their love to
wrong things to be a disease more sickening than leprosy they would gladly be
savedand savedat once!Holy Spirit, convict of sin, that sinners may be eager
to be cleansed!
Lepers were obligedto consorttogether–lepers associatedwith lepers and
they must have made up a dreadful confraternity. How glad they would have
been to escape from it! But I know spiritual lepers who love the company of
their fellow lepers. Yes, and the more leprous a man becomes, the more do
they admire him. A bold sinner is often the idol of his comrades. Thoughfoul
is his life, others cling to him for that very reason. Suchpersons like to learn
some new bit of wickedness–theyare eagerto be initiated into a yet darker
form of impure pleasure. Oh how they long to hear that last lascivious song–to
read that lastimpure novel!
It seems to be the desire of many to know as much evil as they can. They flock
togetherand take a dreadful pleasure in talk and actionwhich is the horror of
all pure minds. Strange lepers that heap up leprosy as a treasure!Even those
who do not go into gross opensin are pleasedwith infidel notions and
skepticalopinions–whichare a wretchedform of mental leprosy. O horrible
malady, which makes men doubt the Word of the living God! Lepers were not
allowedto associate withhealthy persons exceptunder severe restrictions.
Thus were they separatedfrom their nearestand dearestfriends.
What a sorrow!Alas, I know persons thus separatedwho do not wish to
associate withthe godly–to them holy company is dull and wearisome. They
do not feel free and easyin such societyand therefore they avoid it as much as
decencyallows. How can they hope to live with saints forever when they shun
them now as dull and moping acquaintances?
O my Hearers, I have come here this morning in the hope that God would
bless the Word to some poor sinner who feels he is a sinner and would rather
be cleansed–suchis the leper I am seeking with my whole heart. I pray God to
bless the Word to those who wish to escape from evil company–who would no
longersit in the assemblyof the mockers–norrun in the paths of the unholy.

To those who have grownwearyof their sinful companions and would escape
from them, lestthey should be bound up in bundles with them to burn at the
last greatday–to such I speak this time with a loving desire for their salvation.
I hope my word will come with Divine application to some poor heart here
that is crying, “I wish I might be numbered conqueredso that I could have
fellowship with the godly and be myself one of them!” I hope my Lord has
brought to this place just such lost ones, that He may find them. I am looking
out for them with tearful eyes. But my feeble eyes cannotread inward
character. And it is well that the loving Saviorwho discerns the secrets ofall
hearts and reads all inward desire is looking from the watchtowersofHeaven,
that He may discoverthose who are coming to Him–even though as yet they
are a greatway off.
Oh that sinners may now beg and pray to be rescuedfrom their sins! May
those who have become habituated to evil long to break off their evil habits!
Happy will the preacherbe if he finds himself surrounded with penitents who
hate their sins and guilty ones who cry to be forgiven and to be so changed
that they shall go and sin no more.
II. In the secondplace, let us remark that THIS LEPER’S FAITH WAS
STRONG ENOUGHTO MAKE HIM BELIEVE THAT HE COULD BE
HEALED OF HIS HIDEOUS DISEASE.
Leprosy was an unutterably loathsome disease. As it exists, even now, it is
describedby those who have seenit in such a way that I will not harrow your
feelings by repeating all the sickening details. The following quotation may be
more than sufficient. Dr. Thomson in his famous work, “The Land and the
Book,” speaksoflepers in the Eastand says, “The hair falls from the head
and eye-brows. The nails loosen, decayand drop off. Joint after joint of the
fingers and toes shrink up and slowlyfall away. The gums are absorbedand
the teeth disappear. The nose, the eyes, the tongue and the palate are slowly
consumed.”
This disease turns a man into a mass of loathsomeness–a walking pile of pests.
Leprosy is nothing better than a horrible and lingering death. The leper in the
narrative before us had sad personalexperience of this and yet he believed
that Jesus couldcleanse him. Splendid faith! Oh that you who are afflicted
with moral and spiritual leprosy could believe in this fashion! Jesus Christ of
Nazarethcan heal even you. Over the horror of leprosyfaith triumphed. Oh,
that in your case, it would overcome the terribleness of sin!
Leprosy was knownto be incurable. There was no case ofa man being cured
of real leprosy by any medical or surgicaltreatment. This made the cure of

Naamanin former ages so noteworthy. Observe, moreover, that our Savior
Himself, so far as I cansee, had never healed a leper up to the moment when
this poor wretchappeared upon the scene. He had cured fever and had cast
out devils but the cure of leprosy was, in the Savior’s life, as yet an
unexampled thing. Yet this man, putting this and that togetherand
understanding something of the nature and characterofthe Lord Jesus
Christ, believed that He could cure him of his incurable disease.He felt that
even if the greatLord had not yet healedleprosy, He was assuredlycapable of
doing so greata deed and he determined to apply to Him.
Was not this grand faith? Oh, that such faith could be found among my
hearers at this hour! Here me, O trembling Sinner–if you are as full of sin this
morning as an egg is full of meat–Jesus canremove it all. If your propensities
to sin are as untamable as the wild boar of the wood, yet Jesus Christ, the
Lord of All, cansubdue your iniquities and make you the obedient servant of
His love. Jesus canturn the lion into a lamb and He cando it NOW!He can
transform you where you are sitting, saving you in yonder pew while I am
speaking the Word. All things are possible to the Savior God. And all things
are possible to him that believes. I wish you had such a faith as this leper had,
although if it were even less it might serve your turn, since you have not all his
difficulties to contend with.
Since Jesus has already savedmany sinners like yourself and changedmany
hearts as hard as yours, if He shall regenerate you, He will be doing for you no
strange thing but only one of the daily miracles of His Divine Grace. He has
now healedthousands of your fellow lepers–canyou not believe that He can
heal the leprosy in you?
This man had a marvelous faith–to believe while he was personally the victim
of the mortal malady. It is one thing to trust a doctor when you are well, but
quite another to confide in him when your body is rotting away. For a real,
conscious sinnerto trust the Savioris no mean thing. When you hope that
there is some goodthing in you it is easyto be confident. But to be conscious
of total ruin and yet to believe in the Divine remedy–this is real faith. To see in
the sunshine is mere natural vision. But to see in the dark needs the eye of
faith! To believe that Jesus has savedyou when you see the signs of it is the
result of reason. But to trust Him to cleanse youwhile you are still defiled
with sin–this is the essence ofsaving faith.
The leprosy was firmly seatedand fully developed in this man. Luke says that
he was “full of leprosy”–he had as much of the poisonin him as one poor body
could contain. It had come to its worst stagesin him. And yet he believed that
Jesus ofNazareth could make him clean. Glorious confidence!O my Hearer,

if you are full of sin, if your propensities and habits have become as bad as
bad canbe, I pray the Holy spirit to give you Divine Grace and renew you and
do it at once. With one Word of His mouth Jesus canturn your death into life,
your corruption into comeliness.Changeswhich we cannot work in others,
much less in ourselves, Jesus,by His invincible Spirit can work in the hearts
of the ungodly.
Of these stones he can raise up children unto Abraham. His moral and
spiritual miracles are often workedupon caseswhichseem beyond all hope–
caseswhich pity itself endeavors to forget because herefforts have been so
long in vain. I like best about this man’s faith the fact that he did not merely
believe that Jesus Christ could cleanse a leper but that He could cleanse him!
He said, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” It is very easyto believe
for other people. There is really no faith in such impersonal, proxy confidence.
The true faith believes for itself first, and then for others.
Oh, I know some of you are saying, “I believe that Jesus cansave my brother.
I believe that He can save the vilest of the vile. If I heard that He had saved
the biggestdrunkard in Southward I should not wonder.” Can you believe all
this, and yet fearthat He cannotsave you? This is strange inconsistency. If He
heals another man’s leprosy, can He not heal your leprosy? If one drunkard is
saved, why not another? If in one man a passionate temperis subdued, why
not in another? If lust and covetousness, and lying and pride have been cured
in many men, why not in you? Even if you are a blasphemer, blasphemy has
been cured–why should it not be so in your case?
Jesus Christ canheal you of that particular form of sin which possesses you,
howeverhigh a degree its powermay have reached. Nothing is too hard for
the Lord. Jesus canchange and cleanse youNOW. In a moment He can
impart a new life and commence a new character. Canyou believe this? This
is the faith which glorified Jesus and brought healing to this leper. And it is
the faith which will save you at once if you now exercise it. O Spirit of the
living God, work this faith in the minds of my dear hearers that they may thus
win their suit with the Lord Jesus and go their wayhealed of the plague of sin!
III. Now, notice, thirdly, that this man’s faith WAS FIXED ON JESUS
CHRIST ALONE. Let me read the man’s words again. He said unto Jesus, “If
You will, You can make me clean.” Throw the emphasis upon the pronouns.
See him kneeling before the Lord Jesus and hear him say, “If You will, You
can make me clean.” He has no idea of looking to the disciples–no, notto one
of them or to all of them. He had no notion of trusting in a measure to the
medicine which physicians would prescribe for him. All that is gone. No
dream of other hope remains. But with his eye fully fixed on the blessed

Miracle-workerofNazareth, he cries, “If YOU will, YOU canmake me
clean.”
In himself he had no shade of confidence. Every delusion of that kind had
been banished by a fierce experience of his disease. He knew that none on
earth could deliver him and that by no innate powerof constitution could he
throw out the poison. But he confidently believed that the Son of God could,
by Himself, effectthe cure. This was God-given faith–the faith of God’s elect
and Jesus was its sole Object.
How came this man to have such faith? I cannot tell you the outward means
but I think we may guess without presumption. Had he not heard our Lord
preach? Matthew puts this story immediately after the Sermon on the Mount
and says, “WhenHe was come down from the mountain, greatmultitudes
followedHim. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying,
Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” Had this man managed to stand at
the edge of the crowd and hear Jesus speak–anddid those wondrous words
convince him that the great Teacherwas something more than man?
As he noted the style and manner and matter of that marvelous sermon, did
he say within himself, “never man spoke like this man. Truly He is the Son of
God. I believe in Him. I trust Him. He can cleanse me”? MayGod bless the
preaching of Christ crucified to you who hear me this day! Is not this used of
the Lord and made to be the powerof Godunto salvation to everyone that
believes?
Perhaps this man had seenour Lord’s miracles. I feel sure he had. He had
seenthe devils castout and had heard of Peter’s mother-in-law, who had lain
sick of a fever and had been instantaneouslyrecovered. The leper might very
properly argue–“Todo this requires omnipotence.” And once granted that
omnipotence is at work, then omnipotence canas well dealwith leprosy as
with fever. Did he not reasonwell if he argued thus–“Whatthe Lord has done,
He can do again–ifin one case He has displayed almighty power, He can
display that same powerin another case”?Thus would the acts of the Lord
corroborate His Words and furnish a sure foundation for the leper’s hope.
My Hearer, have you not seenJesus save others? Have you not at leastread of
His miracles of Divine Grace? BelieveHim, then, for His works'sake, andsay
to Him, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.”
Besides, Ithink this man may have heard something of the story of Christ and
may have been familiar with the Old Testamentprophecies concerning the
Messiah. We cannottell, but some disciple may have informed him of John’s
witness concerning the Christ and of the signs and tokens which supported

John’s testimony. He may thus have discerned in the Son of Man, the Messiah
of God–the Incarnate Deity. At any rate, as knowledge mustcome before
faith, he had receivedknowledge enoughto feelthat he could trust this
glorious Personageandto believe that, if He willed it, Jesus could make him
clean.
O my dear Hearers, cannotyou trust the Lord Jesus Christ in this way? Do
you not believe–I hope you do–that He is the Son of God? And if so, why not
trust Him? He that was born of Mary at Bethlehem was God over all, blessed
forever! Do you not believe this? Why, then, do you not rely upon Godin your
trouble? You believe in His consecratedlife, His suffering death, His
resurrection, His ascension, His sitting in powerat the right hand of the
Father–whydo you not trust Him? God has highly exalted Him and causedall
fullness to dwell in Him–He is able to save unto the uttermost–why do you not
come to Him?
Believe that He is able and then with all your sins before you, red like scarlet–
and with all your sinful habits and your evil propensities before you,
ingrained like the leopard’s spots–believe thatthe Savior of men canat once
make you whiter than snow as to past guilt and free from the present and
future tyranny of evil. A Divine Saviormust be able to cleanse youfrom all
sin. Only Jesus cando it–and He cando it–do it Himself alone, do it now, do it
in you, do it with a Word.
If Jesus wills to do it, it is all that is needed–forHis will is the will of the
Almighty Lord. Say, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” Faith must
be fixed alone on Jesus. No other name is given among men whereby we must
be saved. I do pray the Lord to give that faith to all my dear friends present
this morning who as yet have not receivedcleansing at the Lord’s hands.
Jesus is God’s ultimatum of salvation–the unique hope of guilty men both as
to pardon and renewal. AcceptHim now.
IV. Now let me go a step further–THIS MAN’S FAITH HAD RESPECT TO
A REAL MATTER-OF-FACT CURE. He did not think of the Lord Jesus
Christ as a priest who would perform certain ceremonies overhim and
formally say, “You are clean.” Forthat would not have been true. He wanted
really to be delivered from the leprosy. To have those dry scalesinto which his
skin kept turning, taken all away. That his flesh might become as the flesh of a
little child. He wanted that the rottenness, which was eating up his body,
should be stopped–andthat health should be actually restored.
Friends, it is easyenoughto believe in a mere priestly absolution if you have
enough credulity. But we need more than this. It is very easyto believe in

Baptismal regenerationbut what is the goodof it? What practical result does
it produce? A child remains the same after it has been baptismally
regeneratedas it was before and it grows up to prove it. It is easyto believe in
Sacramentarianismif you are foolishenough. But there is nothing in it when
you believe in it. No sanctifying powercomes with outward ceremonials in and
of themselves. To believe that the Lord Jesus Christ can make us love the good
things which once we despisedand shun those evil things in which we once
took pleasure–this is to believe in Him, indeed. Jesus cantotally change the
nature and make a sinner into a saint. This is faith of a practicalkind. This is
a faith worth having.
None of us would imagine that this leper meant that the Lord Jesus could
make him feel comfortable in remaining a leper. Some seemto fancy that
Jesus came to let us go on in our sins with a quiet conscience. ButHe did
nothing of the kind. His salvationis cleansing from sin and if we love sin we
are not savedfrom it. We cannot have justification without sanctification.
There is no use in quibbling about it. There must be a change–a radical
change, a change of heart–orelse we are not saved. I put it now to you, Do you
desire a moral and a spiritual change, a change of life, thought and motive?
This is what Jesus gives. Justas this leper needed a thorough physical change
so do you need an entire renewalof your spiritual nature so as to become a
new creature in Jesus Christ. Oh that many here would desire this, for it
would be a cheering sign. The man who desires to be pure is beginning to be
pure. The man who sincerely longs to conquer sin has already struck the first
blow. The powerof sin is shakenin that man who looks to Jesus for
deliverance from it. The man who frets under the yoke of sin will not long be a
slave to it. If he canbelieve that Jesus Christis able to sethim free, he shall
soonquit his bondage. Some sins which have hardened down into habits will
yet disappearin a moment when Jesus Christlooks upon a man in love.
I have known many instances ofpersons who, for many years, had never
spokenwithout an oath, or a filthy expression, who, being converted, have
never been known to use such language again–andhave scarcelyeverbeen
tempted in that direction. This is one of the sins which seemto die at the first
shot and it is a very wonderful thing it should be so. Others I have known so
altered at once that the very propensity which was strongestin them has been
the lastto annoy them afterwards–theyhave had such a reversion of the
mind’s action. While other sins have worried them for years and they have
had to seta strict watchagainstthem–yet their favorite and dominant sin has
never again had the slightestinfluence over them–exceptto excite an outburst
of horror and deep repentance.

Oh, that you had faith in Jesus that He could thus castdown and castout your
reigning sins! Believe in the conquering arm of the Lord Jesus and He will do
it. Conversionis the standing miracle of the Church. Where it is genuine, it is
as cleara proof of Divine power going with the Gospelas was the casting out
of devils, or eventhe raising of the dead in our Lord’s day. We see these
conversions still. And we have proof that Jesus is able to work greatmoral
marvels still. O my Hearer, where are you? Canyou not believe that Jesus is
able to make a new man of you? O Brothers and Sisters who have been saved,
I entreat you to breathe a prayer at this time for those who are not yet
cleansedfrom the foul disease ofsin. Pray that they may have grace to believe
in the Lord Jesus for purification of heart, pardon of sin and the implantation
of eternal life. Then when faith is given the Lord Jesus will work their
sanctificationand none shall effectually hinder. In silence let us pray for a
moment. (Here there was a pause and silent prayer went up to Heaven).
1. And now we will go another step–THIS MAN’S FAITH WAS
ATTENDED WITHWHAT APPEARS TO BE A HESITANCY. But
after thinking it over a gooddeal, I am hardly inclined to think it such a
hesitancyas many have judged it to be. He said, “If You will, You can
make me clean.” There was an“if” in this speechand that “if” has
arousedthe suspicions ofmany preachers. Some think it supposes that
he doubted our Lord’s willingness. I hardly think that the language
justly bears so harsh a construction.
What he meant may have been this–“Lord, I do not know yet that You are
sent to heal lepers. I have not seenthat You have ever done so. But, still, if it is
within the compass ofYour commission, I believe You will do it and assuredly
You can if You will. You canheal not only some lepers but me in particular–
You can make me clean.” Now, I think this was a legitimate thing for him to
say, as he had not seena leper healed–“Ifit is within the compass of Your
commission, I believe You can make me whole.”
Moreover, I admire in this text the deference which the leper pays to the
sovereigntyof Christ’s will as to the bestowalofHis gifts. “If You will, You
can make me clean”–asmuch as to say, “I know You have a right to distribute
these greatfavors exactlyas You please. I have no claim upon You. I cannot
say that You are bound to make me clean. I appeal to Your pity and free
favor. The matter remains with Your will.” The man had never read the text
which says, “It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs but of God that
shows mercy,” for it was not yet written. But he had in his mind the humble
spirit suggestedby that grand Truth. He ownedthat Divine Grace must come
as a free gift of God’s goodpleasure when he said, “Lord, if You will.”

Beloved, we need never raise a question as to the Lord’s will to give grace
when we have the will to receive it. But still, I would have every sinner feel
that he has no claim upon God for anything. O Sinner, if the Lord should give
you up, as He did the heathen describedin the first chapter of the Epistle to
the Romans, you deserve it. If He should never look upon you with an eye of
love, what could you sayagainstHis righteous sentence? Youhave willfully
sinned and you deserve to be left in your sin. Confessing allthis, we still cling
to our firm belief in the powerof Divine Grace and cry, “Lord, if You will,
You can.” We appeal to our Savior’s pitying love, relying upon His boundless
power.
See, also, how the leper, to my mind, really speaks withoutany hesitancy, if
you understand him. He does not say, “Lord, if You put out Your hand, You
can make me clean.” Nor, “Lord, if You speak, you can make me clean.” But
only, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean”–Yourmere will cando it.
Oh, splendid faith! If you are inclined to spy a little halting in it, I would have
you admire it for running so well with a lame foot. If there was a weakness
anywhere in his faith–still it was so strong that the weaknessonly manifests its
strength.
Sinner, it is so. And I pray God that your heart may graspit–if the Lord wills
it He canmake you clean. Do you believe this? If so, carry out practically
what your faith will suggestto you–namely, that you come to Jesus and plead
with Him and getfrom Him the cleansing which you need. To that end I am
hoping to lead you, as the Holy Spirit shall enable me.
VI. In the sixth place, notice that THIS MAN’S FAITH HAD EARNEST
ACTION FLOWING OUT OF IT. Believing that, if Jesus willed, He could
make him clean, what did the leper do? At once he came to Jesus. I know not
from what distance, but he came as near to Jesus as he could. Then we read
that he besoughtHim. That is to say, he pleaded and pleaded and pleaded
again. He cried, “Lord, cleanse me! Lord heal my leprosy!” Norwas this all.
He fell on his knees and worshipped. Forwe read, “Kneeling down to Him.”
He not only knelt but knelt to Jesus. He had no difficulty as to paying Him
Divine honor. He worshipped the Lord Christ, paying Him reverent homage.
He then went on to honor Him by an open acknowledgmentofHis power, His
marvelous power, His infinite power, by saying, “Lord, if You will, You can
make me clean.” I should not wonder if some that stoodby beganto smile at
what they thought was the poor man’s fanaticalcredulity. They murmured,
“What a poor foolthis leper is, to think that Jesus of Nazarethcan cure him of
his leprosy!” Such a confessionoffaith had seldombeen heard. But whatever

critics and skeptics might think, this brave man boldly declared, “Lord, this is
my confessionoffaith–I believe that if You will, You canmake me clean.”
Now, poor Soul, you that are full of guilt and hardened in sin and yet anxious
to be healed–lookstraightawayto the Lord Jesus Christ. He is here now. In
the preaching of the GospelHe is with us always. With the eyes of your mind,
behold Him, for He beholds you. You know that He lives even though you see
Him not. Believe in this living Jesus. Believe forperfect cleansing. Cry to Him,
worship Him, adore Him, trust Him. He is very God of very God. Bow before
Him and castyourselfupon His mercy. Go home and on your knees say,
“Lord, I believe that You can make me clean.” He will hear your cry and will
save you. There will be no interval betweenyour prayer and the gracious
reward of faith, of which I now speak.
III. Lastly, HIS FAITH HAD ITS REWARD. Have patience with me just a
minute. The reward of this man’s faith was, first, that his very words were
treasuredup. Matthew, Mark, Luke–allthree of them record the precise
words which this man used–“Lord, if You will, You canmake me clean.”
They evidently did not see so much to find fault with in them as some have
done–onthe contrary, they thought them gems to be placed in the setting of
their Gospels. Three times over are they recorded, because theyare such a
splendid confessionoffaith for a poor diseasedleperto have made. I believe
that God is as much glorified by that one sentence of the leper as by the song
of Cherubim and Seraphim, when they continually cry, “Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of Sabaoth.”
A sinner’s lips declaring his confident faith in God’s own Soncan breathe
sonnets unto God more sweetthan those of the angelic choirs. This man’s first
words of faith are folded up in the fair linen of three Evangels and laid up in
the treasury of the House of the Lord. Godvalues the language of humble
confidence.
His next rewardwas that Jesus echoedhis words. He said, “Lord, if You will,
You can make me clean.” And Jesus said, “I will, be you clean.” As an echo
answers to the voice, so did Jesus to His supplicant. The Lord Jesus was so
pleasedwith this man’s words that He caughtthem as they leapedout of his
mouth and used them Himself, saying, “I will, be you clean.”
If you can only get, then, as far as this leper’s confession, I believe that our
Lord Jesus from His Throne above, will answeryour prayer. So potent were
the words of this leper that they moved our Lord very wonderfully. Readthe
forty-first verse–“And Jesus, movedwith compassion.”The Greek wordhere
used, if I were to pronounce it in your hearing, would half suggestits own

meaning. It expresses a stirring of the entire manhood, a commotion in all the
inward parts. The heart and all the vitals of the man are in active movement.
The Saviorwas greatly moved.
You have seena man moved, have you not? When a strong man is unable any
longerto restrain himself and is forced to give way to his feelings, you have
seenhim tremble all over and at last burst out into an evident break-down. It
was just so with the Savior–His pity moved Him–His delight in the leper’s
faith masteredHim. When He heard the man speak with such confidence in
Him, the Savior was moved with a sacredpassion, which, as it was in
sympathy with the leper, is called“compassion.” Oh, to think that a poor
leper should have such powerover the Divine Son of God! Yet, my Hearer, in
all your sin and misery–if you canbelieve in Jesus–youcanmove the heart of
your blessedSavior. Yes, even now His heart yearns towards you.
No soonerwas our Lord Jesus thus moved than out went His hand and He
touched the man and healed him immediately. It did not require a long time
for the working of the cure. But the leper’s blood was cooledand cleansedin a
single second. Our Lord could work this miracle and make all things new in
the man. For “all things were made by Him. And without Him was not
anything made that was made.” He restoredthe poor, decaying, putrefying
body of this man and he was cleansedatonce. To make him quite sure that he
was cleansedthe Lord Jesus bade him go to the priest and seek a certificate of
health. He was so cleanthat he might be examined by the appointed sanitary
authority and come off without suspicion.
The cure which he had receivedwas a real and radicalone and therefore he
might go awayat once and getthe certificate of it. If our converts will not bear
practicaltests, they are worth nothing. Let even our enemies judge whether
they are not better men and women when Jesus has renewedthem. If Jesus
saves a sinner, he does not mind all men testing the change. Our converts will
bear the test. Come here, angels!Come here, pure intelligences, able to
observe men in secret!Here is a wretchof a sinner who came here this
morning. He seemedfirst cousinto the devil. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
convertedhim and changedhim. Now look at him, angels. Look at him at
home in his chamber!
Watch him in private life. We can read your verdict. “There is joy in the
presence ofthe angels of God overone sinner that repents.” And this proves
what you think. It is such a wonderful change and angels are so sure of it, that
they give their certificates atonce. How do they give their certificates?Why,
eachone manifests his joy as he sees the sinner turning from his sinful ways.
Oh, that the angels might have work of this kind to do this morning! Dear

Hearer, may you be one over whom they rejoice!If you believe on Jesus
Christ and if you will trust Him as the sentOne of God–fully and entirely with
your soul–He will make you clean.
Behold Him on the Cross and see sin put away. Behold Him risen from the
dead and see new life bestowed. BeholdHim enthroned in power and see evil
conquered. I am ready to be bound for my Lord, to be His surety, that if you,
my Hearer, will come to Him, He will make you clean. Believe your Savior
and your cure is final. Godhelp you, for Jesus Christ’s sake!Amen. Portion
Of Scripture ReadBefore Sermon–Mark 1:16-45.HYMNS FROM“OUR
OWN HYMN BOOK”–428, 602, 546.
MARK 1:41 BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Leper's Petition
Mark 1:40-45
A.F. Muir
I. THE GENERALWORK OF CHRIST, WHEN IT IS KNOWN,
ENCOURAGES THE MOST FORLORN AND DESPERATE. (Cf. ver. 39.)
The nature of leprosyand the law concerning it.
II. SINCERE FAITH, EVEN WHEN IMPERFECT, EVER MEETS WITH
THE SYMPATHY AND HELP OF CHRIST. "If thou wilt, thou canst." He
believed in his power, but was uncertain as to his willingness. The spirit of the
Saviour was therefore concealedfrom him. Yet Christ answeredhis prayer.
(There is no evidence that the leper identified the will with the power.)
III. CHRIST'S METHOD OF RESTORATIONIS ADAPTED TO THE
SPECIAL MORAL CONDITION OF THE SUBJECT OF HIS MERCY. It
was his sympathy and willingness that had to be demonstratedto the poor
leper. This is done by the assurance,"Iwill;" and the touch (braving
ceremonialdefilement and physical repugnance). So, in saving men from their
sins, their defects of characterand experience are met by specialrevelations
and mercies. A complete and perfect faith in Christ is the evidence and
guarantee of perfectsalvation.
IV. SPECIAL EXPERIENCES OF DIVINE GRACE DO NOT FREE FROM
LESSER DUTIES, BUT RATHER INCREASE THEIR OBLIGATION. The

Law was to be honored. Civil and religious obligations were enjoined. There
was a public use in the rules that were imposed, and it was well they should be
observed.
V. MERCYMAY BE RECEIVED WITHOUT ITS OBLIGATIONS BEING
FULLY REALIZED OR OBSERVED.The leper was cured, but not perfectly.
He had not learned the obedience of faith. His inattention to Christ's request
createda serious inconvenience and hindrance in prosecuting the work of
salvationamongstothers. Those who have receivedbenefits from Christ
should attend implicitly to all that he enjoins. "Ye are my friends, if ye do the
things Which I command you" (John 15:14). The spiritual blessings ofChrist
are dependent on perfectsubjection to his will. - M.
Biblical Illustrator
And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him.
Mark 1:40-45
The cured leper still rebellious
D. Davies, M. A.
I. HIS DISEASE.
II. HIS APPLICATION.
1. We have here an intelligent appreciation of Christ as the Healer.
2. We have an instance of genuine earnestness.
3. We see here the marks of true humility.
4. A sample of prayer for a specialgift.

5. But here is illustrated a very unworthy conceptionof Christ's love.
III. HIS CURE — "Jesus spakeand it was done."
1. His method bears proof of Divinity — "I will, be thou clean."
2. The cure was instantaneous.
3. It was complete.
4. The cure must have been welcome.
IV. HIS OBLIGATION.
1. That obligationcoveredthe whole area of his life.
2. The healer always becomes the sovereign. He who commanded the disease,
commanded the patient also.
3. The requirement of Christ was founded in solid reason.
4. The obligation involved public acknowledgmentand substantial gift.
V. HIS CONTUMACY.
1. Complete redemption is not obtained until the will is subdued.
2. This man's contumacy was thoughtless.
3. This contumacywas fraught with disastrous effects.
(D. Davies, M. A.)
The approachof a needy life to Christ
J. S. Exell, M. A.
I. THE DEEP NEED OF THIS MAN'S LIFE — "And there came a leper
unto Him."
1. It was a need that filled the life of this man with intense misery.
2. It was a need from which no human remedy could give relief.
3. It was a need that brought him into immediate contactwith Christ.
II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS NEEDYLIFE APPROACHED THE
SAVIOUR.
1. His appeal to Christ was characterizedby a truthful apprehension of his
need.
2. His appeal to Christ was characterizedby an acknowledgmentof the Divine
sovereignty.
3. His appeal to Christ was characterizedby great earnestness.

4. His appeal to Christ was characterizedby deep humility.
5. His appeal to Christ was characterizedby simple faith.
III. THE RESPONSE WHICH THE APPEAL OF THIS NEEDYLIFE
AWAKENED IN THE BENEFICENT HEART OF CHRIST.
1. It awakenedtender compassion.
2. It receivedthe touch of Divine power.
3. It attained a welcome and effective cure.Lessons:
1. That it is well for a needy life to approach Christ.
2. That a needy life should approach Christ with humility and faith.
3. The marvellous way in which Christ can supply the need of man.
(J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Christ's touch
A. McLaren, D. D.
I. WhateverDiviner and sacrederaspectthere may be in these incidents, the
first thing, and, in some senses, the most precious thing in them is that THEY
ARE THE NATURAL EXPRESSION OF A TRULY HUMAN
TENDERNESS AND COMPASSION. Itis the love of Christ Himself —
spontaneous, instinctive — without the thought of anything but the suffering
it sees — which gushes out and leads Him to put forth His hand to the outcast
beggars and lepers. True pity instinctively leads us to seek to come near those
who are its objects. Christ's pity is shown by His touch to have this true
characteristic oftrue pity, that it overcomes disgust;He is not turned away by
the shining whiteness of the leprosy. Christ loves us, and will not be turned
from His compassionby our most loathsome foulness.
II. We may regard the touch AS THE MEDIUM OF HIS MIRACULOUS
POWER. There is a royal variety in the method of our Lord's miracles; some
are wrought at a distance, some by a word or touch. The true cause in every
case is His own bare will. But this use of Christ's touch, as apparent means for
conveying His miraculous power, illustrates a principle which is exemplified
in all His revelation, namely, the employment, in condescensionto men's
weakness,ofoutward means as the apparent vehicles of His spiritual power.
Sacraments, outwardceremonies, forms of worship, are vehicles which the
Divine Spirit uses in order to bring His gifts to the hearts and the minds of
men. They are like the touch of Christ which heals, not by any virtue in itself,

apart from His will which choosesto make it the apparent medium of healing.
All these externals are nothing, as the pipes of an organare nothing, until His
breath is breathed through them, and then the flood of sweetsound pours out.
Do not despise the material vehicles and the outward helps which Christ uses
for the communication of His healing and His life, but remember that the help
that is done upon earth, He does it all Himself.
III. ConsiderChrist's touch AS A SHADOW AND SYMBOL OF THE VERY
HEART OF HIS WORK. Christ's touch was a Priest's touch. He lays His
hand on corruption and is not tainted. It becomes purity. This was His work
in the world — laying hold of the outcast — His sympathy leading to His
identification of Himself with us in our misery. That sympathetic life-long
touch is put forth once for all in His incarnation and death. Let our touch
answerto His; let the hand of faith graspHim.
IV. We may look upon these incidents as being A PATTERN FOR US. We
must be content to take lepers by the hand, to let the outcastfeelthe warmth
of our loving grasp if we would draw them into the Father's house.
(A. McLaren, D. D.)
Christ touches corruption without taint
A. McLaren, D. D.
Just as He touches the leper and is unpolluted, or the fever patient and
receives no contagion, or the dead and draws no chill of mortality into His
warm hand, so He becomes like His brethren in all things, yet without sin.
Being found in the likeness ofsinful flesh, He knows no sin, but wears His
manhood unpolluted, and dwells among men blameless and harmless, the Son
of God, without rebuke. Like a sunbeam passing through foul water
untarnished and unstained; or like some sweetSpring rising in the midst of
the saltsea, which yet retains its freshness and pours it over the surrounding
bitterness, so Christ takes upon Himself our nature and lays hold of our
stained hands with the hand that continues pure while it grasps us, and will
make us purer if we grasp it.
(A. McLaren, D. D.)
The cleansing ofthe leper
W. G. Barrett.
I. Let us put togetherthe FACTS of the case.

II. The principal LESSONS suggestedby this narrative.
1. Here is an illustration of the goodeffects of speaking aboutreligious truth
in connectionwith Christ. The fame of Christ was spreadabroad throughout
Syria, and found its way to the leper.
2. That doubts are no reasonwhy we should not go to Christ — "Lord, if thou
wilt," etc.
3. That no possible circumstances oughtto prevent our going to Christ for
salvation.
4. Christ's love and willingness to save is the greatidea of the gospel.
(W. G. Barrett.)
Cleansedby Christ
Sunday SchoolTimes.
A nun in an Italian convent once dreamed that an angelopenedher spiritual
eyes, and she saw all men as they were. They seemedso full of uncleanness
that she shrank back from them in horror. But just then Jesus Christ
appearedamong them with bleeding wounds, and the nun saw that whoever
pressedforward and touched the blood of Jesus, atonce became white as
snow. It is so in everyday life. It was Jesus who cleansedthat reformed
drunkard from the stain of his sin. Years ago he was poorand raggedand
unclean. Todayhe is cleanand healthy and well dressed;the grace ofChrist
has been manifestedin the cleansing of the outer as well as of the inner man.
(Sunday SchoolTimes.)
Cleansing of the leper
Expository Outlines.
I. THE PITIABLE OBJECTTHAT IS WERE PRESENTED.The malady
was one of the most distressing that ever seizeda human being. It was usually
regardedas produced by the immediate agencyofthe MostHigh. The rules
prescribed for its treatment were very minute and stringent. Among the many
immunities with which we are favoured in this happy land, may be reckoned
the entire absence ofleprosy. But if bodily leprosy is unknown among us,
spiritual leprosy is not.
1. It was hereditary.
2. A representationof sin in the consequenceswith which it was attended.

II. THE APPLICATION WHICH HE MADE.
1. It was earnest.
2. It was humble.
3. It expressedgreatconfidence in the Saviour's ability.
4. It indicated some doubt of His willingness to exert the power He possessed.
III. THE RESPONSE HE MET WITH.
1. The emotion which the Saviour felt — "Movedwith compassion."
2. The act He performed — "Put forth His hand, and touched him."
3. The words He uttered — "I will; be thou clean."
4. The effect produced — "The leprosydeparted from him."
IV. THE DIRECTIONS HE RECEIVED.
1. These instructions were necessary. The law enjoined that the priest should
pronounce the leper clean before he could enjoy the privileges — whether
social, civil, or religious — of which he had been deprived.
2. Howeverneedful these instructions may have been, the restoredleper, in
the fulness of his joy and gratitude, was unable to comply with them. See the
ability of Christ to save. A personalapplication to Him is necessary.
(Expository Outlines.)
Christ's relation to human suffering
A. G. Churchill.
Christ presentedto us in three aspects.
I. AS A WORKER — "He stretched forth His hand and touched him." This
act was —
1. Natural. The means employed were in harmony with His nature as a human
being. Christ felt His oneness with the race.
2. Profound. A common thing apparently, yet who can tell what power was in
that "touch." Doubtless there was the communication of a powerinvisible to
human eyes.
3. Beneficent. Here we have the cure of an incurable.
4. Prompt. The earnestappealobtained an immediate response. This was
characteristic ofChrist.
II. AS A SPEAKER. "And saith," etc. This shows —

1. His Divine authority — "I will." Such a fiat could have come only from the
lips of a Divine person — "Neverman spake," etc., "Withauthority He
commandeth," etc. (ver. 28).
2. His consciousnessofpower. Christ fully knew what power He possessed.
Not so with man; consequently how much latent energy lies dormant in the
Church of Christ.
3. His possessionofpower — "Be thou made clean." At the unfaltering tones
of Christ's voice all diseasesfled.
III. AS A HEALER — "And straightwaythe leprosydeparted," etc. This
healing was —
1. Instantaneous.
2. Perfect.
(A. G. Churchill.)
The Saviour and the leper
Andrew A. Bonar.
No one afflicted with this loathsome diseasewas allowedto enter the gates of
any city. In this case, however, the man's misery and earnestnessledhim to
make a dangerous experiment. Persuadedofthe Lord's powerto heal; longing
to put it to the test; almostsure of His willingness;he will rush into the city,
and ere ever the angry people have had time to recoverfrom their
astonishment at his boldness, he hopes to find himself cured and whole at the
feet of Jesus. There was both daring and doubting in his action. The man's
earnestnessis seenfurther in his manner.
1. He KNELT before the Lord, and next fell on his face — his attitude giving
emphasis to his words.
2. He BESOUGHT Jesus — in fear, in doubt, in secretdread lest the Lord
should see some reasonforwithholding the boon he craved, but yet in faith.
And his faith was great. He did not, like Martha, considerChrist's poweras
needing to be soughtfrom God; he believed it to be lodged already in Christ's
person; and he also believed His power to be great enoughto reacheven his
case, althoughas yet no leper had receivedhealing from Christ.
3. His faith was REWARDED. Jesus touchedhim — no pollution passing
from the leper to Him, but healing going from Him to the leper.

4. Instantly the leprosydeparted. Nothing is a barrier to the Lord's will and
power.
(Andrew A. Bonar.)
Leprosy
R. Glover.
As to this disease observe:heat, dryness, and dust, predispose to diseasesof
the skineverywhere, and all these causes are especiallyoperative in Syria.
Insufficient food assists theiraction; and boils and sores are apt to festerand
poison the system. Leprosy is a disease found over a large tract of the world's
surface;it is found all round the shores of the Mediterranean, from Syria to
Spain, in a virulent form, and in North and South Africa. It was carriedto
various countries in Europe by those who returned from the crusades, and
became prevalent even in England, in the times when our forefathers had no
butcher meat in winter but what was salted, and little vegetable diet with it. In
a form less virulent than in Palestine, it exists in Norway, where the
government supports severalhospitals for lepers, and seeksto prevent the
spread of the disease by requiring all afflicted with it to live — unmarried —
in one or other of these. Probably, salt fish in Norwayforms the too exclusive
food of the poor, as it also probably did in Palestine in the time of Christ. Mrs.
Brasseyfound it in the islands of the Pacific. It is so common in India that
when Lord Lawrence took formal possessionofOude, he made the people
promise not to burn their widows nor slay their children (the girls), nor bury
alive their lepers. It was a loathsome disease,eating awaythe joints,
enfeebling the strength, producing diseasesofthe lungs, almost always fatal,
though taking years to kill. It was the one disease whichthe Mosaic law
treated as unclean; perhaps, as being the chief disease, Godwishedto indicate
that all outward misery had originally its rootin sin. He that was afflicted
with it had to live apart from his fellows, and to cry out "unclean" when any
came near him; often, therefore, could do no work, but had to live on charity.
He was not permitted to enter a synagogue unless a part were speciallyrailed
off for him, and then he must be the first to enter and the last to quit the
place. It was as fatal as consumption is with us; much more painful;
loathsome as well, infecting the spirits with melancholy, and cutting the
sufferer off from tender sympathies and ministries when he most needed
them.
(R. Glover.)

The leper's prayer
R. Glover.
This prayer is very remarkable. Forobserve —
I. THE CASE WOULD SEEM ABSOLUTELYHOPELESS. Many could feel
that for a Lordly spirit like Christ's to have control over evil spirits was
natural, but would have held the cure of a leper an impossibility; for the
disease, being one of the blood, infected the whole system! If onlookers might
so think, how much more the leper himself! Every organof his body infected
deeply, how wonderful that he could have any hope. But he believes this great
miracle a possibility. Yet note —
II. HIS PRAYER IS WONDERFULLY CALM. In deepestearnesthe kneels.
But there is no wildness nor excitement. Mark also —
III. HOW A GREAT LAW OF COMPENSATIONRUNS THROUGH OUR
LIVES, and somehow those most grievouslyafflicted are often those most
helped to pray and trust. I once saw a leper at Genadenthal in South Africa —
an old woman. "Tell him," said she to the doctor, who took me to see her, "I
am very thankful for my disease;it is the way the Lord took to bring me to
Himself." This man had had the same sort of compensation, and while the
outward man was perishing the inward man was being renewed day by day.
Copy his prayer, and ask for mercies though they seemto be sheer
impossibilities.
(R. Glover.)
"Can" and "will"
H. Smith., Quesnel.
It is an old answer, that from canto will, no argument followeth. The leper
did not say unto Christ, "If Thou canst, Thou wilt;" but, "If Thou wilt, Thou
canst."
(H. Smith.)
I. The cure of our souls is the pure effectof the goodness andfree mercy of
God.
II. Jesus Christ performs it by a sovereignauthority.
III. His sacredhumanity is the instrument of the Divine operationin our
hearts.

IV. It is by His will that His merits are applied to us. Fear, for He does not put
forth His healing hand and touch all; hope, for He very frequently puts it
forth, and touches the most miserable.
(Quesnel.)
The world's treatment of lepers, and Christ's
J. G. Greenhough, M. A.
You remember the story of the leper which the poet Swinburne has woven
into one of his most beautiful, most painfully realistic, poems. He tells about a
lady at the FrenchCourt in the Middle Ages, who was strickenwith leprosy.
She had been courted, flattered, idolized, and almost worshipped for her wit
and beauty by the king, princes, and all the royal train, until she was smitten
with leprosy. Then her very lovers hunted her forth as a banned and God-
forsakenthing; every door in the greatcity of Paris was slammed in her face;
no one would give her a drop of water or piece of bread; the very children
spat in her face, and fled from her as a pestilential thing, until a poor clerk,
who had loved the great lady a long way off, and had never spokento her until
then, took her to his house for pity's sake, andnursed her until she died, and
he was castout and cursed himself by all the religious world for doing it. That
was what the leper had become in the Middle Ages, and something like that he
was among the Jews ofour Saviour's time, hated by men because believedto
be hated by God, carrying in his flesh and skin the very marks of God's anger,
contempt, and scorn, the foulest thing on God's fair earth, whose presence
meant defilement, and whom to touch was sin. That was the thing that lay at
Christ's feet, and on which that pure, gentle hand was laid. He stretchedforth
His hand and touched him, and said, "I will, be thou clean;" and straightway
his leprosywas cleansed.
(J. G. Greenhough, M. A.)
Christ's saving touch
I. THE WONDERFULWAY IS WHICH CHRIST KINDLED HOPE IN
THESE DESPERATEWRETCHES.He helped men to believe in themselves
as well as in Himself. We cannotsee how it was done. Nothing had been said
or done to give this confidence in his recoverability, yet he has it. You can
show a man in a score of ways, without telling him in so many words, that you

do not despair of him. A glance ofthe eye is enoughfor that. The first step in
saving the lost is to persuade them that they are not God-abandoned.
II. CHRIST'S TOUCH. Christ savedmen by touching them. He was always
touching men, their hands, eyes, ears, lips. He did not send His salvation;He
brought it. Gifts demoralize men unless we give part of ourselves with them.
The use of personalcontact
Our gifts only demoralize men unless we give part of ourselves along with
them. Even a dog is demoralized it you always throw bones to it instead of
giving them out of your hand. You breathe a bit of humanity into the dog by
letting it lick your hand, and it would almost rather do that than eatyour
bone. What have we done to save men when we have sent them our charities?
Almost nothing. We have filled their stomachs, indeed, and lightened their
material wants, but have sent their souls still empty away.
J. Richardson, M. A.
There are in this case elements whichought to be found in any man who is
suffering from soul disease and defilement.
I. A PAINFUL CONSCIOUSNESSOF HIS TRUE POSITION. He lookedat
his leprosy;felt its pain; knew its disabling uncleanness. The sinner sees his
sin as disgrace, a danger, and a disgust.
II. A PROPER SENSE OF HIS PRESENT OPPORTUNITY. GreatHealer
was approaching;Lord of love and pity was here; representative of heaven
passedby. He was drawn to Jesus;prostrate before Jesus;urgent upon Jesus.
A present decision;a present acceptance;a present salvation.
III. A PLAIN ACKNOWLEDGMENTOF THE LORD'S POWER. "Thou
canst;" I can't; others can't; but Thou canst, I know it, because Thou hast
cleansedothers;hast powerto cleanse;hast come forth to cleanse.
IV. A PRESSING URGENCYCONCERNINGTHE LORD'S PLEASURE.
"If Thou wilt." Perhaps I am too vile. It may be my sorrow may plead. In any
case I will take my refusal only from Thee. Observe —

1. The leper makes no prayer. Readiness to receive is in itself a prayer.
Uttered prayer may be no deeper than the mouth; unuttered prayer may be
evidence of the opened heart.
2. The leper raises no difficulty. He comes — worships — confesses his faith
— puts himself in the Lord's hands.
3. The leper has no hesitationas to what he needs — "Slake me clean." As to
whom he trusts — "Thou canst." As to how he comes — "A leper." Miseryin
the presence ofmercy — humility pleading with grace — faith appealing to
faithfulness — helplessness worshipping at the feetof power. Such is a leper
before the Lord. Such is a sinner before the Saviour. Such should we be to this
day of grace.
(J. Richardson, M. A.)
The method of spiritual salvationillustrated
J. Parker, D. D.
I. The leper put himself UNRESERVEDLYin the hands of the Healer.
II. Christ instantly gave PRACTICALEXPRESSION TO HIS OWN DEEP
PITY.
III. THE COMPLETENESS OF CHRIST'S CURE.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
Leprosy a symbol of sin
Anon.
I. FROM A SMALL BEGINNING IT SPREADS OVER THE ENTIRE MAN.
II. ITS CURE IS BEYOND THE REACH OF HUMAN SKILL OR
NATURAL REMEDIES.
III. IT IS PAINFUL, LOATHSOME, DEGRADING, AND FATAL.
IV. IT SEPARATES ITS VICTIM FROM THE PURE AND DRIVES HIM
INTO ASSOCIATION WITH THE IMPURE.
V. IT IS A FOE TO RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES.
IV. IT CAN RE REMEDIED BYTHE INTERPOSITION OF GOD.
(Anon.)

Christ's pity shownmore in deeds than in words
R. W. Dale, LL. D.
I doubt whether Christ ever said anything about the Divine compassionmore
pathetic or more perfectly beautiful than had been said by the writer of the
103rdPsalm. It is not in the words of Christ that we find a fuller and deeper
revelation of the Divine compassion, but in His deeds. "And Jesus, moved with
compassion, put forth His hand and touched him," touched the man from
whom his very kindred had shrunk. It was the first time that the leper had felt
the warmth and pressure of a human hand since his loathsome disease came
upon him. And said, "I will, be thou clean."
(R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
The leper cleansed
Dr. Parker.
I.Sorrow turns instinctively to the supernatural.
II.Christ is never deaf to sorrow's cry.
III.Christ is superior alike to material contaminationand legalrestriction.
(Dr. Parker.)
Christ's mission a protest againstdeath
Dr. Parker.
Every healed man was Christ's living protest againstdeath. The mere fact of
the miracle was but a syllable in Christ's magnificent doctrine of life. Christ's
mission may be summed up in the word — Life; the devil's, in the word —
Death; so that every recoveredlimb, every opened eye, every purified leper,
was a confirmation of His statement, "I have come that they might have life."
(Dr. Parker.)
T. Whitelaw, M. A.
I. A melancholy PICTURE to be studied.
II. An excellent EXAMPLE to be copied.
1. He made his application in the proper quarter. He "came to Jesus."

2. He made his application in the right way.
3. He made his application in the proper spirit, "kneeling."
III. A sweetENCOURAGEMENT to be taken.
IV. A necessaryDUTY to be performed. Silence and the offering of sacrifice.
Gratitude; penitence;consecration.
V. An uncommon MISTAKE to be avoided. "He began to blaze abroad the
matter."
(T. Whitelaw, M. A.)
Reasonsfor silence respecting Christ's miracles
G. Petter., R. Glover.
Our Lord did not mean that the man should keepit only to himself, and that
he should not at all make it knownto any; for He knew that it was fit His
miracles should be known, that by them His Divine powerand the truth of His
doctrine might be manifested to the world; and therefore we read that at
another time He was willing a miracle of His should be made known(Mark
5:19). But Christ's purpose here is to restrain him —
I. From publishing this miracle rashly or unadvisedly, and in an indiscreet
manner.
II. From revealing it to such persons as were likely to cavil or take exceptions
at it.
III. From publishing it at that time, which was unfit and unseasonable —(1)
BecauseChristwas yet in the state of His abasement, and was so to continue
till the time of His resurrection, and His Divine glory was to be manifested by
degrees till then, and not all at once;(2) Becausethe people were too much
addicted to the miracles of Christ, without due regard to His teaching.
(G. Petter.)With the charge to tell it to the priest the Saviourgave the charge
to tell it to no one else.
I. Christ did not want a crowd of wonder seekersto clamour for a sign, but
penitents to listen to the tidings of salvation.
II. The man would be spiritually the better of thinking calmly and silently
over His wondrous mercy, until at all events he had been to the Temple in
Jerusalemand back. Do not tattle about your religious experience;nor, if you
are a beginner, speak so much about God's mercy to you that you have not
time to study it and learn its lesson. This man, had he but gone into some

retired spot and mastered the meaning of His mercy, might have become an
apostle. As it is, he becomes a sort of showman of himself.
(R. Glover.)
Unostentatious philanthropy
J. S. Exell, M. A.
I. THIS UNOSTENTATIOUS PHILANTHROPYWAS CONSEQUENT
UPON A REAL CURE.
II. WAS ANIMATED BY A TRUE SPIRIT. Some people enjoin silence in
reference to their philanthropy —
1. When they do not mean it. Mock humility.
2. Lest they should have too many applicants for it. Selfishness orlimited
generosity.
3. Others in order that they may modestly and wisely do good. So with our
Lord. Much philanthropy marred by its talkativeness.
III. WAS NOT ATTENDED WITH SUCCESS.Hence we learn —
1. That the most modest philanthropy is not always shielded from public
observation.
2. That there are men who will violate the most stringent commands and the
deepestobligations.Lessons:
1. To do goodwhen we have the opportunity.
2. Modestlyand wisely.
3. Content with the smile of Godrather than the approval of men.
The judicious reserve which should characterize the speechofthe newly
converted
J. S. Exell, M. A.
Observe:
I. THAT A WISE RESERVE SHOULD BE EXERCISED BYTHE NEWLY
CONVERTEDIN REFERENCE TO THE INNER EXPERIENCES OF THE
SOUL. Because unwise talk is likely —
1. To injure the initial culture of the soul.

2. To awakenthe scepticismofthe worldly.
3. To be regarded as boastful.
4. To impede the welfare of Divine truth.
II. THAT THIS WISE RESERVE MUST NOT INTERFERE WITHTHE
IMPERATIVE OBLIGATIONS OF THE SANCTUARY.
1. To recognize its ordinances.
2. To perform its duties.
3. To manifest in its offerings a grateful and adoring receptionof beneficent
ministry. With this no reserve of temperament or words must be allowedto
interfere.
III. THAT THIS WISE RESERVE IS SOMETIMESVIOLATED IN A
MOST FLAGRANT MANNER. How many young converts act as the
cleansedleper. We must be careful to speak atthe right time, in the right
manner, under the right circumstances.
Show thyself to the priest
DeanPlumptre.
The reasons forthe command are not far to seek.
1. The offering of the gift was an act of obedience to the law (Leviticus 14:10,
21, 22), and was therefore the right thing for the man to do. In this way also
our Lord showedthat He had not come, as far as His immediate work was
concerned, to destroyeven the ceremoniallaw, but to fulfil.
2. It was the appointed testof the reality and completeness ofthe cleansing
work.
3. It was better for the man's own spiritual life to cherish his gratitude than to
waste it in many words.
(DeanPlumptre.)
COMMENTARIES
MacLaren's Expositions

Mark
A PARABLE IN A MIRACLE
CHRIST’S TOUCH
Mark 1:41.
Behold the servant of the Lord’ might be the motto of this Gospel, and ‘He
went about doing goodand healing’ the summing up of its facts. We have in it
comparatively few of our Lord’s discourses, none of His longer, and not very
many of His briefer ones. It contains but four parables. This Evangelistgives
no miraculous birth as in Matthew, no angels adoring there as in Luke, no
gazing into the secrets ofEternity, where the Word who afterwards became
flesh dwelt in the bosom of the Father, as in John. He begins with a brief
reference to the Forerunner, and then plunges into the story of Christ’s life of
service to man and service for God.
In carrying out his conceptionthe Evangelistomits many things found in the
other Gospels, whichinvolve the idea of dignity and dominion, while he adds
to the incidents which he has in common with them not a few fine and subtle
touches to heighten the impression of our Lord’s toil and eagernessin His
patient, loving service. Perhaps it may be an instance of this that we find more
prominence given to our Lord’s touch as connectedwith His miracles than in
the other Gospels, orperhaps it may merely be an instance of the vivid
portraiture, the result of a keeneye for externals, which is so markeda
characteristic ofthis gospel. Whateverthe reason, the factis plain, that Mark
delights to dwell on Christ’s touch. The instances are these-first, He puts out
His hand, and ‘lifts up’ Peter’s wife’s mother, and immediately the fever

leaves her {Mark 1:31}; then, unrepelled by the foul disease, He lays His pure
hand upon the leper, and the living mass of corruption is healed{Mark 1:41};
again, He lays His hand on the clammy marble of the dead child’s forehead,
and she lives {Mark 5:41}. Further, we have the incidental statement that He
was so hindered in His mighty works by unbelief that He could only lay His
hands on a few sick folk and heal them {Mark 6:5}. We find next two
remarkable incidents, peculiar to Mark, both like eachother and unlike our
Lord’s other miracles. One is the gradual healing of that deaf and dumb man
whom Christ took apart from the crowd, laid His hands on him, thrust His
fingers into his ears as if He would clearsome impediment, touched his tongue
with saliva, said to him, ‘Be opened’; and the man could hear {Mark 8:34}.
The other is, the gradual healing of a blind man whom our Lord againleads
apart from the crowd, takes by the hand, lays His own kind hands upon the
poor, sightless eyeballs, andwith singular slowness ofprogress effectsa cure,
not by a leap and a bound as He generallydoes, but by steps and stages;tries
it once and finds partial success,has to apply the curative process again, and
then the man can see {Mark 8:23}. In addition to these instances there are two
other incidents which may also be adduced. It is Mark alone who records for
us the fact that He took little children in His arms, and blessedthem. And it is
Mark alone who records for us the factthat when He came down from the
Mount of TransfigurationHe laid His hand upon the demoniac boy, writhing
in the grip of his tormentor, and lifted him up.
There is much taught us, if we will patiently considerit, by that touch of
Christ’s, and I wish to try to bring out its meaning and power.
I. Whateverdiviner and sacrederaspectthere may be in these incidents, the
first thing, and in some senses the most precious thing, in them is that they are
the natural expressionof a truly human tenderness and compassion.

Now we are so accustomed, and as I believe quite rightly, to look at all
Christ’s life down to its minutest events as intended to be a revelation of God,
that we are sometimes apt to think about it as if His motive and purpose in
everything was didactic. So an unreality creeps over our conceptions of
Christ’s life, and we need to be reminded that He was not always acting and
speaking in order to convey instruction, but that words and deeds were drawn
from Him by the play of simple human feelings. He pitied not only in order to
teachus the heart of God, but because His own man’s heart was touched with
a feeling of men’s infirmities. We are too apt to think of Him as posing before
men with the intent of giving the greatrevelation of the Love of God. It is the
love of Christ Himself, spontaneous, instinctive, without the thought of
anything but the suffering that it sees,whichgushes out and leads Him to put
forth His hand to the outcastbeggars,the blind, the deaf, the lepers. That is
the first great lesson we have to learn from this and other stories-the swift
human sympathy and heart of grace and tenderness which Jesus Christhad
for all human suffering, and has to-day as truly as ever.
There is more than this instinctive sympathy taught by Christ’s touch, but it is
distinctly taught. How beautifully that comes out in the story of the leper!
That wretchedman had long dwelt in his isolation. The touch of a friend’s
hand or the kiss of loving lips had been long denied him. Christ looks on him,
and before He reflects, the spontaneous impulse of pity breaks through the
barriers of legalprohibitions and of natural repugnance, and leads Him to lay
His holy and healing hand on his foulness.
True pity always instinctively leads us to seek to come near those who are its
objects. A man tells his friend some sad story of his sufferings, and while he
speaks, unconsciouslyhis listenerlays his hand on his arm, and, by a silent
pressure, speaks his sympathy. So Christ did with these men-not only in order
that He might revealGod to us, but because He was a man, and therefore felt
ere He thought. Out flashed from His heart the swift sympathy, followedby
the tender pressure of the loving hand-a hand that tried through flesh to reach

spirit, and come near the sufferer that it might succourand remove the
sorrow.
Christ’s pity is shownby His touch to have this true characteristic oftrue pity,
that it overcomes disgust. All real sympathy does that. Christ is not turned
awayby the shining whiteness of the leprosy, nor by the eating pestilence
beneath it; He is not turned awayby the clammy marble hand of the poor
dead maiden, nor by the fevered skin of the old woman gasping on her pallet.
He lays hold on each, the flushed patient, the loathsome leper, the sacred
dead, with the all-equalising touch of a universal love and pity, which
disregards all that is repellent, and overflows everybarrier and pours itself
over every sufferer. We have the same pity of the same Christ to trust to and
to lay hold of to-day. He is high above us and yet bending over us; stretching
His hand from the throne as truly as He put it out when here on earth; and
ready to take us all to His heart in spite of our weaknessand wickedness,our
failings and our shortcomings, the fever of our flesh and hearts’desires, the
leprosy of our many corruptions, and the death of our sins,-and to hold us
ever in the strong, gentle claspof His divine, omnipotent, and tender hand.
This Christ lays hold on us because He loves us, and will not be turned from
His compassionby the most loathsome foulness of ours.
II. And now take another point of view from which we may regardthis touch
of Christ: namely, as the medium of His miraculous power.
There is nothing to me more remarkable about the miracles of our Lord than
the royal variety of His methods of healing. Sometimes He works at a distance,
sometimes He requires, as it would appearfor goodreasons, the proximity of
the personto be blessed. Sometimes He works by a simple word: ‘Lazarus,
come forth!’ ‘Peace be still!’ ‘Come out of him!’ sometimes by a word and a
touch, as in the instances before us; sometimes by a touch without a word;
sometimes by a word and a touch and a vehicle, as in the saliva that was put

on the tongue and in the ears of the deaf, and on the eyes of the blind;
sometimes by a vehicle without a word, without a touch, without His presence,
as when He said, ‘Go washin the pool of Siloam, and he washedand was
clean.’So the divine workervaries infinitely and at pleasure, yet not
arbitrarily but for profound, even if not always discoverable, reasons, the
methods of His miracle-working power, in order that we may learn by these
varieties of ways that He is tied to no way; and that His hand, strong and
almighty, uses methods and tossesaside methods according to His pleasure,
the methods being vitalised when they are used by His will, and being nothing
at all in themselves.
The very variety of His methods, then, teaches us that the true cause in every
case is His own bare will. A simple word is the highest and most adequate
expressionof that will. His word is all-powerful: and that is the very signature
of divinity. Of whom has it been true from of old that ‘He spake and it was
done, He commanded and it stoodfast’? Do you believe in a Christ whose
bare will, thrown among material things, makes them all plastic, as clay in the
potter’s hands, whose mouth rebukes the demons and they flee, rebukes death
and it looses its grasp, rebukes the tempest and there is a calm, rebukes
disease andthere comes health? But this use of Christ’s touch as apparent
means for conveying His miraculous power also serves as anillustration of a
principle which is exemplified in all His revelation, namely, the employment in
condescensionto men’s weakness, ofoutward means as the apparent vehicles
of His spiritual power. Just as by the material vehicle sometimes employed for
cure, He gave these poor sense-boundnatures a ladder by which their faith in
His healing power might climb, so in the manner of His revelation and
communication of His spiritual gifts, there is provision for the wants of us
men, who ever need some body for spirit to make itself manifest by, some
form for the etherealreality, some ‘tabernacle’ for the ‘sun.’ ‘Sacraments,’
outward ceremonies, forms of worship, are vehicles which the Divine Spirit
uses in order to bring His gifts to the hearts and the minds of men. They are
like the touch of the Christ which heals, not by any virtue in itself, apart from
His will which choosesto make it the apparent medium of healing. All these

externals are nothing, as the pipes of an organare nothing, until His breath is
breathed through them, and then the flood of sweetsoundpours out.
Do not despise the material vehicles and the outward helps which Christ uses
for the communication of His healing and His life, but remember that the help
that is done upon earth, He does it all Himself. Even Christ’s touch is nothing,
if it were not for His own will which flows through it.
III. ConsiderChrist’s touch as a shadow and symbol of the very heart of His
work.
Go back to the past history of this man. Ever since his disease declareditself
no human being had touched him. If he had a wife he had been separated
from her; if he had children their lips had never kissedhis, nor their little
hands found their way into his hard palm. Alone he had been walking with the
plague-clothover his face, and the cry ‘Unclean!’ on his lips, lest any man
should come near him. Skulking in his isolation, how he must have hungered
for the touch of a hand! Every Jew was forbidden to approachhim but the
priest, who, if he were cured, might pass his hand over the place and
pronounce him clean. And here comes a Man who breaks downall the
restrictions, stretches a frank hand out across the walls of separation, and
touches him. What a reviving assuranceoflove not yet dead must have come
to the man as Christ graspedhis hand, even if he saw in Him only a stranger
who was not afraid of him and did not turn from him! But beside this thrill of
human sympathy, which came hope-bringing to the leper, Christ’s touch had
much significance, if we remember that, according to the Mosaic legislation,
the priest and the priest alone was to lay his hands on the tainted skin and
pronounce the leper whole. So Christ’s touch was a priest’s touch. He lays His
hand on corruption and is not tainted. The corruption with which He comes in
contactbecomes purity. Are not these really the profoundest truths as to His
whole work in the world? What is it all but laying hold of the leper and the

outcastand the dead-His sympathy leading to His identification of Himself
with us in our weaknessandmisery? That sympathetic life-bringing touch is
put forth once for all in His Incarnation and Death. ‘He taketh hold of the
seedof Abraham,’ says the Epistle to the Hebrews, looking at our Lord’s
work under this same metaphor, and explaining that His laying hold of men
was His being ‘made in all points like unto His brethren.’ Just as he took hold
of the fevered womanand lifted her from her bed; or, as He thrust His fingers
into the deaf ears of that poor man stopped by some impediment, so, in
analogous fashion, He becomes one of those whom He would save and help. In
His assumption of humanity and in His bowing of His head to death, we
behold Him laying hold of our weakness andentering into the fellowship of
our pains and of the fruit of sin.
Just as He touches the leper and in unpolluted, or the fever patient and
receives no contagion, or the dead and draws no chill of mortality into His
warm hand, so He becomes like His brethren in all things, yet without sin.
Being found in ‘the likeness ofsinful flesh,’ He knows no sin, but wears His
manhood unpolluted and dwells among men ‘blameless and harmless, the Son
of God, without rebuke.’Like a sunbeam passing through foul water
untarnished and unstained; or like some sweetspring rising in the midst of the
salt sea, whichyet retains its freshness and pours it over the surrounding
bitterness, so Christ takes upon Himself our nature and lays hold of our
stained hands with the hand that continues pure while it grasps us, and will
make us purer if we grasp it.
Brethren, let your touch answerto His; and as He lays hold of us, in His
incarnation and His death, let the hand of our faith clasp His outstretched
hand, and though our hold be as faltering and feeble as that of the trembling,
wastedfingers which one timid womanonce laid on His garment’s hem, the
blessing which we need will flow into our veins from the contact. There will be
cleansing for our leprosy, sight for our blindness, life driving out death from
its throne in our hearts, and we shall be able to recount our joyful experience

in the old Psalmist’s triumphant strains-’He sent me from above, He laid hold
upon me, He drew me out of many waters.’
IV. Finally, we may look upon these incidents as being in a very important
sense a pattern for us.
No good is to be done by any man to his fellows exceptat the costof true
sympathy which leads to identification and contact. The literal touch of your
hand would do more goodto some poor outcasts than much solemn advice, or
even much material help flung to them as from a height above them. A shake
of the hand might be more of a means of grace than a sermon, and more
comforting than ever so many free breakfasts andblankets given
superciliously.
And, symbolically, we may say that we must be willing to take those by the
hand whom we wish to help; that is to say, we must come down to their level,
try to see with their eyes, and to think their thoughts, and let them feel that we
do not think our purity too fine to come beside their filth, nor shrink from
them With repugnance, howeverwe may show disapproval and pity for their
sin. Much work done by Christian people has no effect, nor ever will have,
because it has peeping through it a poorly concealed‘I am holier than thou.’
An instinctive movement of repugnance has ruined many a well-meanteffort.
Christ has come down to us, and has taken all our nature upon Himself. If
there is an outcastand abandoned soul on earth which may not feel that Jesus
has laid a loving and healing touch on him, Jesus is not the Saviour for the
world. He shrinks from none, He unites Himself with all, therefore ‘He is able
to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.’ His conduct is the
pattern and the law for us. A Church is a poor affair if it is not a body of
people whose experience ofChrist’s pity and gratitude for the life which has

become theirs through His wondrous making Himself one with them, compels
them to do the like in their degree for the sinful and the outcast. Thank God,
there are many in every communion who know that constraintof the love of
Christ. But the world will not be healedof its sicknesstill the greatbody of
Christian people awakesto feel that the task and honour of eachof them is to
go forth bearing Christ’s pity certified by their own.
The sins of professing Christian countries are largelyto be laid at the door of
the Church. We are idle when we ought to be at work. We ‘pass by on the
other side’ when bleeding brethren lie with wounds gaping to be bound up by
us. And even when we are moved to service by Christ’s love, and try to do
something for our fellows, our work is often tainted by a sense of our own
superiority, and we patronise when we should sympathise, and lecture when
we should beseech.
We must be content to take lepers by the hand, if we would help them to
purity, and to let every outcastfeelthe warmth of our pitying, loving grasp, if
we would draw them into the forsakenFather’s House. Lay your hands on the
sinful as Christ did, and they will recover. All your holiness and hope come
from Christ’s laying hold of you. Keep hold of Him, and make His greatpity
and loving identification of Himself with the world of sinners and sufferers,
your pattern as well as your hope, and your touch, too, will have virtue.
Keeping hold of Him who has takenhold of us, you too may be able to say,
‘Ephphatha, be opened,’ or to lay your hand on the leper, and he will be
cleansed.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
1:40-45 We have here Christ's cleansing of a leper. It teaches us to apply to
the Saviourwith great humility, and with full submission to his will, saying,
Lord, if thou wilt, without any doubt of Christ's readiness to help the
distressed. See also whatto expectfrom Christ; that according to our faith it
shall be to us. The poor leper said, If thou wilt. Christ readily wills favours to

those who readily refer themselves to his will. Christ would have nothing done
that lookedlike seeking praise of the people. But no reasons now existwhy we
should hesitate to spreadthe praises of Christ.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
And there came a leper ... - See the notes at Matthew 8:1-4.
Kneeling down to him - He kneeledand inclined his face to the ground, in
tokenof deep humiliation and earnestentreaty. Compare Luke 5:12.
If thou wilt - This was an acknowledgmentof the almighty power of Jesus,
and an appeal to his benevolence.
Make me clean- You (Jesus)canheal me of this loathsome and offensive
disease, in the eye of the law justly regardedas "unclean," and render me
"legally" clean, and restore me to the privileges of the congregation.
And Jesus ...touchedhim - It was by the law consideredas unclean to touch a
leprous man. See Numbers 5:2. The fact that Jesus touchedhim was evidence
that the requisite powerhad been already put forth to heal him; that Jesus
regardedhim as already clean.
I will - Here was a most manifest proof of his divine power. None but God can
work a miracle; yet Jesus does it by his "ownwill" - by an exertion of his own
power. Therefore, Jesus is divine.
See thou saynothing to any man - The law of Mosesrequired that a man who
was healedof the leprosy should be pronounced cleanby the priest before he
could be admitted againto the privileges of the congregation, Leviticus 14.
Christ, though he had cleansedhim, yet required him to be obedient to the
law of the land - to go at once to the priest, and not to make delay by stopping
to converse about his being healed. It was also possible that, if he did not go at
once, evil-minded men would go before him and prejudice the priest, and
prevent his declaring the healing to be thorough because it was done by Jesus.
It was of further importance that "the priest" should pronounce it to be a
genuine cure, that there might be no cavils among the Jews againstits being a
real miracle.

Offer for thy cleansing those things ... - Two birds, and cedar-wood, and
scarlet, and hyssop; and after eight days, two he-lambs, without blemish, and
one ewe-lamb, and fine flour, and oil, Leviticus 14:4, Leviticus 14:10.
For a testimony unto them - Not to the priest, but to the people, that they may
have evidence that it is a real cure. The testimony of the priest on the subject
would be decisive.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
Mr 1:40-45. Healing of a Leper. ( = Mt 8:1-4; Lu 5:12-16).
See on [1405]Mt8:1-4.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
See Poole on"Mark 1:40"
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
And Jesus, movedwith compassion,.... At the sadand deplorable case the poor
man was in, being a merciful high priest, and not with a desire of popular
applause, and vain glory:
put forth his hand and touched him; though the leprosywas spread all over
him, and there was no place clean, and touching him was forbidden by the
law:
and saith unto him, I will be thou clean; See Gill on Matthew 8:3.
Geneva Study Bible
And Jesus, movedwith compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and
saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Expositor's Greek Testament
Mark 1:41. σπλαγχνισθεὶς, having compassion. Watchcarefullythe
portraiture of Christ’s personality in this Gospel, Mk.’s speciality.

Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
41. and touched him] though this act was strictly forbidden by the Mosaic
Law as causing ceremonialdefilement. But “He, Himself remaining undefiled,
cleansedhim whom He touched; for in Him life overcame death, and health
sickness, andpurity defilement.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 41. - Observe in this verse that Jesus stretchedforth his hand and
touched the leper. Thus he showedthat he was superior to the Law, which
forbade contactwith a leper. He touched him, knowing that he could not be
defiled with the touch. He touched him that he might heal him, and that his
Divine powerof healing might be made manifest. "Thus," says Bode, "God
stretchedout his hand and touched the human nature in his incarnation, and
restoredto the Church those who had been castout, that they might be able to
offer their bodies a living sacrifice to him of whom it is said, 'Thou art a priest
for everafter the order of Molchisedec.'"I will; be thou clean; literally, be
thou made clean(καθαρίσθητι). It is well observedhere by St. Jerome that
our Lord aptly answers both the petitions of the leper. "If thou wilt;" "I will."
"Thou canstmake me clean;" "Be thou made clean." Indeed, Christ gives
him more than he asks for. He makes him whole, not only in body, but in
spirit. Thus Christ, in his loving-kindness, exceeds the wishes of his
supplicants, that we may learn from him to do the same, and to enlarge our
hearts, both towards God and towards our brethren.
Vincent's Word Studies
Moved with compassion
Only Mark.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES

BRUCEHURT MD
Mark 1:41 Moved with compassion, Jesus stretchedoutHis hand and
touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."
NET Movedwith compassion, Jesus stretchedout his hand and touched him,
saying, "I am willing. Be clean!"
GNT καὶ σπλαγχνισθεὶς ἐκτείνας τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ ἥψατο καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ,
Θέλω, καθαρίσθητι·
NLT Movedwith compassion, Jesus reachedout and touched him. "I am
willing," he said. "Be healed!"
KJV And Jesus, movedwith compassion, put forth his hand, and touched
him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
ESV Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to
him, "I will; be clean."
NIV Filled with compassion, Jesus reachedouthis hand and touched the
man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"
Moved with compassion:Mk 6:34 Mt 9:36 Lu 7:12,13 Heb 2:17 4:15
I am willing; be cleansedMk 4:39 5:41 Ge 1:3 Ps 33:9 Heb 1:3
Mark 1 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
JESUS OUR
COMPASSIONATEHEALER
ParallelPassages:
Luke 5:13+ And He stretchedout His hand and touched him, saying, “I am
willing; be cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Matthew 8:3+ Jesus stretchedout His hand and touched him, saying, “I am
willing; be cleansed.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Moved with compassion- This description of Jesus "visceralreaction" is
found only in Mark when compared with the parallel passages onthe leper in
Luke and Matthew. ESV = "Movedwith pity." NIV = "Filled with
compassion."(Filled usually conveys the sense of"controlledby" as in Eph
5:18+, which was Jesus'continualstate = "Filled with Spirit.") In Jesus'day
while sick people may have arousedcompassion, a person with leprosyDID
NOT arouse compassion! That is unless your Name was Jesus!Matthew
records "Seeing the people, He felt compassionforthem, because they were
distressedand dispirited like sheep without a shepherd." (Mt. 9:36) And again
"When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassionfor them
and healedtheir sick." (Mt 14:14) So Jesus was not like the Jews but had
compassiononthis leper.
Moved with compassion(4697)is one Greek word splanchnizomai (from
splagchnon= viscera - see splagchnonbelow)means to experience a deep
visceralfeeling for someone, to feel it in your stomachto feel compassionfor
(but it really goes beyond pity and sympathy), to feel sympathy, to take pity
on someone. Compassionis the sympathetic consciousnessofothers’ distress
togetherwith a desire to alleviate it. This verb expresses anoutward flow of
one's life in contrastto our natural tendency toward selfcenteredness. Itis
notable that 8/12 NT uses describe this deep seatedemotionin Jesus. It follows
that if we desire to imitate Jesus, we needto be men and women of deep
compassion, relying on the Holy Spirit to energize that inner emotion, which is
not our natural response!All NT uses of splanchnizomai - Matt. 9:36; Matt.
14:14;Matt. 15:32; Matt. 18:27; Matt. 20:34;Mk. 1:41; Mk. 6:34; Mk. 8:2;
Mk. 9:22; Lk. 7:13; Lk. 10:33;Lk. 15:20
THOUGHT - What super-exalted revelationof the Son's and the Father's
hearts we see here! Take this to your heart and hold it there with all you have.
The Servant-Saviorhas compassionfor your leprosy heart for heart, gut for
gut. He does more than understand. He felt the full weightof your sins on the
Cross. Takeheart! There is Someone who compassionatelyfeels with you for
the effects ofsin in your life. (Kent Hughes)

Spurgeon- This is a wonderful expression:“moved with compassion.” The
face of Jesus and his whole person showedthat his very soulwas stirred by an
intense fellow-feeling for this poor leper. If you or I were to touch a leper, his
uncleanliness would at once be communicatedto us, but when Christ touches
a leper, His cleanliness is communicated to the leper. Oh, how high our
blessedLord stands above us! When we have to deal with certain peculiarly
sad cases, we oughtto go to the work with much earnestprayer that we
ourselves may not be contaminated by contactwith gross sinners, but Christ
has such virtue in himself that he can even touch the fevered and the leprous,
and yet sustain no injury.
Jesus stretchedout His hand and touched him - Jesus touched an
untouchable, a man who probably had not felt the touch of another human
being for years!Jesus the pure and holy One, touched the unclean one. What
a picture of compassionand grace (undeservedfavor). What a reminder to all
of us "lepers" who have been cleansedby His touch. Should we not be the
most grateful of people ALL THE TIME, in light of the fact that He has
touched our heart and given us new life, new purpose, new hope, not only in
this life but the one to come when our hope becomes sight? "He loves, He
looks, He touches us, WE LIVE." (Spurgeon)
Stretched(1614)(ekteino fromek = out + teino = to stretch) means stretchout
literally, as a gesture with one's hand stretchedout. Jesus'stretchedHis hands
out "towardHis disciples" (Mt 12:49), to Peterdrowning (Mt 14:31), to the
leper (Mk 1:41, Mt 8:3, Lk 5:13, cf healing in Acts 4:30). Ekteino is used of the
stretching out of Paul's hand as he prepared to offer his verbal defense (Acts
26:1). Ekteino refers to Jesus telling the lame man to stretchout his hand (Mt
12:13, Mk 3:5, Lk 6:10). Ekteino can mean stretching out one's hands with a
hostile intent to lay hands on or arrest(Lk 22.53). As a euphemistic figure of
speechreferring to one's hands stretchedout in crucifixion (Jn 21.18). In Mt
26:51 when they came to arrestJesus Peter"extending his hand, drew out his
sword, and struck." In Acts 27:30 ekteino refers to the sailors pretending to
"to lay out (stretch out the) anchors from the bow, (Act 27:30). In the
Septuagint in Exodus 7:5 ekteino is used of Godstretching out His hand over

Egypt and deliver Israel(cf Ps 138:7) frequently of Moses telling Aaron to
stretch out his hand and staff (Ex. 7:19; 8:5-6,16-17), andof Moses stretching
out his hand to bring plagues (Ex 9:22-23;10:12,21-22)Paulalludes to the
Lord stretching out His hand to the nation of Israel - But as for Israel He says,
"ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHEDOUT MY HANDS TO A
DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE."(Ro 10:21-note)
Touched(681)(hapto/haptomaiwhere haptomai is the middle voice which
constitutes the majority of uses)means to grasp, to lay hold of with the basic
meaning of touching for the purpose of manipulating. Hapto conveys the sense
handling of an objectas to exert a modifying influence upon it or upon
oneself. The majority of the 39 uses are in the Gospels andare associatedwith
Jesus touching someone (or someone touching Him) usually with a beneficial
effect.
THOUGHT - Jesus did not have to touch the leper. He could have healed any
way He wanted. But Jesus delighted in touching the downcast, distressedand
diseased. We should imitate His patter.
THOUGHT - "When Jesus touchedthe leper, He contractedthe leper's
defilement; but He also conveyedHis health! Is this not what He did for us on
the cross whenHe was made sin for us? (2 Cor. 5:21+) (Wiersbe)
Kent Hughes - I once counseleda lonely man who was not a Christian. He had
no family that cared. He belongedto no church. In describing his loneliness,
he said that he had his hair cut once a week, just to have someone touchhim
with no misunderstanding. Imagine that leper's longing for a touch or a
caress.Time stoodstill as Christ touched him. As Bishop Westcottsays, the
word "expressesmore than superficial contact." It is often translated, "to
take hold of." Jesus, atthe very least, placedhis hand firmly on the leper. We
cannot attempt to adequately describe the ecstacythat coursedthrough the
leper's body. The onlookers were shocked. The disciples were shocked. Jesus
was now ceremoniallyunclean—and besides he might catchthe disease, they
thought....We will never affectothers as Christ did unless there is contactand
identification. We have to be willing to take the hand of those whom we would
help. Sometimes a touch, caring involvement, will do a thousand times more

than our theology. This is what all churches need to do. We are greatin
theory. We are careful about our doctrine. But we need to lay our hand on
some rotting flesh in our neighborhood, in the executive towers where we
work, in the city slums. We cannot expectthis to be only the job of
missionaries becausea church which does not regularly place its hand on the
rotting humanity around it will not be sending missionaries to do so either.
(Ibid)
And said to him, "I am willing - Jesus is always willing to heal and cleanse the
sinful soul who seeks salvationfrom Him! He turns no broken and contrite
spirit awayempty handed! Someone should make a T-shirt with the logo
"JESUS IS WILLING!" It would prompt spectators to ask "Willing to do
what?" And then "cleansedlepers" wouldhave an opportunity to give a
witness even as Jesus commandedthis cleansedleperto do!
Be cleansedwas command in the aoristimperative to the leper to be cleansed
and do it now! Now ponder that a moment. Could the leper even obey this in
his ownpower? Of course not. He did not have the power. This command was
evidence of Jesus'supernatural power, which the leper gladly received. Jesus'
command was actuallygiven (in a sense)to the leper's leprosywhich reminds
us of His commands to other natural phenomena such as the greatstorm of
wind (Mk 4:37KJV) which immediately ceasedwhenHe commanded "Hush,
be still" (Mk 4:39+) or when "He rebuked the fever and it left" Peter's
mother-in-law (Lk 4:39+).
I am willing (2309)thelo in present tense = continually. Indeed Jesus is ever
willing and able to healany humble soul who has been crippled by Adam's
fall.
Be cleansed(2511)katharizo in the aorist imperative (Do this now!) and
passive voice indicating the cleansing came from an outside source (Jesus'
omnipotence to heal). Katharizo is frequent in the Gospels - Matt. 8:2-3; 10:8;
11:5; 23:25-26;Mk. 1:40-42;7:19; Lk. 4:27; 5:12-13;7:22; 11:39; 17:14,17.
Luke also uses katharizo in Acts (Acts 10:15;11:9; 15:9). Katharizo is used 4
times in the story of Naaman(2 Ki 5:10, 12, 13, 14).

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