“Thou Canst Make Me Clean”
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Healer? And he questioned if Christ would heal him. Would He stoop
to notice one believed to be suffering under the judgment of God?
Would He not, like the Pharisees, and even the physicians, pronounce
a curse upon him, and warn him to flee from the haunts of men? He
thought of all that had been told him of Jesus. Not one who had sought
His help had been turned away. The wretched man determined to find
the Saviour. Though shut out from the cities, it might be that he could
cross His path in some byway along the mountain roads, or find Him
as He was teaching outside the towns. The difficulties were great, but
this was his only hope.
The leper is guided to the Saviour. Jesus is teaching beside the
lake, and the people are gathered about Him. Standing afar off, the
leper catches a few words from the Saviour’s lips. He sees Him laying
His hands upon the sick. He sees the lame, the blind, the paralytic,
and those dying of various maladies rise up in health, praising God for
their deliverance. Faith strengthens in his heart. He draws nearer and
yet nearer to the gathered throng. The restrictions laid upon him, the
safety of the people, and the fear with which all men regard him are
forgotten. He thinks only of the blessed hope of healing.
He is a loathsome spectacle. The disease has made frightful in-
roads, and his decaying body is horrible to look upon. At sight of him
the people fall back in terror. They crowd upon one another in their
eagerness to escape from contact with him. Some try to prevent him
from approaching Jesus, but in vain. He neither sees nor hears them.
Their expressions of loathing are lost upon him. He sees only the Son
of God. He hears only the voice that speaks life to the dying. Pressing
to Jesus, he casts himself at His feet with the cry, “Lord, if Thou wilt,
Thou canst make me clean.”
Jesus replied, “I will; be thou made clean,” and laid His hand upon
him.
Matthew 8:3
, R. V.
Immediately a change passed over the leper. His flesh became
healthy, the nerves sensitive, the muscles firm. The rough, scaly
surface peculiar to leprosy disappeared, and a soft glow, like that upon
the skin of a healthy child, took its place.
[264]
Jesus charged the man not to make known the work that had been
wrought, but straightway to present himself with an offering at the
temple. Such an offering could not be accepted until the priests had
made examination and pronounced the man wholly free from the