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The Ministry of Healing
to find the Saviour. Though shut out from the cities, it may be that
he can cross His path in some byway along the mountain roads, or
find Him as He is teaching outside the towns. The difficulties are
great, but this is his only hope.
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 deliverance. His faith
strengthens. Nearer and yet nearer he approaches to the listening
throng. The restrictions laid upon him, the safety of the people, the
fear with which all men regard him, are alike forgotten. He thinks
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only of the blessed hope of healing.
He is a loathsome spectacle. The disease has made frightful
inroads, and his decaying body is horrible to look upon. At sight
of him the people fall back. In their terror they crowd upon one
another 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 replies, “I will; be thou clean,” and lays His hand upon
him.
Matthew 8:2, 3
.
Immediately a change passes over the leper. His blood becomes
healthy, the nerves sensitive, the muscles firm. The unnaturally
white, scaly surface peculiar to leprosy disappears; and his flesh
becomes as the flesh of a little child.
Should the priests learn the facts concerning the healing of the
leper, their hatred of Christ might lead them to render a dishonest
sentence. Jesus desired that an impartial decision be secured. He
therefore bids the man tell no one of the cure, but without delay
present himself at the temple with an offering before any rumors
concerning the miracle should be spread abroad. Before the priests
could accept such an offering, they were required to examine the
offerer and certify his complete recovery.
This examination was made. The priests who had condemned
the leper to banishment testified to his cure. The healed man was
restored to his home and society. He felt that the boon of health