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Gospel always refer to the same event, always remembering that the Lord was constantly
healing people with similar complaints, and we have only a selection of them recorded in
the Gospels.
The Lord's words need not be necessarily different on every occasion, nor the words
of the sick person to Him. This may explain the divergence of some of the details
recorded by the Evangelists. If Matthew gives us the first record of the healing of a leper,
then the man's great faith was the more remarkable. Leprosy, at this time, was incurable
and Psa. 51: 7 points to it as symbolical of sin. If the man had never heard of a cure, then
his words, "Thou canst make me clean" show a wonderful trust in the Lord's power to
heal.
How different this was from the case of the one who had a son possessed of a demon.
He said to the Lord, "if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us" (Mark 9: 22).
He was not sure whether Christ had the ability to heal the boy. The Lord immediately
challenges him on this vital point, "If you can? . . . . . everything is possible for him who
believe" (verse 23, N.I.V.). Unbelief always limits the Lord and the one who indulges in
it.
Mark mentions the Lord's compassion which doubtless He felt towards all who were
ravaged with disease (Mark 1: 41). The Lord Jesus does not hesitate to touch the man
even though his skin disease was highly contagious. The law of love is above the
ceremonial law where the Lord is concerned and He touched the leper to assure him of
His sympathy and readiness to help. Immediately the leprosy was cleansed; and the
sudden cure was one of the outstanding features of these healing miracles.
In no case do we find that mere improvement takes place when the Lord uses His
power to heal. It was complete restoration to health. In modern healing meetings we
sometimes hear of those who receive some benefit, and this is taken to be a fulfillment of
the healing of Scripture, which it certainly is not.
The Lord Jesus now commands the healed man to keep the law and present himself to
the priest as an evidence that he had been cured. This shows that Christ did not disregard
the law and he had made this clear by His statement in 5: 17: "Think not that I am come
to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil".
It is quite evident from the Gospel records that healings formed a large part of the
Lord's kingdom ministry to Israel and showed not only His compassion, but His concern
for the mental and physical health of His people. We should most certainly have regard
for this and realize the important place that health takes in the fulfillment of the kingdom
of heaven upon earth. Some, with their spiritualizing, remove this entirely from their
conception of God's Kingdom and so this comes considerably short of the reality
portrayed in the holy Scriptures.
In the O.T. revelation of God's rule, health had an important place: God said, "I will
put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am