Authority of Jesus

Context

Third in a series of four healings and exorcisms that illustrate Jesus’ authority. We have seen his power over demons, and to heal.

Now we will see his ability to purge defiling diseases.

This story is structured as a typical healing account in Mark.

a request for healing

positive response from Jesus and a command for healing

cure

healing received with a response

in addition Jesus command to stay silent about the miracle

Leprosy

1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Leprosy

William Barclay described what a leper looks like:

“The whole appearance of the face is changed, till the man loses his human appearance and looks, as the ancients said, ‘like a lion or a satyr.’ The nodules grow larger and larger. They ulcerate. From them there comes a foul discharge. The eyebrows fall out, the eyes become staring. The voice becomes hoarse and the victim wheezes because of the ulceration of the vocal chords. The hands and feet always ulcerate. p 218 Slowly the sufferer becomes a mass of ulcerated growths. The average course of the disease is nine years, and it ends in mental decay, coma, and ultimately death. The sufferer becomes utterly repulsive—both to himself and to others.”768

Faith in the right person

the man with leprosy knows of Jesus

He knows Old Testament Law laid out in that he was unclean and must stay away from people.

Considered one of the worse diseases in this time.

he comes to Jesus begging him and falling to his knees

The man has faith in Jesus’ healing power.

Jesus surprising response

Old Testament Law states that if Jesus were to touch him he would be ceremonially unclean, but Jesus reaches out and touches the man.

Speculation exists on what took place when Jesus reached out and touched him. The view i would hold to is that Jesus is reversing the direction of impurity and cleansing the leper rather than being defiled by the disease (113, Strauss).

Jesus’ compassion

the healing is

the man is not only healed from his disease but cleansed also. he can go back to the community he came from. Jesus heals from his own authority.

Man’s Disobedience

Jesus is insisting this man to keep quiet about the miracle that he received.

The verb used here means “warn sternly” or a sense of strong compulsion.

The people are looking for a political messiah. Jesus silenced the demons earlier in vv. 25-34 and now he asks the leper to keep quiet. Jesus will later in the book will define his messianic role, his purpose for being here, but now is not the time.

Jesus commands him to go show himself to the priest so that he may be declared clean. Jesus does not oppose the Old Testament Law.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark Jesus Trades Places with a Leper (1:40–45)

Mark began this story with Jesus on the inside and the leper on the outside. At the end of the story, Jesus is “outside in lonely places.” Jesus and the leper have traded places. Early in his ministry Jesus is already an outsider in human society. Mark casts him in the role of the Servant of the Lord who bears the iniquities of others (Isa 53:11) and whose bearing of them causes him to be “numbered with the transgressors” (Isa 53:12).

Many towns were deprived of the message of the gospel being brought to them by Jesus, yet people still came to him from everywhere.

our attention should not be on the leper but Jesus who gives a blessing to someone who doesn't deserve it.

We do not deserve salvation

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved...” ,