The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

128 THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER
But Jesus had no such fear. He was the perfectly
Pure One, to whom all things were pure. And
setting aside, according to His wont, the
mere letter
of the Mosaic Law for its spirit, or rather substituting
for the outward law the eternal and divine law of
compassion, He by His touch broke down the barriers
by which hitherto the leper had been surrounded,
and restored him to his
man.
lost fellowship with God and
For the act was accompanied, as we have seen,
by a redeeming and creative word. " If Thou wilt,
Thou canst make me clean," the leper had asked in
humble submission. .And the very words of his
prayer supplied the words of the Saviour's answer,
as promptly there came back the comforting assurance,
from which the very idea of an "if" was
banished: "I will, be thou made clean." And
" straightway " —and the word again finds a place in
all these accounts— " his leprosy was cleansed."
The cure was evidently thorough and complete.
There was no mere pronouncing clean on Christ's
part of a man cleansed already, but who desired to be
saved the troublesome and expensive journey to
Jerusalem to see the priests. Nor did Christ only
prepare the way for a recovery that was to be effected
later through ordinary natural processes. But He
cleansed the man there and then. During His later
ministry, owing to the imperfect faith of those on
whom they were wrought, the Saviour's miracles were
sometimes more gradual. But where, as in the case
before us, He met with a ready and responsive faith,
the cure was worked with a corresponding spontaneity
and gladness.
But not yet was Jesus done with the man.
" And