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

THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER 129
Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man ;
but go thy
way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that
Moses commanded for a testimony unto them." Similar
injunctions to silence are not infrequent during the
earlier stages of the Galilean ministry (see, for
example, Matthew ix. 30; xii. 16; Mark i.
34.); but
on the present occasion the charge was enforced, as
we learn more particularly from St Mark, with an
emphasis and sternness which are very remarkable,
" And He gave him a strict injunction, and straightway
sent him out, and saith
nothing to any man" (Mark i.
43, 44).
unto him, See thou say
It may have been in the interests of His own future
work that the Lord demanded this reticence from the
leper. He did not wish His ministry to be accompanied
by undue noise and excitement, as He feared
might be the case when the people heard of so great
a miracle. And besides, it was never His aim to
compel belief by means of the wonders that He
wrought, but rather to attract men to Himself through
the quiet ministry of the Word.
Others, again, have supposed that the charge arose
rather out of Christ's relation to the priests. He
desired that they should hear of the miracle first of
all from the cleansed man himself, and so be convinced
of its reality. And still more was He anxious to
take away from them all
possible ground of asserting
that He had set Himself up against the Law.
It was
not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it that He had
come (Matthew v. 17). And how could He prove that
better than by requiring this man whom He had just
miraculously cured to refrain from holding intercourse
with others until he had first gone to the properly
I