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

130 THE CLEANSING OF THE LEPER
constituted legal authorities in order to be pronounced
clean
But while these several reasons had all probably
their weight with Jesus, it is impossible to doubt that
in laying this charge He was thinking also of the man's
own state. Naturally excited and elated by his
miraculous cure, he required time and quiet for realising
the full
extent of the blessing that had been conferred
upon him, and were he at once to constitute
himself the messenger of what had happened to others,
there was grave danger that his own inward happiness
would be dissipated. What could be better for him, then,
than the solitary journey to Jerusalem, and the tribute
of respect to the faith in which he had been brought up
But, if so, the Saviour's gracious provision for His
new follower's needs was set arbitrarily aside, and
that by the man himself.
For with a deliberate disobedience
that is very surprising, he neither kept
silence nor went to the priests. " But he went out,
and began to publish it much, and to spread abroad
the whole matter." He thought, doubtless, that in so
doing he was best honouring Jesus, and that his
conduct would be not only excused but commended,
in view of the fresh glory with which he would surround
his Benefactor. But to say nothing of the
injury that he thereby did to his own immature
discipleship, this self-willed blunderer succeeded only
in inflicting a serious check on his Master's cause.
For the result was, as Jesus Himself had foreseen :
" He could no more openly enter into a city, but was
without in desert places " (Mark i. 45). So great is
the danger attending disobedience, however wellintentioned
the motive from which it
may spring.