Mark 1:43 Commentary and Bible Study

Although this healing was to be recorded in the word of God and in all three synoptic Gospels, Jesus commanded the leper not to tell anyone apart from the priests what had been done. Why? The Lord gave the same instruction on several occasions: at the healing of two blind men (Matthew 9:30); to the crowds that came and were healed (Matthew 12:16); to the three disciples that saw the transfiguration (Matthew 17:9); to the parents of the damsel, raised from the dead (Mark 5:37); to the twelve disciples after Peter’s confession that he was the Christ (Matthew 16:14); to the deaf man healed in the coasts of Decapolis (Mark 7:29); and to the demons he cast out, who knew him (Mark 1:34). On this occasion of the healing of the leper, Mark and Luke both report that the man ignored the instruction and went out and published abroad what Christ had done. He gets overexcited and we can scarcely blame him. What the Lord says to him seems to go in one ear and out of the other. Luke says that, because of this, large numbers came to be healed (Luke 5:15-16), and Mark tells us that the result was that Christ was forced to withdraw into desert places, because they came to him from every quarter (Mark 1:44-45). This was one reason why Christ gave this command. Although healings were prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 35:5-6) as a mark of the ministry of the Messiah, they also had their down side. The people were inclined to see Christ as a miracle worker and a healer and not as the Son of God sent into the world by the Father to preach the gospel. The Lord healed and his compassion made him do so, but he knew that many would misread these healings. Because they were an unspiritual people, they would look no further than what he could do for their bodies. The flood of those seeking healing – and they were urgent when they came to him (Mark 3:10-12) – prevented him from doing what was much more important to him: preaching of the good news pf the kingdom of heaven. The intention of this was obviously not to keep the healings an absolute secret, for on some occasions many already knew, for many had been healed (Matthew 12:16), and the priests were to be informed. It was to avoid the crowds coming for the wrong reason and in such numbers that he could no longer speak to them of salvation. Matthew 12:17-20 gives another reason for this instruction: Christ was consciously fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah that he would not be a publicity seeker who stirred up the crowds with spectacular accomplishments. His always aimed at the salvation of souls, so that the gospel would eventually be sent out into all the world.Because the law was still in force, the Lord Jesus tells the man to go and do what the law required under these circumstances. ‘This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest’ (Leviticus 14:2). Whether the priests had ever seen such a case of healing before is doubtful, but they were to know that a miracle had been done, for in mercy Christ was testifying the truth to them also, even though they were a source of much opposition towards him.But the leper, even though he had faith, did not obey because he thought he knew better. He saw good in making known this healing of Christ and he felt it was not right to hide such extraordinary powers from the public. If Christ was able to heal, then surely it was right that people came to be healed, and how better could he encourage that than to tell of the amazing things that had happened to him.