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He (Jesus of Nazareth, around AD 30) said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may make declaration there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, making declaration in their synagogues and casting out demons. And a man afflicted with a skin disease came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I do will; be clean.” And immediately the skin disease left him, and he was made clean. (Galilee, Israel, around A D 30 – as reported in Mark’s biography of Jesus 1: 40-45) |
At the start of the brief extract above, Jesus expresses his wish to make declaration in all the towns of Galilee. After the incident, he is out upon wastelands (see below) but people were coming to him from every direction.
What had taken place in between?
At the start of the incident, Jesus was not only making declaration but also casting out demons. Such was his presence amongst people that these demons inside human beings disclosed themselves. Wherever he went that took place. It’s as if the presence of “the Holy one of God” (as these demons described him) forced them to disclose their hitherto-hidden presence in human beings – much to the embarrassment, no doubt, of these folk.
But the incident itself describes something other than demons. The person concerned was a man afflicted with skin disease. The problem with skin diseases – especially 2,000 years ago in the Mediterranean region - is that it’s very difficult to know whether the problem is merely skin-deep or far more sinister.
Clearly, this dear afflicted man was very distressed. Not only did he come to Jesus, but also he implored him and he knelt in front of him and he begged, significantly, to be made clean. His was not a skin-deep problem – it was a real inner awful thing.
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“If you will,” he said, “you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I do will; be clean.”
In other words, “It is indeed my will that you be clean and I therefore declare to you, ‘Be clean’ ”.
And immediately the skin disease left him, and he was made clean.
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And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and bring for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”
This was a truly extraordinary miracle. It needed to be verified by the Mosaic-Law priest, the only expert in each place who could judge whether a skin disease did or did not affect the whole human being.
The fact that Jesus was so strong in his instructions to the man in this regard leads one to think that his skin disease was indeed of a devastating and contagious kind and the cure needed to be clearly proved in front of the authorities immediately.
And one may also think, given the fact that he was strongly instructed to bring the required religious sacrifices to the priest, that this man was also being told to restore his vertical relationship and to live a changed life.
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In fact, he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out on wastelands, and people were coming to him from every quarter.
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What a change in this man who had been afflicted with a skin disease and was, in his sight and the sight of others, unclean.
What a change also for this Jesus. It’s no longer town to town but “wastelands”. People were coming to him there. He was no longer in the synagogues. People knew to whom they could now turn and where he was likely to be found.
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