A. D. 28. Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. a ch. 9. 30. Mark 5. 43. 3 And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus saith unto him, a See thou tell no a spiritual truth; to picture and represent the foulness and defilement of sin. How fitly leprosy was a type of sin may be seen in the following description of the disease. "Leprosy was nothing short of a living "death, a poisoning of the springs, a corrupting of all the humours, "of life; a dissolution, little by little, of the whole body, so that one "limb after another actually decayed and fell away" (Trench on the Miracles.). Outwardly leprosy showed itself in a white eruption of the skin, together with sores, and sometimes it covered the whole body. "Worshipped." St. Mark and St. Luke describe the very posture of this worship. It was "kneeling to Him," and "falling on his face." Now, although worship does not always of necessity imply that which is offered only to God, yet such lowly worship as this surely shows that this poor man looked upon Jesus as One of more than human greatness and power. Perhaps he had stood on the outskirts of the crowd, and listened to the Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps his faith had been aroused by former miracles which he had witnessed (See iv. 24.). At any rate he does not doubt Christ's power to heal. In approaching so near this poor leper broke the law, but the grace that drew him forgave him. 3. "Touched him." To touch the leper would have brought defilement on any other man. Now it carries cleansing to the defiled. So He, the All-pure and All-holy, scorns not to touch our sin-polluted nature, but by touching it brings to it healing and salvation. "I will; be thou clean." Observe the dignity and majesty of these words. Those who marvelled at the "authority" before (vii. 29.) might well marvel now. If leprosy be a type of sin, must not this miracle (like many others) be also a parable? And, if so, how comforting a parable! Let the sin-stained penitent go in faith to the Saviour, and say, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean"; and the answer is spoken, "I will; be thou clean." “And immediately his "leprosy" is "cleansed." 4. "See thou tell no man." Our Lord frequently gives this command to those whom He has healed, though not always, for He commands the demoniac, of whose healing we read in this chapter (28-34.), to go and tell what had been done to him (St. Mark v. 19. St. Luke viii. 39.). One reason for the difference of the command on different occasions we can easily see. The fame of our Lord's miracles drew together crowds of people whose only motive for coming to Him was curiosity, and whose curiosity was a hindrance to His holy work and teaching. St. Mark almost expressly says (i. 45.) that this was the reason of the command to the healed leper in the text. In the case of the demoniac our Lord was not about to remain in the neighbourhood, so that the idle crowds could not impede Him. Perhaps another reason for the command of silence in the present case was that the Saviour might be known, not by mere startling acts of power, but by man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, A.D. 28. and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a b Lev. 14. 3, testimony unto them. 5 And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him, 6 and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 4, 10. 21. 8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am ⚫ Luke 15. 19, not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant & Ps. 107. 20. shall be healed. the spiritual fruit of His divine words (See the important passage, xii. 16-20.). "Shew thyself to the priest." The priest had the office of judging when a person was clean from leprosy, and of restoring him to the social position which, while a leper, he had lost (See Lev. xiv.). "Offer the gift." Thankofferings for special mercies are thus sanctioned by God's word (See also St. Luke ii. 24.), as well as in accordance with our natural feelings and reason. 5-13. The centurion's servant healed. 5. "A centurion." That is, a Roman officer. Literally the word 'centurion' means the captain of a hundred men, but it came to be used generally of the captain of a regiment without regard to the actual number. No doubt this centurion was a proselyte, that is, a convert to the Jewish faith from heathenism; as was Cornelius, who, though a Gentile, and so no doubt brought up a heathen, yet worshipped the true God (See Acts x. 2.). That the centurion was also a very zealous proselyte we learn from St. Luke (vii. 5.), who tells us that he loved the Jewish nation and had built them a synagogue. We must not lose sight of the fact that all through the period of the Gospel history the Holy Land was under the power of the Romans. This fact meets us chiefly in the presence among the Jews of Roman governors and soldiers, and in the existence of the despised and hated publicans, who, though Jews, gathered the taxes for their Roman conquerors. This miracle is related more fully by St. Luke, who tells us that the centurion did not come in person to make his petition to our Lord, but, not esteeming himself worthy to approach Him, sent certain "elders of the Jews" to plead his cause for him. It is a common mode of speech to represent a person as doing himself what he really does by others. 8. "I am not worthy." St. Augustine says, "In declaring himself "unworthy that Christ should enter within his walls, he proved "himself worthy that Christ should enter within his heart." And again, 5. "Capernaum." See on ch. iv. 13. A. D. 28. • Gen. 12. 3. Isai. 2. 2, 3. 9 For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11 And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Luke 18. 29. Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of & 11. 10. Mal. 1. 11. Acts 10. 45. & 11. 18. & 14. 27. Rom. 15. 9, &c. heaven. 12 But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping Ich. 21. 43. and gnashing of teeth. Eph. 3. 6. 8 ch. 13. 42, 50. & 22. 13. & 24. 51. 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto Luke 13. 28. thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame & 25. 30. 2 Pet. 2. 17. Jude 13. hour. "The lowlier a man is, the more can he contain. The hills throw off "the water: the valleys are filled." 9 "I am a man under authority." That is, 'I am myself but a 'servant of others, under the authority of my superiors, yet I have 'only to command my soldiers and they obey me: how much more wilt Thou, who hast none over Thee, but art Thyself Lord of all, be 'obeyed when Thou speakest the word.' Observe the faith of this Roman officer to see in Jesus the true Lord and King of all things visible and invisible. He doubted not that Jesus could as readily order, not only angels and spirits, but even palsies and fevers, to go and come at His will, as he himself could command the soldiers under him (See on St. John iv. 50.). 10. "Marvelled." Well might the Lord (who by His wonder shows Himself to us as very Man, humbling Himself to all human feelings and affections) marvel at a faith so true and clear as this centurion's. Among all His own nation He had not found such faith as this Gentile soldier's. 11. Many shall come." How clear a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, and their election into the Church of Christ! That Church was to be a "Catholic" Church, no longer a Church of one nation, but free to all. It is strange to find the Jews so slow to understand this truth, when the very promise to their father Abraham, that in him "all the families of the earth" should be blessed, declared it, and when the prophet Isaiah so repeatedly proclaimed it. (See Isaiah xi. 10. xlii. 6. xlix. 6. lx. 3.) 12. "The children of the kingdom." Plainly not the same kingdom as that spoken of in the verse before. That was the new kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven. This is the old kingdom, the kingdom of the Jews, the kingdom of the chosen people of God under the law. If so awful is the end of unbelieving Jews, what shall be the lot of unbelieving Christians? 14 ¶ And when Jesus was come into Peter's A.D. 28. house, He saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of 1 Cor. 9.5. a fever. 15 And He touched her hand, and the fever left her and she arose, and ministered unto them. 16 When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick: k 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our * 1 Pet. 2. 24. infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. Isai. 53. 4. 14-17. The healing of St. Peter's mother-in-law, St. Mark i. 29-34. St. Luke iv. 38-41. 15. "He touched her hand." From St. Luke we learn that Jesus also "rebuked" the fever. Here we have at once an example of the power of commanding diseases of which the centurion speaks above (9.). Compare the exercise of the same divine power in rebuking the wind and the sea (26.), and the evil spirit (xvii. 18.). "Ministered." That is, waited upon them (See on iv. 11.). This shows the completeness of the cure. A fever leaves great weakness behind it, as a storm of wind leaves the sea rough for some time; yet when Christ cured the fever there was no weakness, and when He stayed the storm there was perfect calm. 16. "When even was come." Possibly because, as we learn from St. Mark, it was the Sabbath day, which ended, we know, at sunset; or possibly to avoid the heat of the day for the sick people. 17. "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." In our translation of this passage in the prophet Isaiah the words are "Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows," and St. Peter plainly refers to the same verse when he says that Christ "bare our sins." Thus we should naturally understand the words rather of Christ's suffering in His own Person the "griefs" and "sorrows" which were laid on Him through our "sins," than of His healing bodily "infirmities" and "sicknesses." But we have here an inspired interpretation of inspired words, and as such let us reverently seek to understand it. To do so we must first observe that the words "took" and "bare" do not mean (as has been sometimes thought) *took away and removed'; but simply 'carried' and 'suffered.' How then, it must be asked, did Christ Himself carry and suffer the sicknesses and afflictions which He removed from others? Surely by the depth and keenness of His sympathy. "In all their affliction He "was afflicted" (Isaiah lxiii. 9.). The constant sight of so much bodily 14. "His wife's mother." It is well to note the fact of St. Peter being a married man, as bearing on the practice of the Roman Church in compelling the clergy to be unmarried, although that Church professes to owe its origin to, and derive its powers from, St. Peter. A. D. 28. 18 Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart unto the other side. 19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto Him, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. 20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head. misery, the fruit, as in His eyes it would ever distinctly appear, of man's sin and fall, would "press with a living pang into the holy soul "of the Lord Jesus" (Trench.). His going to and fro in the midst of a fallen world, surrounded with, and meeting, wherever He went, with, the signs and fruits of the fall from which He came to restore, would itself be the fulfilment of the prophet's words. It was sin everywhere, sin triumphing over soul and body, sin in its moral fruit of depravity and vice, sin in its physical fruit of pain and woe, which the Saviour saw, when He came, and which He bare for us. 18-22. Before crossing the lake, Jesus warns certain who would follow Him, St. Luke ix. 57-60, 18. “The other side." That is, from Capernaum on the Western shore of the Sea of Galilee to the Eastern shore. 19. "A certain scribe." It seems from St. Luke that three men were desirous of following Christ, the third of the three not being mentioned by St. Matthew. We can hardly doubt that this Scribe was moved by some selfish motive in his desire to follow Christ. Indeed in the answers given to the three men who desired to follow Him we have a remarkable instance of the manner in which the Lord ever spoke just those words which were most needed by those whom He addressed. The Scribe probably expected some worldly advantage in following Christ, and such expectation is at once crushed by our Lord in the following words. 20. “The foxes have holes," &c. How wonderfully affecting is this homelessness of Christ! Few words in all Scripture so completely picture to us the utter lowliness and humiliation of the everlasting Son of God. He was indeed "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and "acquainted with grief." The Maker of the universe has no home wherein to rest His weary Head! The Bringer of peace and rest to all hearts that lean upon Him, has no peace or rest for His own sorrowing Heart. Days of labour, nights of prayer, love that could not but mourn, and pity that was full of grief, constant strivings with a world that would not understand, loneliness in a crowd, homelessness in the world He created-such is the picture we have of the human life of the Son 19. The events here described seem to be placed by St. Luke in a later part of our Lord's life, namely, during His last journey to Jerusalem. This is one of those difficulties, (in themselves of no practical importance,) which our present knowledge does not enable us satisfactorily to solve (But see Note on the passage in St. Luke.). |