8:1–4 The Sermon on the Mount ended with the crowds amazed at Jesus’ teaching because “he was teaching them as one who had authority” (7:28–29). A skeptic might have asked where he gained the authority to interpret the Scriptures, declaring “Truly I say to you” and acting as if statements were true simply because he said them. In Matthew, Jesus has authority because of his identity as Christ, Son of David, Immanuel. But he builds his case through miracles.

The miracles do more than restore health; they also reinstate the sick in the community of Israel. A maimed person could not legally enter the assembly of the Lord’s people (Deut. 23:1). A leper had to live alone, outside the camp of Israel (Lev. 13:45–46). In Jesus’ day, the blind, lame, deaf, and mute were second-tier Israelites. Many believed disease or deformity proved a person was separated from God, who has perfect life in himself.129 But when Jesus heals the maimed, leprous, and blind, he grants both physical health and social restoration. This is an element of his welcome of outcasts and outsiders to God’s family. The blind, the deaf, the leper are unclean. When Jesus touches and heals hem, he cleanses and redeems the whole person.

Matthew 8 reports that when Jesus “came down from the mountain,” great crowds followed him (v. 1). And behold! A leper emerges from the crowd and approaches him, bowing in reverence. We imagine the crowd parting in horror as they realize a leper stands among them, since touching a leper would make one unclean.130 Kneeling, he petitions respectfully, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean” (v. 2). Leprosy was considered incurable (2 Kings 5:7), but the leper believes Jesus has power to heal. The request is humble; he admits that Jesus has the ability to act and the authority to decide: “If you will.”131 Jesus responds immediately. He stretches out his hand and touches him, saying, “I will; be clean” (Matt. 8:3). The ESV captures, as best it can, the extreme brevity of the account. In Greek, the petition is six words and the reply is two: “Willing, [be] clean!” And immediately he is cured.

At a literary level, Matthew reports nothing but dialogue and action. He says nothing of the leper’s internal state, Jesus’ feelings, or the crowd’s reaction, leaving the reader to imagine the scene. Is the leper confident? Doubtful? He certainly acts boldly. Yet the man keeps his distance; Jesus closes it by stretching out his hand. Is the crowd horrified? Will Jesus defile himself by touching leper? But one imagines hope surging in the leper. The touch would be quasi-sacramental, a promise of an impending cure. And how many years had passed since a healthy person had touched him?

When they touch, contrary to expectation, Jesus does not catch the leper’s contamination; instead, the leper catches Jesus’ purity and health. The touch, the miracle, reveals Jesus’ power and his love for the outcast and the socially excluded. The healing demonstrates his power and compassion. Since lepers would live outside cities, in leper colonies far from home, Jesus does more than heal—he redeems the whole man, physically and socially. Jesus orders the leper to show himself to the priest (v. 4) to authenticate the healing and to assure the man’s right to return to healthy society.