And Jesus saith unto him, See that thou tell no man; but go thy way,

shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded,

for a testimony unto them. Matthew 8:4

 

 

     Jesus lack of desire for acknowledgement of this healing just makes me admire Him more. He sends the man formerly known as a leper to the priest who by tradition would give him a clean bill of health. Lepers were considered unclean and the priest would have to declare him clean so he literally would have given the man a clean bill of health.

     Having his clean bill of health in hand he was then supposed to go about gathering the proper thanksgiving offering to bring to the altar. These, more than his words, would be a testimony that he was indeed healed. No one would dare do what Jesus commanded if he were not clean. No one would dare believe himself clean without faith that what Jesus had done was a done deal. He was healed, not just temporarily in remission.

      The time after the healing could have gone differently. Jesus could have sent witnesses with the man to talk to the priest. It seems to me that would confirm the man’s story. How was the priest to believe he had been a leper? Nevertheless, we have no recording of the response of the man formerly declared unclean. We have Jesus command and He moves on so we can only assume that Jesus words were carried out.

     Testify by thy own life what has been done in you. That’s what Jesus said to the leper and us as well. We cannot wait for others to tell their story when what the world needs is our testimony. So go, show thyself to a world in need.