1)The people of Israel anticipated the Messiah to be a political leader who would build a kingdom for them on the earth.Jesus came into the world to preach the Gospel & to heal the sick.Is.61:1-3.He came to give his life as a ransom for many.Matt.20:28;Mark 10:45.He came to fulfill the will of the father in carrying out the plan of redemption of men by dying on the cross.
Heb.10:5-9;Ps.40:6-8;John 4:34;6:38.
2)If the news of the healing of the leper was spread,more people would throng around Him with wrong motives.They would try to make Jesus as the king.See John 6:15.As a result there would be disturbances among the Roman rulers & authorities.The fury of the religious leaders would be raised because of their jealousy over the popularity of Jesus.There would be confusion among the people.Jesus wanted to avoid all such things at such early stage of his ministry.
3)If a leper was cleansed,the priest would have the right to declare that the leper was cleansed from the leprosy as per the Mosaic law.Only then the cleansed leper would be admitted into the society & would be allowed to worship God with the people & to attend social & religious functions.
4)The rituals to be followed for the ceremonial cleansing of the leper were detailed in Leviticus chapter 14.Jesus wanted the cleansed leper to observe the Mosaic law so that the religious leaders would understand Jesus’ respect for the law.The miraculous healing of the leper would be a strong evidence for the Messiahship of Jesus Christ to the people as the priest would officially declare that the leper was cleansed.

Commentary by Alexander
Posted on: 9/11/2008 15:11 pm

Dear Gloria, “The healing of those with leprosy is a special sign and it proclaims the proof of Christ’s power to banish the consequences of sin. Leprosy itself is a picture of sin.

The Law had very strict requirements for the verification of the healing of a leper and the leprous house. Those instructions can be found in Leviticus chapter 13 to 14:57. This passage gives instructions to the priests on how to diagnose leprosy and what to do if someone who had leprosy presented themselves as healed. It is a fact that after the law was given no Jew had ever been healed of leprosy. Only Naaman, the Syrian, a Gentile was healed by washing seven times in the Jordan (2 Kings 5:8-14). This fact gave rise to the belief that only the Messiah would be able to heal leprosy and this is indeed what we see in the gospels. In addition to the account of Jesus’ healing of one leper at the beginning of His ministry there is the record of His healing of 10 lepers in Luke 17:11-19, which is very near the end of His time on earth.

Therefore, Jesus’ miracles were a sign to the nation of Israel that He was their promised and long awaited Messiah. However, in spite of all of the miracles and signs that Jesus gave to the nation of Israel and the religious rulers, they rejected their Messiah. They continued to reject the message given to them by Jesus’ disciples and the result occurred in A.D. 70 when the nation was once again taken out of the land and the temple was destroyed just as Jesus had prophesied (Matthew 24:2).”

Commentary by Biki
Posted on: 9/7/2008 13:43 pm

Please give me and understanding of the 8th chapter and the 4th verse of matthews?

thanks
Gloria

Commentary by gloria p. taylor
Posted on: 9/5/2008 20:12 pm