A leper came to him [and kneeling down] begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” 42 The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. 43 Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. 44 Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” 45 The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
In Galilee, a man comes to Jesus carrying a skin condition that made him “unclean” under the Law. In practice, this meant exclusion. A leper was kept away from ordinary life and from worship, not because he was morally worse than others, but because his condition placed him outside the community’s sacred and social boundaries (cf. Lev. 13-14).
The man kneels and speaks with a striking kind of faith: “If you wish, you can make me clean.” The fact that he kneels matters. It is the posture of a supplicant—humble, reverent, and trusting—placing himself under Jesus’ authority and will rather than demanding a right. He does not question Jesus’ power. Jesus answers in the same direct way. He is “moved with pity,” and he does what no careful person would do. He stretches out his hand and touches him. In the biblical world, contact with uncleanness would normally spread uncleanness. Here the reversal is the whole point: the man is not made worse by Jesus, and Jesus is not made unclean by the man. Instead, the leprosy leaves “immediately,” and the man is made clean.
This moment also sits inside the long story of Israel. The Old Testament shows only rare instances where a leper is healed, such as Miriam (Nm. 12:10-15) and Naaman the Syrian (2 Kgs. 5:1-14). Mark’s readers would recognize that the cleansing of lepers belongs to the blessings associated with God’s promised restoration (cf. Is. 35:5-6), and later Jesus will point to such works as signs that God’s saving action is breaking in (cf. Mt. 11:5; Lk. 7:22).
Mark places this sign early. Jesus is not only teaching and casting out demons; he is also restoring the most excluded persons to life. By cleansing this man, Jesus is not merely removing symptoms. He is opening the way back into ordinary life—family, work, and public contact—and back into the life of worship from which the man had been cut off. The restoration is complete and profound because it is both social and religious.
Right after the healing, Mark’s tone changes. Jesus “warns him sternly” and dismisses him at once. The command is not complicated: do not spread the news; go straight to the priest; offer what Moses prescribed. This is not Jesus rejecting the Law. It is Jesus directing the man to complete what the Law required so that he can be officially recognized as clean and restored to the worshiping community (Lev. 14:1-32). “That will be proof for them” points to the priestly judgment that a real cleansing has occurred, and it places this act within Israel’s public, accountable religious life.
The final verse shows what happens when the man does the opposite. He publicizes the whole matter, and the result is ironic. The man who can now return to towns and people becomes free to re-enter society, while Jesus becomes restricted. Mark says it becomes “impossible” for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remains outside in deserted places, and the crowds come anyway. Luke tells the same pattern in his parallel account: Jesus withdraws to deserted places, and people still seek him (cf. Lk. 5:12-16). Mark ends the chapter with the sense that Jesus’ mercy is already drawing the world to him, but it also begins to push him toward the margins—an early hint that his saving work will not stay comfortable or controllable (cf. Mt. 8:2-4; Lk. 5:12-16).
Lord Jesus, you are moved with pity and you draw near to those who feel excluded. Speak your cleansing word over what is broken in us, and restore us to communion with God and with one another. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
- The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark (Ignatius Press), pp. 67-68.
- Raymond E. Brown et al., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990), p. 601, para. 13.
- Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: St Mark, pp. 167-168.
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (2018), p. 982.
- John J. Collins et al., eds., The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century (2020), pp. 1247-1248.
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