The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Nelly Kaye of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, from the tape, GC 1301-H, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 10."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1978. All Rights Reserved.

Question

Why did Jesus tell the leper He healed in Matthew 8:4 not to tell anybody?

Answer

In Matthew 8:4, Jesus has healed a leper here, put forth His hand and touched him and said be clean and so forth. And Jesus said to him and this is the text “See thou tell no man, but go thy way show thyself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them,” that cleansing act in the temple. Now you see what happens the man is healed and Jesus says, "don’t tell anybody." Look at Mark 1:40 and we see the similar situation, maybe exactly the same one in fact. He heals a leper in Mark 1:40 and he was wonderfully healed and verse 44 He said to him “See thou say nothing to any man; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.” “But he went out, and began to publish it much, and spread abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter the city, but was out in desert places: and they came to Him from every quarter.”

Let my give you the point. Now there are some commentators who say He wasn’t telling him not to tell anybody, He was telling him not to tell anybody before he went to the priest. In other words he wanted him to follow the proper sequence of things that a leper had to do before he started running around telling everybody, because he needed to have the testimony of the priest and so forth, that he was clean. The leper didn’t just run in the crowd and say hey, everybody I have an announcement. They’d be all gone. So some say the point was that he was never to tell anybody but for the moment he was first to go to the priest and then do it afterward. But, I don’t feel that’s the proper one, that’s possible, that may be implied here.

But I think the key to the thing, understanding why Jesus told him not to tell anybody, is exactly what it says at the end of verse 45. When he told it to the people and spread it all over the place Jesus could no more openly enter the city. Why? Every guy who was sick was standing around. He was mobbed and He was mobbed for all the wrong reasons, just like when He feed them bread on one side of the Sea of Galilee and the next morning in Capernaum when He got up the whole mob was there, and He looked at them and said, "You’re not here because you believe in Me, you’re here because you want free food." You see, Jesus knew that if He would draw undue attention to Himself, appealing o the wrong motives and the wrong reasons, it would just crimp what He intended to do. He wasn’t chiefly a miracle worker. I believe, and this is true, I believe that the miracles were mostly for the disciples, to confirm their faith. You see, miracles don’t do a thing for unbelievers, do you know that? Just read John 9, and it will show you. When all the Pharisees went around to examine the blind man, they concluded that Jesus was some blaspheming counterfeit. Unbelief investigating a miracle is useless. See, miracles are only to support the faith of already believing hearts. And so, I think that what Jesus was saying, was, look do me a favor will you I’ve got some things I would like to accomplish here, keep this quiet for a while so I don’t get drowned in the sea of people who want nothing but miracles.

Now that speaks to me about this age. It seems to me that there are lots of people running to Jesus for the same reason today. When you hear time after time after time, people saying this miracle and that miracle and this miracle and Jesus did his miracle, and He’ll do a miracle for you and a miracle for you. And I hear Oral Roberts say that every time He comes on TV, He’ll do a miracle for you and get my book, and it’ll do a miracle for you. And the people are all piling around Jesus to get a miracle. Now I’m afraid that isn’t the point. So that, I think, is the reason that our Lord was saying what He was saying here.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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