Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 8:1-4

"And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, there came to him a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou made clean. And straightway his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." — Matthew 8:1-4 (ASV)

St. Jerome: After the preaching and teaching, an occasion for working miracles is offered, so that the mighty works that followed might confirm the preceding doctrine.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Because He taught them as one having authority, He also acts with authority in His works as one with the power to cure. He does this so it would not be supposed that He taught this way from ostentation. Therefore, it says, When Jesus descended from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

Pseudo-Origen: While the Lord taught on the mountain, the disciples were with Him, for it was given to them to know the secret things of the heavenly doctrine. But now, as He came down from the mountain, the crowds followed Him, for they had been altogether unable to ascend the mountain. Those who are bowed down by the burden of sin cannot climb to the sublime mysteries.

But when the Lord came down from the mountain—that is, when He stooped to the weakness and helplessness of the others, pitying their imperfections—great multitudes followed Him. Some followed for His renown, most for His doctrine, some for cures, or to have their needs met.¹

Haymo of Halberstadt: Alternatively, the mountain on which the Lord sat symbolizes Heaven, as it is written, Heaven is my throne (Isaiah 66:1). When the Lord sits on the mountain, only the disciples come to Him. This is because before He took upon Himself the frailty of our human nature, God was known only in Judeaⁱ; but when He came down from the height of His divinity and took upon Himself our human frailty, a great multitude of the nations followed Him.

This shows teachers that they should regulate their speech, speaking the word of God according to each person's ability to receive it. For teachers ascend the mountain when they show the higher precepts to the mature, and they come down from the mountain when they show the lesser precepts to the weak.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Among others who were not able to ascend the mountain was the leper, bearing the burden of sin, for the sin of our souls is a leprosy. The Lord came down from the height of heaven as if from a mountain, so that He might purge the leprosy of our sin. And so the leper, already prepared, meets Him as He came down.

Pseudo-Origen: He works the cures below and does none on the mountain, for there is a time for all things under heaven: a time for teaching and a time for healing. On the mountain He taught, cured souls, and healed hearts. When this was finished, as He came down from the heavenly heights to heal bodies, a leper came to Him and adored Him. Before he made his request, he began to adore, showing his great reverence.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: He did not ask Him as one would ask a human physician, but adored Him as God. For faith and confession make a perfect prayer. Thus the leper, in adoring Him, fulfilled the work of faith, and in his words, he fulfilled the work of confession, adoring Him and saying:

Pseudo-Origen: "Lord, by You all things were made; You, therefore, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Your will is the work, and all works are subject to Your will. You of old cleansed Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy by the hand of Elisha, and now, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

St. John Chrysostom: He did not say, If thou wilt ask of God, or, If thou wilt make adoration to God, but simply, If thou wilt. Nor did he say, "Lord, cleanse me," but left everything to Him, thereby acknowledging Him as Lord and attributing to Him power over all things.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: And so he rewarded a spiritual Physician with a spiritual reward; for just as physicians are won over by money, so Christ is won over with prayer. We offer God nothing more worthy than faithful prayer. In that he says, If thou wilt, there is no doubt that Christ's will is ready for every good work; the only doubt is whether that cure would be beneficial for him, because health of body is not good for everyone. The phrase If thou wilt is therefore as much as to say, "I believe that You will whatever is good, but I do not know if this, which I desire for myself, is good."

St. John Chrysostom: He was able to cleanse by a word or even by mere will, but He put out His hand—He stretched forth his hand and touched him—to show that He was not subject to the Law, and that to the pure, nothing is impure. Elisha, in contrast, kept the Law in all strictness and did not go out and touch Naaman, but sent him to wash in the Jordan. But the Lord shows that He does not heal as a servant, but as Lord He heals and touches.

His hand was not made unclean by the leprosy; rather, the leprous body was made pure by His holy hand. For He came not only to heal bodies, but to lead the soul to true wisdom. Just as He did not forbid eating with unwashed hands, so here He teaches us that it is the leprosy of the soul—which is sin—that we ought to dread. The leprosy of the body is no obstacle to virtue.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Although He transgressed the letter of the Law, He did not transgress its meaning. The Law forbade touching leprosy because it could not prevent the touch from causing defilement. Therefore, it did not mean that lepers should not be healed, but that those who touched them should not be polluted. So He was not polluted by touching the leprosy, but purified the leprosy by touching it.

Damascenus (De Fide Orthodoxa, 3.15): For He was not only God, but man also, and from this He performed divine wonders by touch and word; for the divine acts were done through His body as through an instrument.

St. John Chrysostom: But no one accuses Him for touching the leper, because His hearers were not yet filled with envy against Him.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Had He healed him without speaking, who would have known by whose power he had been healed? So the will to heal was for the sake of the leper; the word was for the sake of those who watched. Therefore He said, I will; be thou clean.

St. Jerome: It is not to be read, as most of the Latins think, as one phrase, I will cleanse thee. Instead, it should be read separately: He first answers, I will, and then the command follows, be thou clean. The leper had said, If thou wilt; the Lord answers, I will. The leper first said, Thou canst make me clean; the Lord spoke, Be thou clean.

St. John Chrysostom: Nowhere else do we see Him using this word, even when performing a most remarkable miracle. But He adds I will here to confirm the opinion of the people and the leper concerning His power. Nature obeyed the word of the Purifier with appropriate speed, after which it says, and immediately his leprosy was cleansed. But even this word, "immediately," is too slow to express the speed with which the deed was done.

Pseudo-Origen: Because he was not slow to believe, his cure was not delayed. He did not linger in his confession, and Christ did not linger in His cure.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Luke mentions the cleansing of this leper, though not in the same order of events. It is his custom to recall things that were omitted and to place later events earlier, as they were divinely suggested to him. In this way, the evangelists later wrote down things they had known before, as these events were recalled to their minds.²

St. John Chrysostom: When healing his body, Jesus bids him tell no one: Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man. Some say He gave this command so that people would not, out of malice, distrust his cure. But this is a foolish thing to say, for He did not cure him in such a way that his cleansing could be called into question. Rather, He bids him "tell no one" to teach us that He does not love ostentation and glory.

How is it, then, that to another whom He had healed He gives the command to go and tell it? What He taught in that case was only that we should have a thankful heart, for He does not command that it should be published abroad, but that glory should be given to God. He teaches us, then, through this leper not to be desirous of empty honor, and through the other, not to be ungrateful but to attribute all things to the praise of God.

St. Jerome: And truly, what need was there for him to proclaim with his mouth what was clearly shown in his body?

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, silence was commanded so that this healing might be sought rather than offered.

St. Jerome: He sends him to the priests, first, because of His humility, that He might seem to defer to the priests. Second, so that when they saw the leper cleansed they might be saved, if they would believe in the Savior; or, if not, that they might be without excuse. And lastly, so that He might not seem to be violating the Law, as He was often charged.

St. John Chrysostom: He neither broke the Law everywhere, nor observed it everywhere, but sometimes did one and sometimes the other. The one action prepared the way for the wisdom that was to come; the other silenced the irreverent tongue of the Jews and condescended to their weakness. For this reason, the Apostles are also seen sometimes observing and sometimes neglecting the Law.

Pseudo-Origen: Alternatively, He sends him to the priests so that they might know that he was not cleansed in the manner prescribed by the Law, but by the operation of grace.

St. Jerome: It was ordained in the Law that those who had been cleansed of leprosy should offer gifts to the priests, as it follows: ...and offer thy gift as Moses commanded for a testimony to them.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: This is not to be understood as, Moses commanded it for a testimony to them, but rather, Go thou and offer for a testimony.

St. John Chrysostom: For Christ, knowing beforehand that they would not profit by this, did not say, "for their amendment," but for a testimony to them. This means it was for an accusation against them, and as a testimony that all things that should have been done by Me have been done. But even though He knew they would not profit by it, He did not omit anything that needed to be done; yet they remained in their former ill-will.

He also did not say, "The gift that I command," but that Moses commanded, so that for the time being He might commit them to the Law and close the mouths of the unjust. So that they could not say He usurped the honor of the priests, He fulfilled the work of the Law and put them to the test.

Pseudo-Origen: Alternatively, He said, offer thy gift, so that all who see may believe the miracle.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: Or, He commanded the offering so that if they later sought to cast him out, he would be able to say, "You received gifts for my cleansing; how can you now cast me out as a leper?"

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or we may read it as, Which Moses commanded for a testimony, since what Moses commanded in the Law is a testimony, not the effective cause.

The Venerable Bede: Should anyone be perplexed as to why the Church does not receive Moses' offering when the Lord seems to approve it here, let him remember that Christ had not yet offered His body as a burnt offering. It was necessary that the typical sacrifices should not be taken away before that which they typified was established by the testimony of the Apostles' preaching and by the faith of the believing people.

This man symbolized the whole human race, for he was not only leprous but, according to the Gospel of Luke, is described as "full of leprosy." For all have sinned, and need the glory of God; namely, that glory by which they might be cleansed from the vanity of their former ways when the Savior's hand is stretched out (that is, the Word made flesh) and touches human nature. Thus, those who had long been abominable and cast out from the camp of God's people might be restored to the temple and the priest, and be able to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice to Him to whom it is said, Thou art a Priest for ever (Psalm 110:4).³

Remigius of Auxerre: On a moral level, the leper signifies the sinner, for sin makes the soul unclean and impure. He falls down before Christ when he is ashamed of his former sins. Yet he ought to confess and seek the remedy of repentance; so the leper shows his disease and asks for a cure. The Lord stretches out His hand when He offers the aid of divine mercy, upon which the remission of sin immediately follows. And the sinner ought not to be reconciled to the Church except by the judgment of the priest.

1. Hom. in Liv. 5
2. De. Cons. Evan., ii, 19
3. Hom. in Dom., 3 Epiph.