Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 8:4

"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 8:4 (ASV)

Jesus’ command for the leper to keep silent shows that Jesus is not presenting himself as a mere wonder-worker who can be pressured into messiahship by crowds whose messianic views are materialistic and political. His authority derives from God alone; he came to die, not to trounce the Romans. The people who disobeyed Jesus’ injunctions to silence only made his mission more difficult.

Jesus commanded the cured man to follow the Mosaic prescriptions for lepers who claimed healing (cf. Leviticus 14). Why? Partly because Matthew wants to show that Jesus did submit himself to God’s law. But the result is startling: the law achieves new relevance by pointing to Jesus. In conforming to the law, the cured leper becomes the occasion for the law to confirm Jesus’ authority as the healer who needs but to will the deed for it to be done. Thus the supreme function of the “gift” Moses commanded is not as a guilt offering (Leviticus 14:10– 18) but as a witness to others concerning Jesus.