Mark 1:40-45, Moved with Pity, Jesus Cleanses a Leper

40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” [The leper should not have been in Jesus’ presence because leprosy meant he was unclean and banned from community participation.] 41 Moved with pity [the guiding character of God], he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. [Was Jesus ever “unclean” in this exchange? According to the law, he should have not touched the unclean leper as that would make him unclean. But that did not stop Jesus. He did not think of himself but of “cleaning up” his damaged creation.] 43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” [Jesus respected the Mosaic law, asking the healed leper to keep the law, but as the great high priest of another line, he is not bound to or limited by it.] 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. [Here we have another example of the messianic secret. Jesus was not trying to attract large crowds, but slowly teach his followers about what kind of Messiah he was: one moved by pity to heal a broken world.]