Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Today we drop in on Matthew and Mark. In Matthew 8, a leper approaches Jesus and kneels at

his feet. This in itself is shocking because most lepers wouldn't dare approach people.

They have to live outside the city and they have to yell unclean when anyone is approaching

them. The fact that Jesus is this approachable shows us his great kindness and humility, even

the least lovely feel like they can come to him. The leper also demonstrates great humility.

When he asks Jesus to do something for him, he has no entitlement, no demands, but he

knows what Jesus is capable of. He says, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And

again, Jesus tells him not to let anyone know that he has healed him. We've seen this

a few times before, so let's address this. Jesus told this leper to keep quiet and he

did the same thing with the guy we read about in Luke 512 just two days ago. But the woman

he talked to yesterday and John 4 was allowed to tell everyone about him. Does he want

to be known or not? Why does he keep changing his mind? There are a few things that seem

to be at play here. First, you may notice as we keep reading that the times when he tells

people to spread the news about him happen when he's in the Gentile regions or dealing

with non-Jews like the woman at the well. But with the Jews, there's a danger in having

them know he's the Messiah, because not only will they want to crown him as King and expect

him to overthrow their Roman oppressors, but then Rome will want to kill him or shut

him down. So in order to preserve the specific timing God has planned for his revealing and

his death, Jesus is very measured in his approach. It's why he gave pushback to Mary

when she asked him to work a miracle. He knew it could go badly for him if it wasn't

handled with discretion. On top of that, Jesus seems to want to be known for his message

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