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 asked 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 in 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.

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