After healing the man, Jesus ordered him to tell no one, for the moment. There was something the now cleansed leper needed to do at once, so the Lord commanded him, âGo and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded.â The process by which a cleansed leper was readmitted to society involved going to the temple for an examination by a priest, shaving, bathing, washing his clothes, offering multiple animal sacrifices, along with an offering of grain and oil (Lev. 14:1-20). The entire procedure lasted for eight days (Lev. 14:10). If he obeyed and went to recount to the priests how Jesus had healed him, it would be a powerful testimony to them that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and Son for God. This testimony would be either convincing to the priests so that they would acknowledge the claims of Christ, or if they rejected Him self-indicting, since they had personally examined the miraculously healed leper. Further, it would buy time for Jesus, since a miracle of that magnitude would surely swell the already large crowds that followed Himâcrowds so huge that they had forced Him off the shore of the Sea of Galilee and into Peter's boat. . . .
