IX. The First Preaching Tour of Galilee
34. Healing the Leper
23And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdoma and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. 24So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.40And a leperb came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
41Moved with compassion, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will—be clean.”
42And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
43And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, 44and 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 testimony.”
45But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
(Mt. 4:23–25; Mk. 1:40–45)
a “And Jesus went about all Galilee...preaching the gospel of the kingdom”—In the two millennia since he lived on earth many things have been taught about Jesus and in his name, but what did Jesus actually teach? Here this question is clearly answered. Jesus taught and preached “the gospel of the kingdom.”
What is "the gospel of the kingdom"? Jesus' gospel is many-sided and complete, but its central truth is the fatherhood of God, combined with the sonship and consequent brotherhood of man. This is the good news that God is our loving heavenly Father and we are all his children, sons and daughters of God; and as his children we are all brothers and sisters to one another in God's heavenly family. By faith in this gospel we may gain entrance into the Father's kingdom and attain eternal salvation.
b “leper"—lep•ro•sy n. 1: a chronic disease caused by infection with an acid-fast bacillus (Mycobacterium leprae) and characterized by the formation of nodules on the surface of the body and especially on the face or by the appearance of tuberculoid macules on the skin that enlarge and spread and are accompanied by loss of sensation followed sooner or later in both types by involvement of nerves with eventual paralysis, wasting of muscle, and production of deformities and mutilations. (Webster's Unabridged)
Mk. 1:41 with compassion, he (KJV) / with pity, he (RSV)
Mk. 1:44 a testimony. (KJV) / a proof to the people. (RSV)
Mk. 1:45 enter the town, (KJV) / enter a town, (RSV) (146:0,4/1637,43–4)
