This man had either leprosy or some other serious skin disease which made him an outcast from the community (Leviticus 13:46). Mark tells his readers three important things about this particular healing. (i) The man expressed faith in the power of Jesus (l: 40), (ii) Jesus responded to the man's plea for help with compassion, and (iii) he touched the man (l :41), over-riding the prohibition of the Law which made the man an outcast.

The Law could not heal the leper but only protect others from the infection. Jesus had the power to do what the Law was powerless to do (1:42). The significance of the healing reminds us of the teaching of Paul in Galatians 3:24. Jesus told the man, however, to prove his cure to the community by doing what the Law required (Leviticus 14:1-32). Jesus did not reject the Law (1:43-44) but the reader can see the limitations of the Law in this incident. For the third time, Jesus commanded that his power should not be publicized, but Mark then says that the -man who had been cured ignored this command (1:45). In consequence, Jesus could not walk through a town without crowds following him and even in the lonely places of the countryside people came to find him.

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