A Testimony to the Priests
A Testimony to the Priests
Matthew 8:4
And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” — Matthew 8:4
Jesus was the fulfillment of the Mosaic civil and ceremonial laws. As modern Christians, we are no longer bound to follow the Levitical system. However, in this passage we see that Jesus instructed a cleansed leper to go and show himself to a priest. Under the Mosaic law in Leviticus 14, this was necessary for a leper to be formally pronounced clean.
Why did Jesus command this?
When the incarnate God pronounces a man clean, there is no need to appeal to human authorities for absolution. Yet Jesus still directed the man to the priest. To understand why, we must take a step back and consider the broader purpose of Christ’s earthly ministry.
Jesus came to call sinners to repentance and to urge men to hold fast to the truth of the gospel. One group of people that is not mentioned very often in the Gospels is the priests. We frequently hear about scribes (teachers of the law), Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and even lawyers challenging Jesus. Yet the line of Levi seems conspicuously absent from many of these confrontations.
Why was this?
It may be that their responsibilities in the temple services kept them from active involvement in the daily controversies surrounding Jesus. Perhaps they preferred to appear neutral and avoided entering religious disputes. We may never know their exact motives. But one thing is certain: they needed salvation just as much as any other Jewish man or woman.
The Greek word translated “testimony” in this verse is martyrion. It comes from the same root as martys, which means witness. From this word we derive the English word martyr—one who bears witness even to the point of death. Christ himself would walk this path and give the ultimate testimony to the truth a few years after speaking these words.
Consider several other places where this word appears:
In Matthew 24:14, the gospel is preached to the whole world as a testimony.
In Luke 9:5, the seventy disciples shook the dust from their feet as a testimony against cities that rejected the gospel.
In Acts 4:33, the apostles gave testimony to Christ’s resurrection through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the same way, this healed leper became a living testimony to the Aaronic priesthood that the true High Priest had arrived.
Priests could not cleanse lepers; they could only pronounce them either clean or unclean. The Reformers rightly criticized the Roman Catholic Church for granting priests the power to absolve sins, when the Levitical priests merely declared publicly what God had already done.
Christ, however, could actually heal lepers.
Touching a leper would defile a priest and could permanently disqualify him from service. Christ had no such limitations. Matthew 8:17 quotes Isaiah, declaring that Jesus “took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
In his miracles of healing, it appears that Christ truly bore the suffering of those he healed. Remember how he felt power go out from him when the woman with the discharge touched him? While he ultimately sacrificed his body on the cross for believers, he also bore physical strain and suffering throughout his ministry as he healed both believers and unbelievers.
Truly, he was the Suffering Servant.
Jesus did not need a testimony—he is the Testimony.
A Postscript
In Acts 6:7, we are told that many priests came to faith through the preaching of the apostles. Consider what these men stood to lose by converting to Christianity. They would likely forfeit their status, their livelihood, and perhaps even their families.
Yet they followed Christ.
It is possible that some of these priests had once examined lepers healed by Jesus and pronounced them clean according to the law. Perhaps these encounters planted seeds that later blossomed into faith.
If so, Christ’s quiet and indirect ministry to the priests was already bearing fruit.
How wise and creative is our Lord, who uses every possible avenue to bring the truth of the gospel to sinners.
