And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
All Commentaries on Luke 5:12 Go To Luke 5
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Infalling upon his face he marked his humility and modesty, for every one should blush at the stains of his life, but his reverence kept not back his confession, he shows his wound, and asks for a remedy, saying, If you will, you can make me clean. Of the will of the Lord he doubted, not from distrust of His mercy, but checked by the consciousness of his own unworthiness. But the confession is one full of devotion and faith, placing all power in the will of the Lord.
He heals in the same manner in which He had been entreated to heal, as it follows, And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him The law forbids to touch the leprous man, but He who is the Lord of the law submits not to the law, but makes the law; Hedid not touch because without touching He was unable to make him clean, but to show that hewas neither subject to the law, nor feared the contagion as man; for He could not be contaminated Who delivered others from the pollution. On the other hand, He touched also, that the leprosy might be expelled by the touch of the Lord, which was wont to contaminate him that touched.
In the words which follow, I will, beyou clean, you have the will, you have also the result of His mercy.
He says then, I will, for Photinus, He commands, for Arius, He touches, forManichaeus. But there is nothing intervening between God's work and His command, that we may see in the inclination of the healer the power of the work. Hence it follows, And immediately the leprosy departed from him. But lest leprosy should become rife among us, let each avoid boasting after the example of our Lord's humility. For it follows, And he commanded him that he should tell it to no one, that in truth he might teach us that our good deeds are not to be made public, but to be rather concealed, that we should abstain not only from gaining money, but even favor. Or perhaps the cause of His commanding silence was that He thought those to be preferred, who had rather believed of their own accord than from the hope of benefit.
And that the Priest also should know that not by the order of the law but by the grace of God above the law, he was cured. And since a sacrifice is commanded by the regulation of Moses, the Lord shows that He does not abrogate the law, but fulfill it. As it follows, And offer for your cleansing according as Moses commanded.
Or because the law is spiritual He seems to have commanded aspiritual sacrifice. Hence he said, As Moses commanded. Lastly, he adds, for a testimony to the m. The heretics understand this erroneously, saying, that it was meant as a reproach to the law. But how would he order an offering for cleansing, according to Moses' commandments, if he meant this against the law? .
But if the word is the healing of leprosy, the contempt of the word is the leprosy of the mind.
