Matthew 8:4

‘And Jesus says to him, “See you tell no man; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.”

But one more thing was required before the man could fulfil his dream and mix with other people. He must be certified as clean by the priests, in accordance with the Law. That was essential. In Jewish society until that had happened he would still be isolated and forbidden to approach men and women. He would still be a social pariah, whether healed or not. And so Jesus bids him to go and show himself to the priest, and then once he has been examined and pronounced clean he must offer the offering commanded by Moses, as a testimony to ‘them' (see Leviticus 14:2 for the full details). ‘Them' is probably to be seen as signifying ‘the congregation of Israel', that is, the whole people, as represented by the priests who acted on behalf of the congregation of Israel. None would want to come in contact with such a man until he had been certified as clean. In fact it was forbidden. Thus it had to be certified to all.

Why does Matthew tell us this? One reason was because it was one further indication that Jesus had not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it, as He has just been making clear at great length in His sermon (Matthew 5:17). Jesus was not replacing the teaching of the Scriptures, He was fulfilling it to the full. And this is one good reason why this account is placed immediately after the Sermon on the Mount. It illustrates Jesus' obedience to the Law of God. On top of this it was also drawing out gratitude from the man to the One Who had healed him, and reminding him that from now on he had a duty to worship God truly.

‘See you tell no man.' Jesus calls on him to say nothing of his healing. This probably indicated keeping silent before the priest as well. There was no need for anyone to know. All that the priest had to do was the necessary tests. It was in that sense irrelevant how the healing had taken place. Possibly Jesus did not want every leper in the land coming to Him, for it would deeply have affected His ministry. Possibly He was wanting to prevent an even greater accumulation of ‘great crowds' coming to see wonders. Possibly He did not want to draw the attention of the priesthood in the Temple on Himself. Possibly He did not want to arouse the crowds to fever-pitch so that they sought to make Him a king (compare John 6:15). But it is important to note that in the end it was because Jesus did not want men to believe in Him simply because of the miracles that He did (see also Matthew 9:30; Matthew 12:16; Matthew 17:9; Mark 1:34; Mark 5:43; Mark 7:36; Mark 8:26; John 2:23). He wanted them to believe in Him because He brought the truth. It was only to those who already believed that His miracles were cited as a testimony, evidencing Who He was (Matthew 11:4).

‘Moses.' Surprisingly Moses is mentioned less by Matthew than in any other Gospel (only in five passages - Matthew 17:3; Matthew 19:7; Matthew 22:24; Matthew 23:2 - thus seven times, and apart from at the Transfiguration only ever as the source of the Law). Apart from at the Transfiguration when it is made clear that both the law and the prophets point to Him Matthew makes no attempt to compare or contrast Moses with Jesus. (This would be very surprising if he was trying to present Him as another Moses).