His divine attributes were expressed in the cleansing of the leper. It is impossible for any human being to cleanse a leper. Therefore, the One who cleansed this leper must be God.
In the Lord’s sympathy we see His human virtue, and in the cleansing of the leper we see His divine attribute. He was the genuine God-man. As man He was filled with the human virtues, and as God He had the divine attributes that enabled Him to cleanse the man’s leprosy. In this case the Lord’s human virtues express His divine attributes.
According to the scriptural examples, leprosy comes from rebellion and disobedience. Miriam became leprous because of her rebellion against God’s deputy authority (Num. 12:1-10). Naaman’s leprosy was cleansed because of his obedience (2 Kings 5:1, 9-14). All fallen human beings have become leprous in the sight of God because of their rebellion. But the Man-Savior has come to save men from their rebellion and to cleanse them from their leprosy.
A leper, according to the law, was to be excluded from the people because of his uncleanness. No one could touch him (Lev. 13:45-46). But the Man-Savior touched the one full of leprosy. What mercy and sympathy! By His one touch, “immediately the leprosy left him.”
A leper portrays a typical sinner. Leprosy is the most contaminating and damaging disease, isolating its victim both from God and men. To cleanse the leper signifies to recover the sinner to the fellowship with God and with men. It is significant that the leper was not only healed but cleansed. The one with leprosy not only requires healing as those with other diseases; he also needs cleansing, as from sin (1 John 1:7), because of the filthy and contaminating nature of the disease.
In the case of the healing of the paralytic (5:17-26), we also see the Lord’s divine attributes expressed in His human virtues. In 5:20 He said to the paralytic, “Man, your sins have been forgiven you!” When the scribes and Pharisees heard this, they began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (v. 21). The Lord Jesus exercised His divine authority to forgive the paralytic’s sins and His divine power to heal him. But in this case we also see the exercise of the Lord’s kindness, which is a human virtue. Therefore, in this case also the Lord’s human virtue expresses His divine attribute.
Luke 5:24 says, “In order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on the earth to forgive sins—He said to the paralyzed one, To you I say, rise and pick up your cot, and go to your home.” The Man-Savior was the very God incarnated, not regarding equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was outwardly in the likeness and fashion of man, but inwardly He was God (Phil. 2:6-7). He was the Man-Savior and the God-Savior as well. Hence, He had not only the ability to save sinners, but also the authority to forgive their sins. In this incident, He forgave the paralytic’s sins as God, but asserted that He was the Son of Man. This indicates that He was the true God and a real Man, possessing deity and humanity. In Him, men can see both His divine attributes and His human virtues.
In 5:27-39 we have the case of the calling of a despised tax collector named Levi or Matthew. Verse 27 says, “And after these things He went out and beheld a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office, and He said to him, Follow Me.” The tax office was a tollhouse, where Matthew collected taxes for the Romans. Matthew was one of the tax collectors (Matt. 10:3), probably in a high position, a man who was condemned, despised, and abhorred by the Jews (Luke 18:11; Matt. 5:46). Yet he was called by the Man-Savior and was later chosen and appointed as one of the twelve apostles. What mercy!
Luke 5:28 says of Matthew, “And leaving all, he rose up and followed Him.” It seems that this was the first time the Lord met Matthew. There must have been some attracting power with the Lord, either in His word or appearance, that caused Matthew to follow Him.
We have pointed out that the Jewish people despised the tax collectors because they were collecting taxes for the Roman imperialists. They were considered traitors, and the Jews were disgusted with them and despised them to the uttermost. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus came to one of these tax collectors and called him.
With the calling of Matthew there was no miracle. When the Lord Jesus came to Peter, He attracted him from his occupation by means of a miracle. But He did not perform a miracle when He came to Matthew. His willingness to come to Matthew was a great mercy.
The Jews stayed away from the tax collectors, regarding them as worse than lepers. Therefore, Matthew must have been surprised when the Lord Jesus came to him. Perhaps Matthew said to himself, “Who am I that this One should come to me? I am a tax collector, a despised person. Who would care for me? Yet Jesus comes to me and tells me to follow Him.”
In the Lord’s calling of Matthew we see the high standard of His human virtue. Perhaps the Lord said to Himself when He was about to call Matthew, “Yes, this one is a tax collector. But he is still a human being, and I will not reject him or give up on him. Rather, I shall come to him, contact him, and call him. I call not only the occupied ones, but also the despised ones.”