What does Mark 1:44 mean?
Jesus heals a man of leprosy then commands the man to stay quiet about the healing until he can go to the priests and finish the ceremonial laws outlined in Leviticus 14. Jesus never broke the Mosaic Law, although He had no problem ignoring the addendums Jewish scholars had added. The man is physically clean, and Jesus has declared him ceremonially clean, but that clean-ness needs to be observed and validated by the priests.Jesus taught in synagogues (Mark 1:21) and at the temple (Matthew 21:23). He quoted Hebrew Scripture (Matthew 4:7) and observed Jewish feasts (Matthew 26:17). And He never backed down from teaching in the presence of Jewish scholars (Matthew 15:1–9). His intent was not to undermine the Jewish religious leaders, but to reach them. If the man with leprosy had presented himself to the priests and explained what had happened, the priests might have seen Jesus was not trying to destroy them. In fact, Jesus was asking the priests to validate His work. Unfortunately, the man with leprosy fell into the same temptation that we often do. He valued the physical and social blessings more than the spiritual, and he drew the attention away from Jesus' teaching and onto His miracles. This was the first temptation that Jesus triumphed over in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–4).
Jesus healed "many lepers" (Matthew 11:5), but only one other time is specifically recorded. In Luke 17:11–19, Jesus heals ten men at once in Samaria. The man in Mark 1:40–45 is representative of the many people Jesus healed throughout His public ministry. Some have suggested the leper in Mark 1:40–45 man is Simon in Mark 14:3, although this is unknown. The only healings of leprosy in the Old Testament are Miriam (Numbers 12:10–15) and Naaman (2 Kings 5).