‘And being stirred to his very depths he stretched forth his hand, and touched him, and says, “I will, be made clean”. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.'
Jesus was stirred to the depths of His being at the man's plight, evidence of His own deep compassion. ‘Being stirred to His very depths' represents a strong verb, for ‘being angry' is found here in a few authorities, including D and Old Latin manuscripts, and Tatian. While it is thus seemingly mainly a Western reading, although being found in Tatian (Syriac), it is so unusual that it may well be original, and have later been softened to ‘moved with compassion'. It is especially significant that Matthew and Luke both leave the verb out, which would surely not be likely if they had read in Mark ‘being moved with compassion'. But whichever is correct it shows that Jesus was deeply stirred. The anger, if such it was, would not be directed at the leper but at the dreadful disease and what it signified in terms of sin and the Evil One.
‘He stretched forth His hand and touched him.' This was an event that was remembered because of its impact on the watchers. The touching was deliberate. The man himself must have been deeply moved. No one had been willing to touch him for a long, long time, for to touch such a skin-diseased man was to be rendered seriously unclean. This willingness to touch the man clearly distinguished Jesus from the Rabbis, for the Rabbis would go to extraordinary lengths to prevent such a thing happening to them. But who could argue about Him being made unclean when the man was made clean by His touch? No law had been made that took such a situation into account. The reader recognises that the One Who touched Him was beyond being rendered unclean. It was a touch of power and authority, and one of omnipotence. It was the touch of One totally clean, of One Who could remove what was unclean and not Himself be made unclean, of One Who was the source of all cleanness.
Jesus need not have touched him. He could simply have said the word and the man would have been made whole. But He wanted him to know that he was clean, that he was once again touchable and that men would once again touch him and not turn away in loathing and fear.
‘And says, ‘I will, be made clean.' The response suited the man's appeal, demonstrating that he would receive exactly what he desired. He would now be ritually clean and acceptable, both in the house of God and in men's houses, because fully healed.
‘And immediately the skin disease left him and he was made clean.' What happened was visible to all present. The serious skin disease evaporated before their eyes. It is a reminder that however defiled we may be Jesus can render us acceptable to God at a touch. That this miracle was selected out for detailed treatment in Mark's condensed account demonstrates how great its impact was seen to be. Nothing more demonstrated the power and glory of Jesus than this incident, for it revealed that Jesus could make a man, even an outcast, totally clean, however dreadful his condition. It was a reminder of the words of God in Ezekiel 36:25-26 when He had spoken of making His people clean. And the One Who would now do this was present.