Mark 1:36-40

Mark 1:36 (KJB)
And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.

Jesus had slipped away from Peter and the other disciples who were with Him and He must have been gone for a few hours without giving them any notice of where He was going to be. The words “follow after” in the Greek carry with it a very strong meaning. It actually means “to hunt or eagerly search for” as one who is involved in a manhunt. It shows how intense the search was for Jesus. They were fully committed to finding Him.

Mark 1:37 (KJB)
And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.

(Jer 29:13 KJV) And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. A principle emerges here that if you seek the Lord with all your heart you will find Him. That applies to those whom God has qualified to seek Jesus, that is, those appointed to salvation. Here in this verse Peter and the others had found Jesus and when they finally found Him, it was like Peter was giving Him a mild rebuke in that all men seek for thee. Apparently some of the crowd from town may have come back. It was like them saying, “what are you doing here?” The people of the town need you. It almost seemed like they were trying to tell Jesus what was better for Him and where He should be.

Mark 1:38 (KJB)
And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.

Jesus responded to their query but not in the way they thought He would. He did not plan to stay in one place instead He tells them that they need to go into the next towns to proclaim or herald the Gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus did not come to primarily heal and deliver those who were devil possessed but His calling was to preach the Gospel in other towns also. He came to begin the spread of the Gospel in Israel first. The word “towns” in the Greek carries with it the meaning of “a large village or a village-city.” So there were many towns of this size which were quite big but yet retained their rural status. It was to these places where Jesus would proclaim the Gospel because many people from the outlying areas would visit the markets daily which means that His hearers would come to Him in a central location.

Mark 1:39 (KJB)
And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.

The first point of interaction that Jesus had with the people was to preach in their synagogues. The Apostle Paul followed the same itinerary. Jesus did this as part of His Galilean ministry. He also exorcised those who were devil possessed and healed them of their devil possession. The proclamation of the Gospel was the first responsibility and the casting out of devils would have been ancillary to that, yet it was important because it showed that Jesus had authority over the kingdom of Satan and that the Kingdom of God had come to earth in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ at this point in time. The Gospel healed the soul eternally but the physical healing healed only for a short time until that person died. However, the physical healing showed the difference between one who is sick or lame which represents how we are before salvation and when a person is healed which represents how we are after salvation. (Acts 14:10 KJV) Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. Those who were physically healed did not just cautiously stand up slowly, they believed they were healed and they leaped on their feet.

Mark 1:40 (KJB)
And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

In the Bible, leprosy represents sin because it starts out very small and unnoticed and then continues to grow in the body and then eventually it manifests itself outwardly just as sin does. Sin starts in the heart and soon it manifests its lustful desires until it completely takes over the body and it is permeated with sinful desires which the body eventually acts upon. When Jesus came down, a leper approached Him and was worshipping Him. He beseeched Jesus that if it would be His will, that He could make Him clean. If you notice the word that the leper used, “canst” which would be our word “can.” The word “can” is a word of ability. This leper knew that Jesus had the ability to heal but the leper asked Jesus if it was His will to heal him. God has the ability to heal and that goes without saying, but if a healing is not in His will for a person, then He will not heal them but He does not leave them alone because in the sickness or disability, God will strengthen His children to make it through.

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