Scripture · Mark 4:35-41
Mark 1:40-45
Christ Healing a Leper
Then a leper came to Jesus, begging on his knees: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him, and the man was cleansed. Jesus promptly sent him away with a stern warning: “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering Moses prescribed for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” But the man went out and openly began to proclaim and spread the news. Consequently, Jesus could no longer enter a town in plain view, but He stayed out in solitary places. Yet people came to Him from every quarter.
Jesus bends toward the kneeling man’s head while two disciples look on. In this small drawing, even the healing touch is the result of a change of mind: Rembrandt first drew the hands joined.
About the artwork
The Rijksmuseum’s study of the sheet identifies an earlier handclasp covered with opaque white. Rembrandt moved Christ’s hand toward the man’s head and drew the other arm inside His cloak. The revision gives one extended arm the whole work of the gesture. What first looks like a quickly drawn scene preserves a considered decision about how healing should become visible.
Behind Christ, one disciple clasps his hands and another rests an arm on his companion’s shoulder. Those smaller contacts echo the central exchange without repeating it. Dry, broken pen lines leave the paper unusually open; a rock between Jesus and the kneeling man gives the spare setting just enough ground to bring their bodies together.
Featured in: Luke 5 in Art: The Catch, the Roof, the Tax Booth, and the Verses Worth Remembering
What does Mark 1:40-45 mean?
Mark 1:40–45 describes a man with leprosy kneeling before Jesus and asking to be made clean. His appeal recognizes Jesus’ ability and asks for his willingness. Jesus reaches out, touches him and answers the request; the healing is immediate.
Jesus tells the healed man to show himself to the priest and make the prescribed offering, and also commands him to keep quiet. The man spreads the news so widely that Jesus can no longer enter towns openly. The drawing stays with the moment before that reversal: the person who has approached Jesus receives a touch, while the watching disciples remain close enough to see it.
The meeting of the kneeling man and the extended hand focuses attention on the willingness and touch at the center of Mark’s healing account.
Sources
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Peter Schatborn’s exact-work catalogue entry explains the opaque-white revision of the handclasp, the second arm, the witnesses and the rock.
Luke 5 in Art: The Catch, the Roof, the Tax Booth, and the Verses Worth Remembering. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Mark 1 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Mark 1:40-45.
Also from Mark:A ForerunnerThe Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew
Continue looking:Christus heilt KrankeHealing of a LeperHeralds of the Resurrection