It’s scarcely surprising that, despite the Savior’s instruction not to talk about what had happened to him, the suddenly-cured leper went out and told everybody. How could he possibly contain his joy and excitement? And how could they possibly repress their curiosity?
Miracles were, as I’ve said here before, not a principal purpose of Jesus’ ministry. He was happy to do them, I’m sure, but people continued to get sick and die in Judea and Galilee during the three years of his preaching.
Such notoriety, such sensational news, actually interfered with what he was trying to do. And it attracted merely curious sign-seekers. “Jesus could no longer openly enter a town,” says Mark 1:45, “but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.”