Jesus speaks rarely, and when he does, his words are generally few. In verse 15, he says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” This clocks in at 16 Greek words. Verse 17 he says to the brothers, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” A simple nine words in Greek. Just five Greek words in verse 25 gives us, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”
A more loquacious verse 38 provides 15 Greek words for Jesus, as he suggests to his early apostles: “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.” His three words in the prior verse are more along the lines of expectation, but here, suddenly, he bursts forth with 26 Greek words – over a third of all the words he speaks in the entire chapter – giving a specific series of unrealistic commands. The cleansing “as Moses commanded” is a reference to a long passage in Leviticus 14 where it talks about the month-long ordeal and all the sacrificial animals that have to be brought up in order to have the priest call you “clean”. Completely unsurprisingly, this guy fails to do any of that and instead goes on without stop to anyone who would listen about how this guy just healed him of his leprosy.