An Excerpt from the writings of St. John Chrysostom: On the Gospel

And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.  Note that only the Disciples are said to have gone up the mountain to Jesus; but coming down from the mountain the multitude followed Him, and indeed great multitudes; because the mountain is the summit of virtue, the very pinnacle of the Church, on which the multitudes cannot come nigh to Christ, either because they are burthened with sin, or laden with worldly cares. They cannot draw near to Christ, nor hear the sublime discourse He spoke upon the mountain; only His Disciples can, who are free of the fevers of the vices, and unburthened by the cares of this world.  Accordingly, as free and unencumbered they come unto Christ, that they may hear His more sublime discourses, becoming His imitators in all things.  Yet, when from the heights of His compassion He came down to the lowly, who because of human infirmities were unable to hear Him on the mountain top, then great multitudes followed Him.  And behold a leper.  You must know that both Luke and Mark tell first of the cure of the man possessed by an unclean spirit, and secondly the woman who was freed of the bodily infirmity of fevers; because God has greater concern for the salvation of the soul than the body.  First, because the soul is of a higher dignity than the body.  For the soul can live without the body, but the body without the soul cannot survive.  Second, in every sin it is the soul that first sins, then the body sins.  Unless the soul be first overcome, the flesh could never sin.  The flesh can first be moved with desire for that which is evil, but cannot sin unless the soul shall first consent; for the flesh is subject to the power of the soul, not the soul to the flesh.  So it was necessary that the soul, which first had fallen, should first be raised; the soul then freed from the power of the devil would free its own flesh from sin. The flesh that is healed from infirmity cannot free the soul from its sin, but rather inclines it yet further from what is right; for the well-being of the flesh wars against the discipline of righteousness.