Leviticus 13-15

“This is the law for leprous disease …” (14:57). Before modern medicine, communal and close-knit societies feared contagious diseases even more than today.  With no real treatment possible, their tools were quarantine (13:4-5), social isolation (13:46), and thorough cleaning (ch 14).  When these failed, individuals like the lepers in the New Testament were permanently “outside the camp” (13:46), living alone or with others sharing their affliction.  If they could show that they were healed, they went through a sacred ritual and were accepted again into society (ch 14).

Jesus wasn’t afraid that sin or sickness would pollute his holiness.  The God who “heals all our diseases” (Psalm 103) touches lepers, opens blind eyes, and makes us whole.