Question:
Answer:
In healing lepers, Jesus doesn’t contradict the Old Covenant (OC) law of the Old Testament. He fulfills it.
You cite Numbers 5:1-4, which discusses how lepers and others were put outside the camp of the Israelites. In this passage, we see that the lepers were not “cast out,” as if they had no connection with the Israelites. Rather, because leprosy was a highly contagious, debilitating and ultimately fatal disease, they could not live within the normal bounds of the community, lest they communicate to other a fatal disease for which there was no cure.
In coming to establish the New Covenant, Jesus fulfills the OC law (Matt. 5:17-18). Part of that is healing the lepers, as Isaiah prophesied the Messiah would do (Lk. 7:22; see Isa. 35:4-6; 61:1).