The Gospel portion for today shows off a strange encounter. For those who have studied Jewish Law, it is also an encounter that went against the Law. For any Old Testament scholar reading this, or for anyone Jew who saw this in person, they would have been reminded of the leprosy laws that are found in Leviticus, specifically Leviticus 13:45-46, which states, “Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” Translating this over to the time of Christ, there were leper colonies outside the walls of the city where those who were sick with leprosy were forced to live in squalor.
