TNTC Matthew

(c) it is a witness to Jesus’ Messianic mission, as the conqueror of disease

(a) this act will give public proof that the leper is cured and may return into society; (b) it will prove to the (presumably already hostile) priests that Jesus respects the Old Testament law (cf. 5:17);

of love clearly took precedence.

The mission of Jesus and the demands

To touch an unclean person was to contract defilement oneself (Lev. 5:3)

knelt (proskyneō, normally translated ‘worship’; see on 2:2) and Lord (kyrie, which need not mean more than ‘Sir’, but see on 7:21) indicates that he sees here more than polite deference.

The disease was regarded as incurable (2 Kgs 5:7)