Zealot - The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the
     poor are brought good news” (Matthew 11:1–6 | Luke 7:18–23).
    Jesus’s words are a deliberate reference to the prophet Isaiah, who long ago foretold
     a day when Israel would be redeemed and Jerusalem renewed, a day when God’s kingdom
     would be established on earth. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the
     ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame shall leap like deer, and the tongue
     of the mute shall sing for joy,” Isaiah promised. “The dead shall live, and the corpses
     shall rise” (Isaiah 35:5–6, 26:19).
    By connecting his miracles with Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus is stating in no uncertain
     terms that the year of the Lord’s favor, the day of God’s vengeance, which the prophets
     predicted, has finally arrived. God’s reign has begun. “If by the finger of God I
     cast out demons, then surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28
     | Luke 11:20). Jesus’s miracles are thus the manifestationof God’s kingdom on earth. It is the finger of God that heals the blind, the deaf,
     the mute—the finger of God that exorcises the demons. Jesus’s task is simply to wield
     that finger as God’s agent on earth.
    Except that God already had agents on earth. They were the ones clothed in fine white
     robes milling about the Temple, hovering over the mountains of incense and the ceaseless
     sacrifices. The chief function of the priestly nobility was not only to preside over
     the Temple rituals, but to control access to the Jewish cult. The very purpose of
     designing the Temple of Jerusalem as a series of ever more restrictive ingressions
     was to maintain the priestly monopoly over who can and cannot come into the presence
     of God and to what degree. The sick, the lame, the leper, the “demon-possessed,” menstruating
     women, those with bodily discharges, those who had recently given birth—none of these
     were permitted to enter the Temple and take part in the Jewish cult unless first purified
     according to the priestly code. With every leper cleansed, every paralytic healed,
     every demon cast out, Jesus was not only challenging that priestly code, he was invalidating
     the very purpose of the priesthood.
    Thus, in the gospel of Matthew, when a leper comes to him begging to be healed, Jesus
     reaches out and touches him, healing his affliction. But he does not stop there. “Go
     show yourself to the priest,” he tells the man. “Offer him as a testimony the things
     that the Law of Moses commanded for your cleansing.”
    Jesus is joking. His command to the leper is a jest—a calculated swipe at the priestly
     code. The leper is not just ill, after all. He is impure. He is ceremonially unclean
     and unworthy of entering the Temple of God. His illness contaminates the entire community.
     According to the Law of Moses to which Jesus refers, the only way for a leper to be
     cleansed is to complete the most laborious and costly ritual, one that could be conducted
     solely by a priest. First the leper must bring the priest two clean birds, along with
     some cedarwood, crimson yarn, and hyssop. One of the birds must besacrificed immediately and the living bird, the cedarwood, the yarn, and the hyssop
     dipped in its blood. The blood must then be sprinkled upon the leper and the living
     bird released. Seven days later, the leper must shave off all his hair and bathe himself
     in water. On the eighth day, the leper must take two male lambs, free of blemish,
     and one ewe lamb, also without blemish, as well as a grain offering of choice flour
     mixed with oil, back to the priest, who will make of them a burnt offering to the
     Lord. The priest must smear the blood from the offering on the leper’s right earlobe,
     on his right thumb, and on the big toe of his right foot. He must then sprinkle the
     leper with the oil seven times. Only after all of this is complete shall the leper
     be considered free of the sin and guilt that led to his leprosy in the first place;
     only then shall he be allowed to rejoin the community of God (Leviticus 14).
    Obviously, Jesus is not telling the leper he has just healed to buy two birds, two
     lambs, a ewe, a strip of cedarwood, a spool of crimson yarn, a sprig of hyssop, a
     bushel of flour, and a jar of oil and to give them all to the priest as an offering
     to God. He is telling him to present himself to the priest,
having already been cleansed
. This is a direct challenge