plainswolf said:
Even whilst Christ was still walking the earth, He worked within the religious structure:
"And behold a leper came and adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3 And Jesus stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will, be thou made clean. And forthwith his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus saith to him: "See thou tell no man: but go, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." Matt 8:2-4
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How does this apply here?
Matt 8:2
Moses gave particular directions by which the real leprosy was to be distinguished from other diseases. See Lev 13. The leprous person was, in order to avoid contagion, very properly separated from the congregation. The inspection of the disease was committed to the priest; and a declaration on his part that the person was healed, was sufficient evidence to restore the afflicted man to the congregation. It was required, also, that the leprous person should bring an offering to the priest of two birds, probably "sparrows" (see Lev 14:4's margin), one of which was slain and the other dismissed, Lev 14:5-7. In compliance with the laws of the land, Jesus directed the man that he had healed to make the customary offering, and to obtain the testimony of the priest that he was healed. The leprosy has once, and but once, appeared in America. This loathsome and most painful disease has in all other instances been confined to the Old World, and chiefly to the Eastern nations.
It is matter of profound gratitude to a benignant God that this scourge has been permitted but once to visit the New World. That awful calamity was on the island of Guadaloupe, in the West Indies, about the year 1730, and is thus described by an eye-witness
NOTE: M. Peyssanel.) "Its commencement is imperceptible. There appear only some few white spots on the skin. At first they are attended with no pain or inconvenience, but no means whatever will remove them. The disease imperceptibly increases for many years. The spots become larger, and spread over the whole body. When the disease advances, the upper part of the nose swells, the nostrils become enlarged, and the nose itself grows soft. Tumors appear on the jaws; the eyebrows swell; the ears become thick; the points of the fingers, as also the feet and the toes, swell; the nails become scaly; the joints of the hands and feet separate and drop off. In the last stage of the disease the patient becomes a hideous spectacle, and falls to pieces.
(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)
Jesus is doing the healing not the priest. He is a witness