Leviticus (12) Jesus and Impurity

Jesus changed the situation with regard to things that are contaminated and become impure.

• He sent the Holy Spirit, who gives the gift of discernment. With spiritual discernment, followers of Jesus can recognise the presence of evil spirits. The rules-based approach to avoiding spiritual evil provided by the Torah becomes redundant. Its cautious approach was constraining of behaviour. Jesus sets his children free to live without fear, but gives them discernment to identify the activity of evil spirits and deal with them.

• Jesus defeated the spiritual powers of evil on the cross. He demonstrated his power over the powers of evil and his ability to deal with impurity during his ministry. He touched men with scale disease and healed them. He touched a woman with a continuous flow of blood and healed her. He touched the body of a young man who had died and restored him to life. He forgave Zacheus for his theft. Jesus demonstrated the new paradigm, where complex rules were no longer needed to keep safe from the spiritual powers of evil. He demonstrated his ability to defeat them.

Jesus totally changed the situation for dealing with the impurity of people and things. However, he could not cleanse the land if people continued sinning, so Israel was exiled from their land by the Romans.