The word leprosy may cover various skin diseases, not just what is medically defined as leprosy. Nonetheless, leprosy was a serious matter. The disease itself is nasty, and under the Law a person with leprosy was "unclean". The person with leprosy was treated as an outcast, so he asks Jesus to make him clean "if you are willing".
Now all this raises a number of questions. We naturally recoil from the idea that someone with a disease should be treated as "unclean". Instead we consider it Christian (or even just humanity) to try and help the person, though our actions may not always match up to our sentiments.
So where does this leave the Law? I don't have a complete answer, but the following might help. The Law is describing how things should be, and in God's perfect kingdom there should be and will be no sickness. Now our human reaction to this is then to think that the Law provides the means of salvation, and this was the problem with Jews. Instead the Law is pointing out the problem, it is not the solution.
Jesus then shows us how we should react. First He touches the man, then He heals him. The Law pointed out the problem, Jesus provides the solution.
Why was Jesus indignant? Probably because of the totally wrong attitude that people had to the Law, and how this then affected and hurt other people.
Jesus told the man not to tell people, but just to go to the priests, so that they could see that he was now clean. However, the man did not obey Jesus and so Jesus was unable to enter a town openly.
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