Readings for today: Leviticus 14, Mark 6:30-56, Psalms 40:1-10, Proverbs 10:11-12
Someone posed a great question from our readings today. Why do Leviticus and Jesus seem so opposed to one another? Especially in their treatment of lepers? In Leviticus, they are considered outcasts. Separated from their community. They are to live in isolation or with others who share their disease. They are not welcome in the Temple. Not welcome in the market. Not welcome in people’s homes. If they do experience healing, the rituals are elaborate for restoration and, knowing how human beings tend to work, they probably still carried the stigma the rest of their lives. Contrast all this with Jesus who welcomed lepers. Healed them. Purified them. Touched them. Embraced them. Jesus restored them to community with a word. It all seems so contradictory unless you take a step back and remember the bigger picture.
This world is not our home. This world is broken and ruined by the Fall. This world is corrupt and full of sin. It manifests itself in all kinds of ways, disease and death among them. All of us suffer in this world. All of us are subject to its limitations. God’s world (heaven) is not like this world. God’s world is whole and perfect. God’s world is pure and holy. God’s world is righteous and just. Sin and evil do not exist there so there is no suffering, no crying, no pain. Adam’s fateful decision to rebel against God ruptured the connection between our world and God’s world. Severed it completely. Without God, we would have been set adrift for all eternity. No hope of salvation. God, however, loves our world as much as He loves His own. So He bridges the gulf. He keeps the lines of communication open. He gives Moses a plan for a Tabernacle. A place where He will meet with His people. However, God is holy and cannot tolerate unholiness, impurity, or sin in His presence. So the Israelites are given laws in order to keep them pure before God. These laws are given to govern them in a world that his hostile to holiness. Hostile to purity. Hostile to God. A world in rebellion. These laws are not ends in themselves. Living by them is not the goal. They point beyond themselves to the greater reality which is God Himself. This is why David says, “In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required...I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." (Psalms 40:6, 8) David understands the sacrifices, while good, serve a bigger purpose. They should draw us close to God. They should give us a heart for God. We can never confuse the ends and the means. The same is true for the laws concerning lepers. Yes, leprosy made one impure. Yes, impurity separated you from worship and from community. At the same time, God’s people should extend compassion and care for the lepers in their midst. Provide for them as they suffered in their disease. Rejoice when they were healed and restored. This would serve as a sign that God’s world was breaking into our world through the medium of His chosen people!
Sadly, Israel failed in this mission. Their own sin got in the way. They could follow all the laws perfectly but their hearts were still corrupt. So God sends Jesus. The living embodiment of God’s world now coming to live in our world. Jesus brings with Him all God’s holiness. All God’s purity. All God’s wisdom and power and authority because He is God incarnate! God has nothing to fear from our world. There is nothing in this world that can possibly hurt Him or harm Him or make Him impure in any way. So Jesus touches lepers and makes them clean. Jesus heals disease. Drives out demons. Raises the dead. All of these things are signs that God’s world has now entered our world. The infinite now occupies the finite. The holy confronts the unholy. The pure overcomes the impure. Sin and evil are put to flight whenever Jesus shows up on the scene. Our world reacts violently to this invasion. Responds by seeking to sever the connection between our world and God’s world once again. Kill Jesus and we’ll finally be free! Free of God’s reign! Free of God’s rule! Free to do as we please! So we hang Jesus on a cross. We commit the greatest sin in human history. Deicide...we murder God. But God’s world is not like our world. God’s life is not subject to death. So He rises from the grave and now the connection between our world and God’s world is made permanent. Sealed by the blood of God’s own Son. No longer will this world be adrift. No longer will sin hold sway. No longer will death and disease have the final word. No longer will impurity separate us from God. Because of what Christ accomplished, all things are made new. All sin is atoned for. Death has been defeated. And we are free to live in this world as citizens of God’s world, embracing the “lepers” wherever they may be found.
Readings for tomorrow: Leviticus 15:1-16:28, Mark 7:1-23, Psalms 40:11-17, Proverbs 10:13-14