[NOTE: For those who are continuing the 1-year Bible reading plan we started on April 1, 2018, just go to the end of this entry and you will find the Day 306-Luke 21-24 summary!]
In Leviticus 14-15, we read more about serious skin diseases, how they were to be treated and the sacrifices to be offered for those who were healed; the treatment of contaminated houses; and how bodily discharges from men and women made them unclean. As we read through the two chapters, we might wonder, “What is the point of all this?” Leviticus 15:31 gives us an answer to that question: 31“This is how you will guard the people of Israel from ceremonial uncleanness. Otherwise they would die, for their impurity would defile my Tabernacle that stands among them. Leviticus 15:31(NLT) All the rules and regulations concerning uncleanness were to protect the people. God’s concern for the people’s holiness was real and extended into every area of life. God is holy and He was calling forth a holy people. While we might not understand the seemingly OCD-like obsession with cleanliness, we do well to remember in the 1800’s it was the simple addition of hand washing to the protocol of practicing medicine that reduced the number of deaths in hospitals drastically. If physical cleanliness contributes to physical health, that would be reason enough for God to establish it among His people, but in the case of the Israelites, God had the additional desire to guide His people to spiritual cleanliness and wholeness.
What application is there for us in our lives? We live “post-Jesus,” post-resurrection,” the myriad rules and regulations of the Torah seem excessive to us, and they are. But they weren’t excessive when Moses and the Israelites were being forged as a people and being prepared by God to enter the Promised Land, where they would become God’s holy nation. For us, the lessons are many, but let’s focus on this one: We serve a holy God, who expects His people to obey Him. All too often, we treat God far more casually than He deserves. When I hear folks referring to God as “The Big Guy,” or “The Man Upstairs,” I wonder about the reverence being offered, or whether there is any.
In our relationship with God and how we live it out with each other, we always face the twin dangers of legalism at the one extreme and a casual forgetfulness of God’s holiness at the other. I have often said, “At New Life our dress and language are casual, but no one takes God and His word more seriously than we do.” I understand those who are concerned, because we don’t “dress up” for church, or who think only a certain style of music is “appropriate” for worship. Their goal is to honor God, but that can become the same kind of legalism Jesus condemned in the Pharisees. As we read through Leviticus, what we can take away is the absolute seriousness with which the book calls us to live in relationship with God. At the same time, we can praise God that Jesus made it clear we honor God most fully with and through our hearts, and not through external observations alone.
As we return to Mark 15, we read again of Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, and burial. Every time I come to this chapter in Mark, or the accounts of Jesus’ trial, death and burial in the other three gospels, I’m reminded it was my sin that caused Jesus to go through that horrific sequence of events. Yes, Jesus suffered and died for the sins of the world, but He also died for my specific sins and yours. That memory causes me great pain, shame, and sorrow. Even so, all too often, I return to sin. My thoughts aren’t always pure, my words aren’t always constructive, and my actions aren’t always helpful. I sin by the things I do, and by those I fail to do–probably far more often, through the good things I fail to do. One of the biggest challenges of our faith, and one of the reasons many in our culture call us hypocrites, is even with our sorrow for Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, even with the new life we receive from Him, sin still often clings so closely to us.
Why? Isn’t that the question. Why do we continue to sin, when we know what a great sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf? How can we read Mark 15 and the other gospel accounts of Jesus trial, death, and burial and not be motivated to holiness? The short answer is: our sinful natures are strong. Thank God for sending Jesus to suffer and die in our places. Thank God for His grace and forgiveness that restore us to relationship with Him through the shed blood of Jesus. Thank God, He continues to love us when our lives don’t exhibit the holiness Jesus died to bring us. But, let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves, “How can I best honor Jesus’ suffering, crucifixion and death in my life, today?” When I ask myself that question, so many answers come flooding to my mind, and not one of them is: by continuing to sin. In our home, when one of our girls did something wrong and offered, “I didn’t mean to do it,” as an excuse, I would often respond, “Did you mean not to do it?” It’s a great question. Over time, turnabout became fair play, and when I did something wrong and said, “I didn’t mean to do it,” one of them would quickly ask, “Did you mean not to do it?
So often, we live on auto-pilot. We drift into actions and habits we lived out and held before our salvation, but once we have trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord, once His precious blood has washed away our sin, and we have received the Holy Spirit, He calls us to focus on Him and His ways. He calls us to mean to live in His ways. We won’t naturally live supernaturally in obedience to Jesus through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, but that’s His plan for us! As we focus on what Jesus has done for us, as we live into the reality of our salvation, we will mean to do what’s right and avoid what’s wrong, not out of a legalistic formality, but out of a heart-lived love and loyalty for Jesus. My prayer for all of us is we will remember what we read in Mark 15, and let it motivate us to love and good works in Jesus’ name, in the power of the Holy Spirit and to God’s glory!
Day 306-Luke 21-24
Luke 21-24 records the last few days of Jesus’ life, His arrest, trial, conviction, death and resurrection. One of the aspects of Jesus’ resurrection included by Luke, but by none of the other gospel writers, was Jesus’ conversation with two “disciples” on the road to Emmaus. The account is so powerful, because the two, one of whom was named Cleopas, were walking home because Jesus is dead, and their hope is gone. Suddenly, a “stranger” appears with them on the road and begins to ask them why they are upset. They ask if He is the only one who has been to Jerusalem who hasn’t heard of what went on there over the past three days. Jesus then took them through the Scriptures (which would be our Old Testament), and told them that the Messiah must suffer and then rise again. At the end of the trip, when the men made it home, Jesus acted as if He would continue on, so they invited Him to have dinner with them. As Jesus was breaking bread with them, they realized it was Jesus. At that moment He disappeared from their sight. Even though it had to be getting dark, even though they had no means of lighting their way back to Jerusalem, they ran back to town, and told the other disciples they had seen Jesus. What a powerful aspect of Jesus’ resurrection interaction with His followers! Our Lord and Savior is no martyr, because He rose from the dead. That’s what sets Him apart from every other great person, or religious figure who ever lived.