From Leviticus To Mark
I mentioned in my previous post that I had been working my way through Kings & Chronicles. Well, I'm still going strong, and I'm now at the back end of 2 Chronicles, Chapter 27 to be exact.
I was going to make this post about things that happen in those books, but now, after randomly reading a passage in Leviticus, I would like to change tack.
Reading from the message, I began from chapter 15, which talks, quite frankly about bodily discharges, and the rituals of making oneself clean because of them. It makes for startling, if not shocking, reading.
But as you read on, you get to the part about the women's discharge, and you're instantly reminded of the episode in Mark Chapter 5:
A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact she had gotten worse.
Mark Chapter 5, Verses 25 - 26. (New Living Translation)
This poor person had suffered for years and years with this illness, which is bad enough, but I'm pretty sure that, on top of it all, she would have had to content with the shame of being unclean, if we're to take the words of Leviticus into account. It must have been a pretty lonely, painful existence, mentally and physically.
Here's the extract from Leviticus, Chapter 15:
If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, but not at the time of her monthly period, or has a discharge that continues beyond the time of her period, she is unclean the same as during the time of her period. Every bed on which she lies during the time of the discharge and everything on which she sits becomes unclean the same as during the time of her monthly period.
Leviticus Chapter 15 (The Message Translation)
No doubt the person had been offering sacrifices at the local place of worship, as in Leviticus:
When she is cleansed from her discharge, she is to count off seven days, then she is clean. On the eighth day she is to take two doves and two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Or perhaps she had just given up going, despair turning into resignation, and ultimately bare reality. The key verse for me though, in light of what happens in Mark, is this one:
Anyone who touches these things becomes unclean and must wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening.
In the episode written for us in Mark, there is one person who isn't afraid to touch, and isn't afraid to comfort. Here's what happens:
She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind Him through the crowd and touched His robe. for she thought to herself, 'If I can just touch His robe, I will be healed.' Immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
Mark Chapter 5, Verses 27 - 29 (New Living Translation)
Jesus feels that power has gone out of Him, and actively seeks out the person who has reached out to Him:
But He kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realisation of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him and told Him what she had done.
Mark Chapter 5, Verses 32 - 33 (New Living Translation)
When He has found the person, He does not rebuke or scold, neither is He angry or even upset. He is quite the opposite:
And he said to her, ' Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.'
Mark Chapter 5, Verse 34 (NLT)
I can then just picture Jesus giving her a massive hug, and just loving her as a father would love his own children. I can also hear a shocked and disgusted gasp go up from the crowd. The scene described for us would have been as shocking to the witnesses of it on that day, two thousand years ago, in some ways, as the description in Leviticus is to us today, but hundred times greater.
Jesus does what The Law could, and can, never do. He not only fulfils it, He adds the loving and caring touch of comfort and reconciliation, which of course, is amplified in the message of the cross.
Lord Jesus,
Thank You for the message of Leviticus. It makes for uncomfortable reading, but it only heightens our awareness of the seriousness of sin, and consequences that come from turning away from You.
But thank You also, for Your fulfilment and reconciliation of The Law, displayed so powerfully in Mark, that means we needn't live in Leviticus times anymore.
Your sacrifice has paid for our sinfulness, and given us freedom to come boldly to Your throne of grace.
Amen
I was going to make this post about things that happen in those books, but now, after randomly reading a passage in Leviticus, I would like to change tack.
Reading from the message, I began from chapter 15, which talks, quite frankly about bodily discharges, and the rituals of making oneself clean because of them. It makes for startling, if not shocking, reading.
But as you read on, you get to the part about the women's discharge, and you're instantly reminded of the episode in Mark Chapter 5:
A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding. She had suffered a great deal from many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she had gotten no better. In fact she had gotten worse.
Mark Chapter 5, Verses 25 - 26. (New Living Translation)
This poor person had suffered for years and years with this illness, which is bad enough, but I'm pretty sure that, on top of it all, she would have had to content with the shame of being unclean, if we're to take the words of Leviticus into account. It must have been a pretty lonely, painful existence, mentally and physically.
Here's the extract from Leviticus, Chapter 15:
If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, but not at the time of her monthly period, or has a discharge that continues beyond the time of her period, she is unclean the same as during the time of her period. Every bed on which she lies during the time of the discharge and everything on which she sits becomes unclean the same as during the time of her monthly period.
Leviticus Chapter 15 (The Message Translation)
No doubt the person had been offering sacrifices at the local place of worship, as in Leviticus:
When she is cleansed from her discharge, she is to count off seven days, then she is clean. On the eighth day she is to take two doves and two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Or perhaps she had just given up going, despair turning into resignation, and ultimately bare reality. The key verse for me though, in light of what happens in Mark, is this one:
Anyone who touches these things becomes unclean and must wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening.
In the episode written for us in Mark, there is one person who isn't afraid to touch, and isn't afraid to comfort. Here's what happens:
She had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind Him through the crowd and touched His robe. for she thought to herself, 'If I can just touch His robe, I will be healed.' Immediately the bleeding stopped and she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition.
Mark Chapter 5, Verses 27 - 29 (New Living Translation)
Jesus feels that power has gone out of Him, and actively seeks out the person who has reached out to Him:
But He kept on looking around to see who had done it. Then the frightened woman, trembling at the realisation of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of Him and told Him what she had done.
Mark Chapter 5, Verses 32 - 33 (New Living Translation)
When He has found the person, He does not rebuke or scold, neither is He angry or even upset. He is quite the opposite:
And he said to her, ' Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.'
Mark Chapter 5, Verse 34 (NLT)
I can then just picture Jesus giving her a massive hug, and just loving her as a father would love his own children. I can also hear a shocked and disgusted gasp go up from the crowd. The scene described for us would have been as shocking to the witnesses of it on that day, two thousand years ago, in some ways, as the description in Leviticus is to us today, but hundred times greater.
Jesus does what The Law could, and can, never do. He not only fulfils it, He adds the loving and caring touch of comfort and reconciliation, which of course, is amplified in the message of the cross.
Lord Jesus,
Thank You for the message of Leviticus. It makes for uncomfortable reading, but it only heightens our awareness of the seriousness of sin, and consequences that come from turning away from You.
But thank You also, for Your fulfilment and reconciliation of The Law, displayed so powerfully in Mark, that means we needn't live in Leviticus times anymore.
Your sacrifice has paid for our sinfulness, and given us freedom to come boldly to Your throne of grace.
Amen
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