Leviticus: Leprosy, Our Hearts, and Jesus (Who Always Pursues)

So we are studying our way through the book of Leviticus.

We today are in chapters 13 and 14.

Last week we were in 12 and 15.

Here's just as a review, here's what we've been saying.

We've been saying, number one, the Bible is a meta-narrative, one big story of God's rescue of us in Jesus.

And that is true in every book of the Bible, and that's even true in a strange book like Leviticus.

We've been saying this.

Number two, the Old Testament, generally teaching the Old Covenant of Law, leads us to the New Testament, generally teaching the new covenant of grace.

We saw that in the scripture reading this morning.

Number three, Leviticus helps the New Testament book of Hebrews come alive.

We've been seeing that over the last couple of months, that Hebrews is an outworking of Leviticus.

These two pair together.

And then as we see number three, we see number four, Leviticus gives us a lens to gaze all the more at the loveliness of Jesus.

When I told a friend of mine that we were going to study the book of Leviticus, he got really excited, which is kind of rare.

And he said, Ah, oh, Leviticus, it's amazing.

It's the most Jesus-y book of the Bible.

And I thought, what is he talking about?

It just seemed like a bunch of ritual and rules.

But what we've been seeing as we've been studying is, in fact, it is an incredibly Jesus-centered book.

Now let's remember the structure of Leviticus.

Leviticus 1 · chapter mention

Chapters 1 through 16 take us somewhere.

1 through 15 take us into 16, and 16 is the Day of Atonement.

We're working our way there.

We will get to the Day of Atonement next week.

And then out of that is the outworking of it.

And so we can think about it sort of as climbing a mountain to arrive at the summit.

The structure of Leviticus is just like we're climbing up a mountain back and forth to get to this pinnacle of the book, which is in the middle of the book, which is the Day of Atonement.

And then out of that we learn more things.

But it's just the climbing.

Up we go, up we go, back and forth, up we go.

There's a hike in Teton National Park.

One of my favorite hikes is called Amphitheater Lake.

The first time I was on this hike, started off with my buddy.

He had been on a few times, hiking through a lovely little forest over a little creek, and then we start up a ridgeline.

That ridgeline starts you up, and you're, you know, you're warming up, and then you hit the range, the Teton range, and then for five miles, you just go switch back, back and forth.

I have a picture here, so there you can kind of see you go down the valley.

Okay, oh, that's lovely up the ridge line, and then you hit this switchback section.

There's 18 switchbacks, and you just go back and forth, back and forth across this thing, and the sun's coming up, and you're getting hot, and about switchback 12.

I look at my buddy and was like, like, how much longer?

Like, like like, and what I was asking is like, is this like is this worth it?

Is this like wearing me down?

Like, is this gonna be worth it?

This is sort of the experience of Leviticus.

Like, we're going, like, is this worth it?

Like, last week we had to study bodily discharge.

I don't know, you might not have been here.

Like, that's not on a banner outside of a church.

Discharging Jesus, you know, newcomer Sunday.

We're gonna talk about your discharge, and it's gonna be really impactful for your life.

Um, doesn't happen, right?

And then today we're talking about disease.

It's like, oh, all this labor, like, is it worth it?

Like, where are we headed?

Why in the world is all of this here?

Is it worth it?

And all these switchbacks going up.

This mountain, it takes you up to Amphitheater Lake, and you get this, oh, this is so lovely.

This is beautiful.

This is what Leviticus is doing for us, chapters 1 through 15.

It's like switchbacks.

Up we go, up we go, up, so that we can see this day of atonement all the more clear, so that we can see Jesus all the more lovely.

Let's reread Hebrews 10 before we jump into Leviticus 10, 4, 5, and 9.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he does away with the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will we have been made sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

So two weeks ago, Leviticus 12 and 15, weird passage, bodily fluids today, diseases, so easy to go.

This is this is why I don't read the Bible, right?

This is so easy, these chapters.

Like, this is exactly why I don't care.

But what we have to remember is these people had no modern science.

This is thousands of years ago, to ancient people.

They had no hospitals, they had no antibiotics.

In their context, thousands of years ago, for them to receive insight into these very practical parts of life for their well-being, this was huge for them.

For them, this was God caring for them in the most practical way.

If your child gets strep throat, you probably call your doctor and you go, like, I think I think she has strep.

And the doctor goes, like, hey, let's just make sure, I'll call in the antibiotic, you know, no worries, it'll be there an hour, and you swing by CVS, and three days later your kid's fine.

Right?

Like that's just normal.

We do that all the time.

Thousands of years ago, if your kid got strep throat, maybe they get better.

Maybe they get a lot worse and then they get better.

Maybe they get a lot worse and they die.

That would just be incredibly common.

So God speaks into this fragility of life that these ancient people live.

We can read it and we can get nitpicky of like this has nothing to do with me.

But for these people, this was God caring for them.

Incredible insight for them.

So, Leviticus 13, 1 through 3.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priest, and the priest shall examine the diseased area on the skin of his body.

And if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a case of leprous disease.

When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean.

So point number one is this God cared for the entire life of his people.

This chapter is about disease flesh, open wounds, skin disorder, but mainly it's about leprosy.

Leprosy is this horrible disease that attacks the nerve cells.

As it attacks the nerve cells, those areas, the cells don't work together, those body parts go numb, they begin to rot.

Here's an image of I just pulled online of a guy who's losing his fingers because of leprosy.

There's no medical schools, there's no mayo clinic, there's no urgent care you're gonna swing by.

All they knew was somebody sick with this leprous disease.

And if somebody else gets near them, then they end up sick.

So here in Leviticus, for the health of the community, people who had leprosy are isolated.

It's a very detailed chapter.

We also get this insight, Leviticus 13, 40 and 41.

If a man's hair falls out from his head, anybody?

Uh he is he's bald, he's clean.

If a man's hair falls out from his forehead, he has baldness of the forehead, he is clean.

So where are bald men?

You don't have to raise, we can see you, you don't have to raise your hand.

Very clean scalps, see today.

And you can be encouraged.

The Bible is so relevant for you.

You are clean.

God has deemed you clean.

Bald men, you are clean.

Now, if you were deemed unclean, any of us, here is what happened.

Leviticus 13, 45 and 46.

The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, unclean, unclean.

Can you even imagine?

Walking around in the thing that you are ashamed of, the thing that separates you and isolates you, that you have to walk around and proclaim that shame out loud.

Verse 46, he shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease.

He is unclean.

He shall live alone, his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

So this was for their health, and it's beginning to point them to something greater because attention developed.

And the tension was the dread of being declared unclean, right?

Do you remember when you were declared COVID positive and it was just like, you know, you're banished?

It's like, can you imagine thousands of years ago?

And you are banned from the community for good.

Once uncleaned, the question is like, could somebody know me and love me?

Is that possible?

Point number two is this the greatest blessing and is God's presence with us.

The greatest blessing is God's presence with us.

Leviticus shows us for these people to be isolated, cut off from God's people, and the experience of God's presence, this was a miserable experience for them.

You remember, you remember COVID, the Rona?

I always say we barely had it, Marietta.

Like Atlanta had Atlanta really had coronavirus.

Marietta, we kind of like barely had it, but we had it, right?

And we were just it's just gonna be two weeks.

It was just two weeks.

We're gonna take a break for two weeks, right?

And so uh Sam and I started recording our church services and posting them online, and we were doing it Saturday mornings, right?

Every the whole calendar's freed up.

So we're like, let's put it Saturday mornings and put close to Sunday.

And then we realized, like, y'all don't know when we're recording this.

So we started recording it Thursday at lunchtime.

It's like, let's just go ahead and knock it out, right?

And I had Sundays off for the first time in 20 years, and I was like, so this is what y'all are doing.

It was amazing.

We'd go for like a morning hike, have brunch, have mimosas, I'd go fishing.

It's like this is unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

And we watched church online, which was wonderful for two weeks.

And then I'm fast forwarding.

I'm the pastor and I'm fast forwarding.

I'm like, we can speed this up.

Like, we don't really, we don't really need to watch all this.

And then in June of that year, we at we as a church reopened in June of that year, we had those luxury aisles.

We removed every other aisle, and you could just sort of like roam around.

You could actually get out of your aisle once you sat down, it was amazing.

And we would sort of like from a distance high-five each other and like fake hugs and all that.

But what I remember was after a couple months of not being with God's people and hearing God's people sing to be together, like that experience was so emotional.

And maybe you've had that as you've been away from church for a long time, and then you finally walked in, or maybe you remember that coming back from COVID and you walk in, and it's just quite emotional because you've been away.

God's presence that we experience with each other is powerful.

God's presence in our lives, period, is powerful.

And I I love I love a good mimosa.

Like, and I I love to fly fish.

I mean, the idea of a cutthroat trout on a tight line at a mountain street, I'm like, there's nothing better, and I can I can't believe I'm gonna say it, but that's just a taste of God's presence.

Like the best thing you can come up with is a taste of God's presence.

It's to point us onward to a greater reality.

C.S.

Lewis said it this way we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

The psalmist in Psalm 63, one through three worded it this way O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you.

My soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory, because your steadfast love is better than life.

My lips will praise you.

Our hearts long for God's presence.

Now, while Leviticus 13 presents all these problems, this disease to be deemed unclean, Leviticus 14 gives us provision.

The priest steps in as the redeeming role.

It's an incredibly detailed chapter.

We won't go through it verse by verse, but here's how it works out.

Verses 1 through 9 is the ritual that an unclean person can become clean again to come back into the community.

Verses 10 through 20 is the offering of atonement offered by the unclean person.

It's their first act of worship.

Verses 21 through 32, there's a provision for people who are poor and they can't afford an atoning sacrifice.

And then verses 33 through 57 are details of what to do if a house or a garment is infected.

So incredibly detailed, incredibly relevant to their lives as ancient people, and it's filled with hope.

And it's filled with hope because God provided a way for unclean people to become clean.

Now, what Jesus says in the New Testament is he takes this and he builds on it.

He uses it.

He uses their awareness, their concern of physical health, of being deemed clean or unclean, and he asks them to reflect about their own hearts.

Luke 5, 31 and 32.

And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Right?

He's saying, let's reflect upon the heart.

Like how is our how is our heart?

None of us are perfect.

But we all want to be cleansed or feel clean or pure.

Right?

We know the feeling after a big mess up, a big explosion, and we just feel like you're like, what can I do to make this go away?

Well, is that gonna be based on your record?

And how does that work out?

Like how much merit is enough merit?

And then what about your thoughts and your motives?

Like, are we gonna include those?

I know for me, I can do something incredibly like godly.

Like I'm thinking to myself, this is unbelievable how godly this is.

Like this is just this is a god thing.

We know we say stuff like this is a god thing, it's a god thing.

And then six months later you look back on it and you're like, oh my gosh, like I was really arrogant about that.

Or wow, I didn't realize how much selfishness was like woven into that thing.

So even our godly things have motive and thoughts, and also and the point is, is like we really need Jesus.

Like the worst of us and the best of us need Jesus.

And that Jesus, in Jesus, the guilt trip and the performance treadmill are over.

And we're welcomed into a grace walk.

That's point number three.

Jesus as our atonement means we are saved from shame cycles and guilt trips.

We are saved into a grace walk with Jesus.

Now, atonement, which we're going to dig into next week.

Atonement means Christ's death on the cross as offering compensation for the sins of God's people, for your sin, for my sin.

The death of Jesus allows people to have a blessed relationship with God and is necessary for our salvation.

We could say it this way: Jesus is enough for you.

Atonement is God's provision for relationship.

It's his grace to us.

Now, what does that mean?

What does it mean for you?

How does it affect you?

Paul Tripp explains the grace walk this way.

Grace is the most transformational word in Scripture.

The entire Bible is a narrative of God's grace, a story of undeserved redemption.

By the transformational power of his grace, God unilaterally reaches into the muck of this fallen world through the presence of his son and radically transforms his children from what we are, sinners, into what we are becoming by his power, Christ-like.

Grace is a story and a gift.

Grace will confront you with the fact that you are much less than you thought you were, even as it assures you that you can be far more than you had ever imagined.

Grace will put you in your place without ever putting you down.

Grace will enable you to face truths about yourself that you have hesitated to consider while freeing you from being self-consciously introspective.

It means we can have a spirituality that is growing in awareness and confession without becoming navel gazers.

So we can both become growing in awareness and confession and also growing in our love to others.

Tripp goes on to say it this way: In grace, God gives us the only thing that can truly help himself.

The Spirit of God unzips us and gets inside us, enabling us to desire, think, do, and say the things that fit within the boundaries of his plan and purpose for our lives.

God will never assign us a task without first giving us the grace to accomplish it.

He animates and strengthens us with his presence so that we can say no to sin and yes to the call of his kingdom.

There's a story in the New Testament in Mark chapter 1 where Jesus actually touches a leper.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Now, if we think about Leviticus 13 and 14, think about ancient people aware of Leviticus 13 and 14, the ramifications on their entire lives for even being near a person with leprosy.

And then we get this story of Jesus, Mark 1, verse 40.

Mark 1:40

And the leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling, said to him, If you will, you can make me clean.

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I will be clean.

And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.

While everyone else was moving away from this person.

Moved away from the leper.

Jesus moved toward the leper.

Think about these people hearing this story, seeing this happen.

Jesus risking this.

I mean what a what a radical.

This was revolutionary to faith.

They knew Leviticus 13 and 14.

They knew the rules.

I mean, who is this that touches a leper?

Like, who is it that comes near to you while you're still messed up?

Who could know me and my guilt and my shame and still love me and still be present with me?

It's interesting in Leviticus the priest was never allowed to touch the leper.

Because the leper's disease would be transferred to the priest, and the priest would get sick.

But this high priest Jesus is different.

Jesus does not become unclean because of the unclean person.

Rather, Jesus' cleanness transfers over to the unclean.

It's an image of the cross where our sin is put upon Jesus and his righteousness is given to us.

So we're securely his by his work for us.

So maybe you feel like a leper because you've never fit in.

Or you were rejected.

Or you feel isolated.

Or you're sick.

Or you haven't been able to get your life together.

Or you messed up, or you can't quite, you get one thing together, you know, the record is not working out like you thought it would.

You can't get it all together.

And Jesus knows all of this about you.

All of it.

And he's still moving toward you.

Like he risked to touch the leopard.

He comes toward us in our mess.

And we are fully forgiven.

And we are fully embraced, fully welcomed as is.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, thank you for the full welcome that we know as we are because of who you are for us.

Thank you that your work of grace is a full welcome.

And thank you that your work of grace in us, your Holy Spirit will use it for great transformation.

Help us even more to trust in you for us.

Help us to learn what it means to turn and heal from guilt driven walk and shame cycles, to walk in grace, to walk with you, and to surrender more and have open hands and open hearts to you.

May we rest in the full forgiveness we have, the full acceptance and the full righteousness by Christ alone.

Amen.