Leviticus: Bodily Fluids and Jesus (Why Does the Bible Talk About This?)

We're studying the Old Testament book of Leviticus, and here is what we have learned.

The Bible is a meta-narrative, one big story of God's rescue of us and Jesus, even in strange books like Leviticus.

So we've learned that.

Number two, here's what we've learned.

The Old Testament, generally teaching the Old Covenant of law, leads us to the New Testament, generally teaching the new covenant of grace.

We've learned that.

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

So we've been saying that as we've been studying Leviticus, that Hebrews is almost like a commentary on Leviticus.

Last one, number four.

Leviticus gives us a lens to gaze all the more at the loveliness of Jesus.

Hopefully, we're gonna do that and see that again today.

It gives us a lens.

Eight years ago, I went fly fishing for the first time.

A mentor couple of ours took us on the Roaring Fork in Colorado.

Here's a picture of Christy catching her first little rainbow trout.

A woman holding a trout.

There's nothing more attractive.

I mean, that that'll do it.

That seals it for me.

I've talked about this before because that day actually changed my life.

That's what I've talked about before.

I keep talking about.

I fell in love with the river.

I fell in love with a tight line and a trap on the end of it.

I fell in love with that, but I couldn't see anything on that day.

On that day, I could- I couldn't see anything.

Meaning I I couldn't see under the surface of the water.

All day the guide would point out a fish tucked behind a rock, and he'd go, Oh, there's a 14-inch rainbow.

Oh, look at him.

He's got big shoulders, he's right behind the rock.

And I'd be what like where?

Like what where are you looking?

And I kept that kept happening over and over again.

And so I quickly learned that he knew what to look for, like what shapes and what shadows and that kind of thing, what movement.

And then second, I picked up on the fact that he had on a really good pair of polarized sunglasses.

Right?

This is the difference between polarized and non-polarized, by the way.

If you think it's just like snobbery, it's not snobbery.

Uh non-polarized on the right, this is how you would see the water.

You put on a pair of polarized sunglasses, and this is how you would see the water there, the picture of the left.

I was seeing glare.

But because he had a lens, he was seeing something totally different.

Right?

And so I needed to nerd out a little bit.

I see that picture, I'm like, I need to nerd out.

Like, what is going on here?

So here's a nerd out picture of what polarized lens does just to prove to you that you should spend the money.

Uh so polarized reduces fragmentation and glare.

We read Leviticus and we get a lot of glare.

Right?

And it's the glare of misunderstanding.

And when we have that, we we can't see it.

So we need better context.

Context is like a lens that we get to put on.

And when we put on that context, suddenly Leviticus comes alive.

And then when Leviticus comes alive, then Hebrews comes alive.

When Hebrews comes alive, then Jesus becomes all the more lovely.

Now let's remember the structure of Leviticus before we jump into our passage.

Leviticus chapters 1 through 16 take us one place, and then chapters 17 through 27 take us somewhere else.

Leviticus 1 · chapter mention

Here's what I mean.

Here's the structure up on the screens.

And we are here in chapter 12 and 15, so we're in that section, instructions for purity.

We've done chapters 1 through 7, the rituals, the five sacrifices.

We talked about the priest in 8 through 10.

We're working our way to the Day of Atonement.

That is the pinnacle of the book of Leviticus.

And today we will look at chapters 12 and 15.

We're gonna look at chapters 12 and 15 as to contemplate our bodily fluids.

That is not what you expected.

That is not what you said.

I came for like fifth grade celebration or something.

What is going on?

But this is Leviticus.

Okay, Leviticus 12, 1 through 8.

Just kind of buckle up, just prepare yourself, hang with me.

Leviticus 12, 1 through 8.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days.

And at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean.

And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

Then she shall continue for thirty-three days in the blood of her purifying.

She shall not touch anything holy, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are completed.

But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her menstruation, and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days.

Amen?

Okay.

Men, you're not left out.

You're not left out.

Chapter 15, 1 through 6.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean.

Do you need to giggle?

Anyone need to giggle?

No.

Okay, verse 3.

And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge, whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness.

Every bed on which the one with the discharge lies shall be unclean, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean.

And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in the water and be unclean until the evening.

And whoever sits on anything on which the one with the discharge has sat shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.

Bodily fluid, discharge, this was not in Jesus' calling, my devotion.

I've read Jesus Calling several times.

This didn't come up.

It wasn't in there.

Wasn't in my Max Lucata Grip of Grace book that I read in high school.

Not a popular sermon series title.

Hadn't seen that banner in front of a church.

You know, Discharge in Jesus, Visitors Sunday.

Just you're welcome to come and check out our church.

We're gonna talk about bodily fluids.

So, like what?

Like what?

Like why?

Why in the world?

And why why would I why would I do this?

Right?

Like, why would I even preach on it even if it's in there?

Like we've all just been skipping this passage our whole lives.

So what's going on?

Well, can you imagine living thousands of years ago and there's no modern science?

There's uh you don't know how anything in your body really works.

It just works, you know, cause and effect, but you don't really know how it works.

And then in all that ignorance, you begin to receive some instructions and insight on how to live.

So a little Bible study tip, like how to read the Bible.

We should first ask, what did this mean to the original audience in their context?

That's the first question.

The second question, but then we ask, how does this fit into the meta-narrative of Jesus' rescue of people from sin and self-righteousness?

Now that might require a bit of study, that might take a little bit of effort.

And then finally, we ask, the question we usually skip to what does this mean to me today in Marietta?

Now, as we approach our passage, let's let's remember Adam and Eve, Genesis 2, 24.

This is the beginning, the beginning of humanity.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

So we begin with with what we already knew, and that is that God created sex, and God created sex pleasurable for the utmost enjoyment in marriage.

Amen?

Okay, somebody's excited.

That husband is like, let's we can go home right now.

Let's just go on home.

That is amen.

Like, that is amen for women, that is amen for men.

This is good news.

Now, back to our passage.

Here's what we learned.

Point number one God shows his care for his people by giving guidelines for living.

Leviticus 12 says impurity is caused by childbirth, which just seems odd, especially considering what we just read.

Because we're commanded to have sex and create cute little cuddly babies.

So why is the mom impure?

Like unclean.

Why did she have to go through a purification process?

See, the purification was necessary because the loss of blood, and this gives us point number two.

Keep hanging with me, I'm gonna make a point here.

Point number two, to the ancients, losing blood was of supreme consequence because blood represented life.

Birth was painful and dangerous.

I mean, women, amen.

Like you know that, you're like, yeah, that's true.

Painful and dangerous.

Now, imagine it with no drugs.

Some of you did that, right?

Now, imagine it with no antibiotics or no hospital.

These people knew that blood, if blood was lost, life got fragile.

They knew that.

But there was no post-birth medical care.

Can you imagine that childbirth?

After the birth of all three of our little girls, we were just big chilling at Piedmont Hospital.

There we are at the birth of Greta.

Uh, we're hanging out, man.

I mean, like, I'm grabbing Starbucks across the street.

My mom has the two older ones, the nurse is watching the baby while we're taking naps, we're watching Oprah.

I mean, we are having like this is like this is a vacation.

Like, we we can stay in a, we'll stay another day, it's not a big deal.

And everything was clean, and everything was designed for Christie to rest.

The system was set up for Christy, for the mother to be replenished.

So here comes this Leviticus 12 and these Levitical rules, and we get all judgy, right?

We get all judgy immediately.

But in their context, at their time, to the ancients, I mean, God was caring for these mamas.

This was about replenishing the mother.

Leviticus 12 rules are a protective measure to enable the mother to fully recover before resuming an active life in the community.

This is about care to moms.

That has nothing to do with sinfulness.

This is nothing to do with sinfulness.

This is a ceremonial uncleanness for the care of the mom.

God in the Bible, they're caring for women, caring for the mamas.

It's not limitation, it's not condemnation, it's care in their context.

Now, point number three, God does not take away all pain and hurt, but cares for us in our pain and hurt.

Here's how we see this in chapter 15 about bodily discharge, short-term discharge, ongoing discharge.

Can you believe we're saying discharge so many times in a sermon?

The text of chapter 15 is very interesting because it's medical language.

Most likely some sort of disease is involved here, but they know nothing about exactly how disease is transferred.

They don't know about bacteria, they don't know about viruses, but then God begins to help them.

Now, the help is not in that the disease goes away, the help is insight, wisdom, and care in the pain and the hurt.

In their context, as strange as chapter 12 and 15 are, in their context, God is caring for these people in the most practical way.

Now, by the time of Jesus, these rules and these traditions had become a burden.

Religious leaders weaponized these rules to control people's behaviors, to keep power over them, and to begin to deem who's holy and who's unholy.

This wasn't about ceremonial uncleanness anymore.

This was about what you are, your core identity.

The rules ceased to be about caring for the vulnerable and giving them a path back into communal life.

So then Jesus shows up.

He's got a few things to say about this.

Mark 20, Matthew 23, 1 through 4.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, the scribes and the Pharisees, then on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do, for they preach but do not practice.

And here it is, verse 4.

They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.

Now imagine a devout Jew at the time, familiar with Leviticus 12, terrified to be unclean, to be cut off from the community, to be deemed unholy, terrified, if you are clean, to touch somebody who's been deemed unclean.

Imagine the mount of terror.

And then we get a story where Jesus is walking through a crowd, and there's a woman who's been bleeding for 12 years.

That touches him and he stops to move closer to her.

Mark 5, 24 through 34.

This is from the message translation, it's more of a storytelling translation.

Jesus went with him, the whole crowd tagging along, pushing and jostling him.

A woman who had suffered a condition of hemorrhaging for 12 years.

A long succession of physicians had treated her and treated her badly, taking all her money and leaving her worse off than before, had heard about Jesus.

Right?

So imagine this woman, 12 years.

Think about Leviticus 12 being weaponized against her.

Not being a rule for her care and her replenishing back into community.

But weaponized against her that she's unclean, unclean to be unholy, they're saying.

She's unholy.

And so she's broken, she's beat down, she's been taken advantage of, she's lonely, she's at the end of her rope.

The story continues.

She slipped in from behind and touched his robe.

She was thinking to herself, if I can put a finger on his robe, I can get well.

At the moment she did it, the flow of blood dried up.

She could feel the change and knew her plague was over and done with.

At the same moment, Jesus felt energy discharging from him.

Now that's kind of an interesting word choice, isn't it?

The translator, Eugene Peterson, he was an Old Testament Hebrew scholar.

He would have known Leviticus 12 really well.

I don't know if Peterson was drawing a connection between all this, but it's interesting given the woman's condition.

And what we know is that we need life in the places of our hurt.

We all do.

Whatever our hurt is.

The story continues.

Jesus turned around to the crowd and asked, Who touched my robe?

His disciples said, What are you talking about?

With this crowd pushing and jostling you, you're asking to touch me?

Dozens have touched you.

But he went on asking, looking around to see who had done it.

The woman, knowing what had happened, knowing that she was the one, stepped up in fear and trembling, knelt before him, and gave him the whole story.

And Jesus said to her, Daughter, you took a risk of faith, and now you're healed and whole.

Live well, live blessed, be healed of your plague.

Nobody else would have stopped.

People would have avoided her.

Religious people definitely would have avoided her.

But Jesus looks at her and what does he call her?

Daughter.

He doesn't just heal her physical illness.

We may never experience that.

He restores her dignity.

He gives her an identity, a daughter.

He deems her clean as a child of the heavenly father.

This is point number four.

Jesus enabled unclean people to draw near to God by him making them clean.

Not by their work and their record and their ability, but by his work and his record.

Our sin is put upon the cross, his righteousness is given to us.

This week this brought up a few growth and grace questions for me.

Three different ones.

Number one, in what ways do we live under the burden of rules as to be loved rather than faith in Christ that we are already loved?

Number two, in what ways do we feel shame or unacceptable to God?

And lastly, how might we allow the love of Christ to transform our addiction to merit or our imprisonment to shame?

The commentary on this Leviticus passage quoted the great hymn, O for a thousand tongues, which we sang.

He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoners free, his blood can make the fowls clean, his blood availed for me.

Let me read that again and more as a blessing over you.

He breaks the power of your sin.

He sets you free.

His blood can make even you clean.

His blood availed for me.

Let's pray to God.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you care for us in the most practical ways thousands of years ago, in the ancient times, and today in our life, in Marietta in 2024, that you care about the most practical things in our lives.

You don't take away all the hurt and the pain, but you care for us in it.

Would we experience a great sense of your presence in our hurt and our pain and our shame?

Would we see how you've come to set us free to be your children, to walk through this broken world?

Would you see would we see all the more the freedom and the growth and grace we can have in Jesus that you are enough for us?

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.