Lev. 15-16
Reading through these laws, it’s hard not to notice that there are so many things that render a person unclean! Leviticus chapter 15, concerning the bodily discharges, also makes me realize that it is impossible for a person to stay clean – impossible. I rather imagine that this is at least partly the point. God is HOLY; we are NOT. Period. Nothing we can do about it. Any attempt to abide by God’s laws would keep a person in constant reminder of that fact. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I think we far too often take for granted our free access to God through Jesus Christ. This is no small deal, folks!!
This chapter also gives me a greater appreciation for the woman with the hemorrhage that we read about back in Matthew – the one who touched the edge of Jesus’s garment to be healed. She was unclean and had been unclean for, I think it was 12 years!! Anything and anyone she touched became unclean. It wasn’t just the bleeding she had to deal with – she was most likely shunned as well. And for her to step forward and admit to Jesus what she had done had to have taken some courage, and probably has a lot to do with why Jesus requested it of her, which I think also emphasized how Jesus makes everything clean. It is so nice to know that, as an unholy human, I can now live a holy, clean life without all of this fuss and ritual because of what Jesus did for me.
Mark 8:22-38
So here Jesus is again, telling those He has healed and those who know who He truly is not to spread the word. That raises so many questions in my mind! Obviously, He needed to be crucified, so there is that. He couldn’t have the whole world knowing and believing or that never would have happened. But still…odd to me.
But the thought occurred to me reading this this morning, that Jesus gave them the teaching first, while He walked among them, and then He gave them the understanding. This is especially true for the disciples, I think, but also for the general population. What is the significance of that? I’m not altogether sure, but it does take me back to this idea of trust that I started yesterday, because the more I think about that, the more I think that a lack of trust lies at the heart of all sin. Knowing but not understanding requires trust. One day, the Bible says that ALL will bow before Christ and call Him Lord, which means that ALL will know AND understand who He really is. But not all of those people will be saved. It is only those who trusted without fully understanding who will be redeemed.