Our reading today has us continuing through the Law of Moses and how Israelites are to behave. This move beyond what the Israelites were to do vertically to what they are now to do horizontally. God gave them strict laws on how to treat one another, and especially the poor. It is funny that even then, God was letting us know that the poor will always be among us. Things happen, people make all the right decisions and things go wrong. We have a common misconception that hard work and discipline pays off; however, many poor people were both and tragedy struck in a way that crippled them financially and socially. We have the “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality. This mentality is fine for those who have not tasted the sweet nectar of grace known as salvation, but it is a travesty of love for Christians to have such a mentality.

God gave the Israelites one another and if a man was found in need there was a certain response. Now this is Law; however, look at what YAHWEH appeals to. It is because what He had done for them in their deliverance from oppression that He appeals to. He appeals to His grace and kindness to get them to understand how they are to relate to one another. This is a gospel picture my friends.

We then see Jesus casting out demons, healing the sick, and touching the leper. Touching a leper is a post in and of itself, but needless to say, lepers were social outcasts and for Jesus the holy one to go and touch Him, shows us the real heart of God even in the Law.

Let me explain something here. COMPASSION is the mark of the believer, it is a defining factor that we have been born from above. Studying the bible, memorizing scripture, going to seminary, reading the latest great books, speaking in theological language, sharing the Gospel and even being a good family are good things, but compassion is a great thing. He says this in Matthew 12

12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Our Lord is compassionate towards the have nots, shoot, you and I were have nots. God didn’t save us because of ourselves. He didn’t save us because he “peeked down into the corridor of times and saw us choosing Him”. That position is the foundation for haughtiness. We were dirt, trash, filthy rags, good for nothing but the furnace! However just like He told Israel, it wasn’t because of something they had done, it was because He loved them.

We weren’t good people needing a nudge, a boost of some sort, we were hell bound and needing saving completely and that is why we are to be compassionate, we above all the world have experienced this compassion and we are to express this compassionate God to a cold and dead world!

Jesus touched the leper, feed the poor, restored sight to the blind, touched the prostitute, gave strength to the lame, casted demons out of the possessed, ate with sinners and tax collectors, raised the dead, loved the outcast and unclean, He took on the role of being responsible for others. We see this in Leviticus where God demands such a response and we see this in the life of Jesus flushed out (the Israelites didn’t follow this law, just read in later OT books). He has now given us this responsibility and there are NO CONDITIONS, Jesus knew some of the people were probably responsible for their condition and He extended them grace, we have no excuse to do anything otherwise!

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Mark’s narrative of the life of Jesus starts off by saying

 ”The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”

I remember reading a book by John Piper called “God is the Gospel”. Piper has developed a theme called “Christian Hedonism” and under that theme is the slogan “God is most satisfied in us, when we are most satisfied in Him”.

Now that may sound wordy or like some catchy slogan. But read it again. God is most satisfied in us, when we are most satisfied in Him. Now I want you to think of all the books out there “Have Your Best Life Now”, “Being An Over comer”, “Slaying Your Giants”, and on and and on. If you go to the preaching it is even worse! Many churches are packed everyday, full of good information on how to be wise business man, how to get your kids in a good college, how to be successful, how to save your marriage by having good sex and on and on and on!

And the most important person, the person we are to gather around, the person whom we come to hear from and through one another, rarely ever comes up! My friend, having a good life is having Christ. Having a good marriage is having Christ, Having a successful “business” is having Christ, for He is the BEST news ever! Nothing else matters my friends, this world and its fleeing pleasures will be destroyed and the eternal Jerusalem will come down from heaven and we will dwell in the city of God!

If you want to satisfy God, be satisfied in His Son. Mark is going to show us who He is and show us why He is the good news! Don’t let this okie doke preachers convince you that having Jesus is some basic truth, He is Truth! Our bodies are going to get old, the economy will fool you, your marriage will end, your children will leave, your sex life will evaporate, success is not guaranteed, but Jesus is the rock from where the water flows and when we are satisfied in Him, all of our hunger, thirst and desires will be fulfilled. My friends Jesus is the good news, everything else is “vanity”.

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This is it!!!  Jesus has been beaten and mocked, spat on and pierced, He’s been hung on a cross and has died (given His life). In most cases this would be it, this would be the end of the story and we would have nothing left to say. When it comes to Christ we can’t stop there because the story does not end there. Christ continues to live, He rose from the grave just as He said He would do, (Jn. 2:19) and has lived on, and will continue to live on. (Matt. 28:20, Mk. 16:19, Col. 3:1) We my friends must take much confidence in knowing that Christ is not only alive, but He has not left us alone. He has promised to always be with us. (Matt. 28:20)  I get very excited when I speak of all the acts Christ has done. Lets look at some of them: He left a holy heaven where there is no sin at all, to come here and dwell in a sin ravaged earth with us people who suffer from sin ravaged hearts. How do you think that felt to Him? Jesus left a life that had never touched sin to come to a place that is disgustingly polluted and littered with sin for the specific purpose of dying for those who are sinning against Him and free them from there sin, most importantly rescue them from the wrath of God. The reason why I get excited about the works and selfless acts of Christ is not only because He has rescued me, but also because I know He didn’t have to do any of this.  He didn’t have to do one single thing, not one. But He did.We should rejoice in the freedom that is ours through our savior Christ Jesus, the freedom from sin, the freedom from the law, the freedom from the wrath of God. We must not stop there, we must now live our lives ever learning from the example Christ has shown us. (1Pet. 2:21, Jn. 13:15) We must live a life that pleases our Father not one that pleases us. We must go out and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Sone and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us and remember that Christ is with us always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:19-20).

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As we near the end of Matthew’s gospel. We find ourselves seeing the one who healed, loved, served, accepted the mariginalized, forgave the sinner and rebuked the self righteous, being betrayed by the infamous kiss. We see the master eat His last meal before His death, we see Him still thinking of others more than himself when the one coming to falsely arrest him is attacked by one of Jesus’ own disciples and even more heart wrenching is the prayer, the plea with the Father 3 times to let the cup pass; however, His will was totally submitted to the Father and what must be pursued; the wretched cross!

There are so many things to say about our readings today, but the only thing I want to focus on is the love of Christ. Hebrews 12:2 talks about the Joy of Jesus. Ultimately He knew what had to be done. As we are reading through Leviticus we see animal after animal killed, cut up and consumed by fire. We are now going to see a human sacrificed. The three years are up, Jesus has lived the sinless life, He has been prepared as Brian pointed out, by the oil being poured on His head. The betrayer has put things in motion and things are looking bleak.

But again we see a future statement in Matthew 26:32. He says “but when I am raised”. They have not yet understood this, but for us who look back we know fully. He who will be crucified raised from the dead and that is our hope. We know the end of the story. Christ is raised as the firstfruit of the ressurection and He promises us the same salvation.

I don’t want to get to far ahead, but last not look at the disciples with too much piety, we know that we will be raised from the dead and we still doubt, they had not yet experienced such a truth.

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Leviticus 10 starts off by sharing the Nadab and Abihu are trying to pay some form of homage to good but doing it in under false pretense. They are trying to offer to god some “strange fire” that is quickly used upon the and ultimately kills them. They have not been commanded by God to do such a thing and for that their demise is certain. As we continue through the rest of the Leviticus 10-11 we start see major instructions that are given to Aaron and Moses. These instructions must and will be followed to the tilt or sure demise would could about.

We can be sure from the OT reading that god is very serious about how he is glorified through the acts of the priesthood of that time as well as the priesthood of those under the new covenant. We cannot get so caught up in our form of worship that we forget that the main thrust of our faith is synchronized with those of the Father. (Col.2:23)

As we venture into the NT reading we find Jesus chilling with the disciples as the plot thickens for the betrayal to take place. We see the connection between the Jesus death and the Passover at a greater level at this point. Much in the same as the lamb was being prepared for the slaughter Jesus has become the literal lamb being prepared for death. The oil is applied to his body by the woman with the alabaster box almost as a symbol of the impending death of Jesus. (v.12) Judas leaves the party to then go a set the stage for the betrayal to go into effect.

We finish the reading today with Jesus making preparation for his ultimate death. He has given the go sign as he states, “My time is at hand.” This sets the clock to moving as we see the culmination of the mission coming to the end.

As I read through the passages for today, I see a pattern of a detailed oriented obedience that is prevalent. From Aaron and his sons, to Jesus following the prophecies that were given thousands of years before his birth we see details being maximized. I can remember going through basic training in the Air Force and the main focus was attention to detail. During the actual basic training it made no sense why the focus was so important. But once I got to my permanent duty station I figured out quickly why attention to detail was so important-people lives were at stake. This rings out through the scriptures of today that Christ had to fulfill everything that was written because people lives were at stake.

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I want to be honest, Leviticus is not the most exciting book to read. Historically many pastors have strayed from teaching its contents and when they do they teach it as moral case studies. Unless we view the Scriptures as Christian Scripture we too will fall into this category of ignoring one the many books of our “bible”. I want to attempt to help you see this a bit clearer with today’s reading.

Put yourself in the shoe of a Hebrew. You have been delivered from the slavery that has oppressed you your entire life, you have seen plagues utterly abase the greatest kingdom ever, you have seen the mighty Pharaoh (a god in and of himself) humbled, broken and eventually drowned in the same waters that were miraculously parted and then released on the greatest military around. Later this God that Moses has talked about you have heard, you have seen Him come down in a cloud, feed you from the sky,  give you water from a rock and graciously enter into a relationship with you by the way of a covenant.

Now, you will begin to understand just how Holy this God. He is terrifying, all powerful, all knowing but in spite of all of this He is full of grace. However this grace is not free, something (and later someone) has to pay for God not to utterly obliterate you and that is where I want to pick up.

Death is forever before the Hebrew. As you read through Leviticus I want you to keep the concept of DEATH before your eyes, it is the scarlet thread so to say of our biblical narrative and will unfold beautifully in the person and work of Christ.  So go back a few thousands years.  I want you to see the knife slit the throat of the lamb, bull, goat and ram,  I want you to see the blood trickle down their neck as they scream and kick. I want you to hear the squealing, see the priest wrestle with the animal. I want you see the pools and pools of blood. Now I want you to smell these animals. I want you to smell the blood. Look at the heart, look at the liver, look at the kidneys, look at all that blood. Look at the blood on Aaron’s ear, his clothes are saturated in blood, he stinks. The smell is nauseating, it is disgusting to see the animal, with all of its skin, eyes, ears and teeth, being cut up. Now I want you to see the fire that is kindling, I want you to see the priest THROW all of this stuff into the fire, I want you to see the remainder of some of these animals, thrown outside of the camp, look at the dung smell it, touch it, let the scent soak into your skin.

Now, see a HOLY GOD only blinking at your sin, because tomorrow it is going to happen again, and the next day, and the next year, year after year, day after day, the smell, the death, the sacrifice is perpetuated. And day after day, sin is before God and He graciously accepts this sacrifice but only temporarily. These scents, these deaths, these innocent animals, are a PLEASING sacrifice to the Father. Because HE HATES SIN! And He WILL NOT be approached, talked with, bargained with until His wrath and hate for sin has been propitiated!

Now after all of that, think of His Son Jesus Christ, who was also innocent who bore the wrath of His Father, agonizing in the garden, beat, mocked and spit on and nailed to a cross. And much like the sacrifice of these animals just became another thing, they got used to the scent. Many today are used to the story of our Lord, they come Easter after Easter, Christmas after Christmas, they drive pass church after church, they hear the stories, hear the songs, they know all about this and guess what? They too have grown cold!  But not only them those who have experienced this grace are bored with the story of Jesus. We say “I get it He died on the cross, I got it already, can’t we move on”. But our actions show we haven’t got it. We see the obedience of the Lamb and yet don’t follow in His footsteps. Yes we need to hear more of this Jesus. Our reading in Matthew deals with this. Much like God judged the Hebrews for their passivity, Jesus will judge others for theirs! Lets not take Leviticus too lightly my friends.

Atonement, Propitiation, Sacrfice, Wrath

In our OT reading God is still talking to Moses regarding offerings. He explains to Moses the sin offering, He gives Moses some scenarios in which some one will need a sin offering. God explains the details of the burnt offering, the grain offering and what the priests or to do for each. He explains what part they shall eat, if any. He explains what the priest shall wear and where the offerings shall be burnt. I must say that reading these different offerings and the detail involved in each of them makes me so grateful for the work that Christ did for us on the cross. The writer of Hebrews says: Heb. 10:10 “By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.”

In the NT reading Jesus teaches the parable of the talents. He gives an example of three servants or slaves, one is given five talents, one is given two, and the other is given one talent. Two of the servants put their talents two work and doubled their share, for which they were rewarded. The other guy did nothing with his and when the master came back said he did nothing because he knew the master was a mean guy and basically calls him a thief. The master says if you knew this stuff about me then why didn’t you  at least deposit the money so I can get interest. In this parable the servant with one talent didn’t know the master (Christ). We don’t know where he got his ideas of who the master was; but we do know that those of us who know the master know He is the exact opposite of what this guy described. When we don’t know Him we don’t bear any fruit. When we don’t know Him we are useless to the Father. The bible calls this guy a worthless servant or a good-for-nothing slave and says he will be cast into outer darkness.

Because of Christ’s work on the cross  we can experience the love of the Father, and be thankful to the Father that we who were all at some point in our lives very similar to the guy in this parable (one talent guy) have received the grace of the Father so that we can truly know who the Father is.

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In today’s OT reading  God is speaking to Moses on how he should instruct their sacrifices to Him. He explains to Moses the things the offerer must do as well as the things the offerer can’t do and the priest must. In these first three chapters of Leviticus God give Moses the detailed in structionon the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fellowship offering.

That brings us to our NT reading for today. Jesus is speaking about the end times and His coming back. Jesus explains that no one knows when these events will take place but assures us that they will. Jesus said: (Matt. 24:42) “Therefore be alert, since you don’t know what day you Lord is coming. He follows by saying: (Matt. 24: 43-44)  “But know this: If the home owner had know what time the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and not let his house be broken into. This is why you must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”(emphasis added)

I really don’t beleive I can say this or explain this better that the Lord has already done, so let us just meditate on the words of our Lord.

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In our OT reading, Israel is putting the finishing touches on the priestly garments and Moses erects the Tabernacle.

In our NT reading, Jesus is prophesying  that that which has been built will be destroyed, and he tells of the signs of the coming end of age. I do know that the temple was destroyed in 70AD. I have not studied this topic in depth at any point in my life, so I don’t really have much to say about it.

Tell me what you know…

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The extreme detail and exquisite design of the tabernacle and everything that went in it is something to marvel. They used the very best materials (gold, bronze, silver, acacia wood, and the best essential oils known to man) to create a place of worship for the Lord God. But as I read today’s OT reading, I couldn’t help but think, “All of the splendor and majesty of the tabernacle was still not good enough for true worship. Christ still had to come. In fact, He was already slain and waiting for the Father to dispatch Him at the time when they were actually building the tabernacle!” We must keep this in mind as we are sifting through the Scriptures this year in order to understand the depth and severity of the Messiah and His redemptive work.

Speaking of redemptive work…

In our NT reading, we are in the middle of Passion Week. Christ is coming closer and closer to death, but before He dies He has to set the Pharisees straight once and for all. Now, let me pause right here to say this: The Pharisees were NOT “bad” men! In most teachings they are depicted as some rebellious God-hating sinners when in fact these guys were morally upright. They kept all the laws, were well-versed in the Scriptures, kept all the holy holidays, and were keepers of the temple ordinances. These were nice men with good intentions, but as the saying goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” and that’s exactly what Jesus was saying.

Jesus repeatedly calls them hypocrites because all the good that they were doing outwardly didn’t amount to a hill of beans because their hearts had not been transformed. They knew the Scriptures—they TAUGHT the Scriptures—yet they did not know the One to whom the Scriptures were about. He accuses them of being clean on the outside but dirty on the inside. He tells them that their proselytizing is worthless and that they make it harder—if not impossible—to enter the Kingdom.

Whoa, Jesus! What are you trying to teach us here?

The implication of the word hypocrite has everything to do with the condition of the heart. You can know the Word, teach the Word, be the first one in the church and the last one out, pass out tracts and evangelize on the street corners, pay your tithe, fellowship with the brethren, and do all the things that make you look righteous on the outside…But if your heart has not been transformed by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you do not understand that worshiping God is not restricted to a majestic place or merely something that we do but that it starts with a transformation of the heart, you are a hypocrite and no good will come from you. And on that Day, He will say, “Depart from me. I NEVER knew you…”

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