27 TAZRIA (she conceives); Lev. 12:1-13:59, Luke 10&11

[Bruce Bertram]

Leviticus 12 is one of the shortest chapters in the Bible. It covers the need for a cleansing process after childbirth, and mentions the circumcision of the male child after eight days also. If a male child is born, the woman is unclean for seven days as during her flow, then an additional 33 days she is unclean. If a daughter is born, the time is 66 days. The offering after this time has passed is a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or turtledove for a sin offering (unless she can’t afford a lamb, then she brings two of the birds instead).

Moving on to chapter 13, there are extended instructions given concerning the dreaded disease of leprosy. The first 46 verses of the chapter concentrate on the leprosy of a person, while the last few describe the leprosy on a garment or leather item. A contagious or active mark of leprosy is white, has white hair, and is deeper than the surrounding tissue. A non-contagious mark, or a mark that is not leprosy, is not deeper than the surrounding tissue, may look white, but the hair has not turned white. To be sure of which was which, the person had to be isolated for a couple of seven day cycles and inspected by a priest after each seven-day period. If the mark or scab doesn’t spread, the person is clean. However, if it spreads, it is leprosy and the person is unclean.

An aggressive form of leprosy has a white swelling, white hair, and ‘quick raw flesh’ or red edges or areas. This is called chronic and is especially contagious or unclean. However, if the entire body is white, and there are no red areas, the person can be declared clean by the priest. Whenever the red appears the person shows himself to the priest to be declared unclean. Boils could develop into leprosy, and have to be watched closely for the white skin, white hair, and reddish indications (with maybe spreading) too. If there is doubt, isolation and inspection is repeated for a couple of weeks. Burns could develop leprosy also, and the inspection process is the same. Another place that leprosy could break out is infections in hair (of the head or face). Baldness can be a sign of leprosy, but only if the marks of the disease are present, otherwise baldness is just normal and clean. A leper has to dwell outside the camp and inform everyone of his or her uncleanness.

45“As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46“He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp. (Leviticus 13:45-46 NASB95)

Infections in a garment or leather item have to go through a similar inspection and isolation process, except that the mark was greenish or reddish and the solution is either to tear out the infected area or destroy the garment or leather item.

In Luke 10 Jesus assigns 70 disciples the task of going ahead of Him in pairs to towns that He is going to visit. This is on the heels of giving the 12 power to do what He is doing to heal and proclaim the gospel. They are to go out as lambs without money or extra shoes or a pack, and greet no one on the way. They are to stay at one house, and offer the blessing of peace. If a ‘man of peace’ is there the peace will stay. But if not, they are to go out into the town and shake the dust off their shoes. Jesus says it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Sodom or Tyre and Sidon than for those towns, and He names Bethsaida and Chorazin along with Capernaum as examples. The 70 return and report the joyful news of success in all of what they did according to His instructions.

After thanking God and encouraging the disciples, a man who was practiced in the Law asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asks him how he understands the Law. The man answers that he must ‘love God’ and ‘love his neighbor.’ Jesus says that is the way. But the lawyer can’t leave it at that because he wants to justify himself, so he asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Instead of answering directly, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, where a man is beaten and robbed, a priest and a Levite ignore the man in the roadway, but a Samaritan (a foreigner) takes him to an inn and pays for his recovery. Jesus asks the lawyer, “which one is the neighbor?” and the lawyer answers, “the one who showed mercy.” So Jesus says, “then go and do the same.” At the end of the chapter we hear of a visit by Jesus to a house kept by Martha, the busy one, and Mary, the one who just wanted to listen to Jesus. Martha complains that Mary should help her, but Jesus says Mary has chosen the better thing.

Luke chooses chapter 11 to relate the request by the disciples for Jesus to teach them how to pray. Jesus gives them the general form of prayer, which some have called the ‘Lord’s Prayer.’

2And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. 3‘Give us each day our daily bread. 4‘And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ” (Luke 11:2-4 NASB95)

The form of prayer is to thank and glorify God, ask for daily sustenance, and focuses on forgiveness. These seem to be the basic elements of normal prayer, rather than a formula. Jesus goes on to state that if people, being evil, know how to give good gifts to each other, how much more will the Father in heaven give good gifts to His children?

Starting in verse 14, Jesus is hassled by the religious leaders, starting with being accused of casting out demons by the authority of Beelzebul the ruler of demons, after He casts a demon out of a mute person. Jesus responds with a series of logical arguments to prove that He is operating by the power of God, so they will have to rethink their accusations. Jesus also says that they are looking for a sign, but only the sign of Jonah will be given to them. Going in to have dinner at a Pharisee’s house, the Pharisee is concerned because Jesus does not wash His hands in the ritual manner. Jesus points out that the Pharisees are very concerned with the outside of the cup and platter but inside is full of robbery and wickedness, so they should give ‘that which is within’ to charity then all things will be clean. The icing on the cake in this section for the religious leaders is a series of woes that Jesus pronounces on them for their unrighteous behavior. This includes disregarding the justice of God (tithing even small things but neglecting justice and the love of God), seeking prominence and accolades from men in public, weighing down people with rulings on God’s laws but not lifting a finger to help, killing prophets and apostles, and taking the key of knowledge while denying others entry into the Kingdom. From this time on, according to Luke, the religious leaders made plans to trap Jesus.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

What do you think of when you read this section? Do you wonder what the application is to ‘real life?’ How does the extended description of leprosy relate to what you have to go through on a daily basis? Can this possibly help? Maybe even, you think, what a waste of space?

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of reality here. Leprosy nowadays is called Hansen’s disease and affects only a very small number of people, and most of the time (at the moment anyway) can be cured. We do not know for sure what the biblical disease of leprosy was, or how it relates to the modern version. Hansen’s disease affects nerves so that pain is not felt, which may be why lesions or sores are not detected and treated by the individual affected. Leprosy is a form of corruption, sort of like decomposition while still alive, although it doesn’t generally rot the flesh as some think (although Aaron mentions that it is possible in Numbers 12:12).

This explains why a person who is ‘white with leprosy’ can be clean (Lev 13:12-17) because the active part of the disease is over. It seems like it can be brought on by anger (2 Chron. 26:19) or pride, as in the case of Miriam in Numbers 12, and can be genetic (2 Kings 5:27). There is a lot of misunderstanding about the disease, resulting in most afflicted people being outcast from society and shunned as ‘cursed by God.’ However, it doesn’t appear in this section that God abandons people to the disease, but provides for separation and cleansing regimens should the patient become clean.

Isolating a person who has leprosy (outside the camp, Lev. 13:46) is not only to keep other people from getting the disease, it is also to protect the leper, so he won’t die in his uncleanness (Lev. 15:31) because of the tabernacle and presence of the Lord in their midst. This is grace in action. Instead of condemnation and some sort of death penalty, God simply prescribes separation until the disease runs its course. Once the inflammation is gone (the redness), a person is ‘clean’ and can sacrifice again.

Since God takes a lot of time and effort here to help people learn to detect the onset of the disease, what does this tell us about Him?

For one thing, there is a training guide for detection, and for detecting the difference between everyday sores and leprosy. Perhaps this is so only the person with actual leprosy would be separated, while people with normal skin problems would not. Another idea is that if God cares this much about a skin disease, how much more must He really care about the presence of sin in His people’s lives? If the specifics of leprosy are any indication, then God must want us to be as diligent in searching out sin and taking care of it as the people were to search out indications of leprosy.

Why doesn’t God just wave a wand and heal lepers? Couldn’t He have come up with something like the water of purification (the red heifer solution) to make a healing? Jesus heals (note the usual term of ‘cleanse’) a number of lepers, so wasn’t this healing available at the time of Israel’s wanderings? It seems that it was, as in the case of Miriam, and later the case of Naaman the Syrian. Jesus gives us a clue as to why the cure was hardly ever sought.

25“But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27“And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. 30But passing through their midst, He went His way. (Luke 4:25-30 NASB95)

The two people He mentions in this passage are both gentiles or strangers, not native-born Israelites. The reason Jesus points out that only two gentiles experienced God’s intervention was that they exhibited faith in God at a time when hardly anyone in Israel had such faith. Faith (trusting obedience) is the key to healing. Not just belief, but doing what God instructs. Disobedience brings all sorts of disease and decay, while doing God’s Words bring life.

In Luke 11:15 we hear about the leaders of the Jews saying that Jesus is healing and casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, which is the same as saying that the works that only God can do are done instead by Satan. They had a choice (verse 20) to believe that Jesus was from God (doing only what God can do) or from the Deceiver, and chose to malign God by attributing the works of Jesus to the wrong spirit. This refusal to believe was at the core of most of Israel’s physical and spiritual woes, and the reason healing was not available. After all, if you don’t think the doctor can help, why listen to what he says? I believe that this is why today we are experiencing so many viruses and diseases like AIDS (and other STD's) Alzheimer's, arthritis, and so on. We don't listen to The Doctor (He is our physician, after all) so we suffer. If (like Naaman) one obeys, then healing flows.

Shalom

[Bruce Bertram]

Leviticus 12:1 - 13:59; 2 Kings 4:42 - 5:19; Luke 10 and 11; Mat. 8:1-4, 11:2-6; Mark 1:40-45, 7:18-23; Luke 2:22-24, 5:12-16

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:25–28, ESV)

Jesus is working His way to Jerusalem in chapter 10 of Luke. On the way He gets tested or challenged by a teacher of the Law. This guy asks Jesus for the path to eternal life. This is not because he doesn’t know the answer. As a teacher of the Law, he would know the standard answer to his own question. Lawyers even now are trained not to ask questions to which they don’t know the answers. I’m sure it was true at this time in history also. The lawyer was checking to see if Jesus knew the ‘correct’ answer.

Two other times in the gospels a similar question is asked of Jesus (Mark 10:17; Luke 18:18). Once Jesus tells the disciples (Matthew 19:29) that people will inherit eternal life if they have left houses or family for Him. It is not clear if the other questionings are by the same person or not, though the two accounts are similar to each other and to our Luke 10 passage. It doesn’t have to be the same guy. I think it would be a common question, mostly genuine but sometimes as a test like this instance. All three times Jesus points to the Law as the answer.

Jesus asks the lawyer in Luke 10 how he reads the Law, or how he would summarize it. A summary is based on what you see. A similar question in modern classrooms would be along the lines of, “What does this mean to you?” Jesus was returning the idea of a test by testing the lawyer. “Tell me,” Jesus asks, “What is the salient point of the Law? How would you characterize the Law? What do you see, what stands out to you? What do you think is the path to eternal life?” The lawyer responds with the correct answer. One gets the impression that the lawyer was even a little smug, judging from his next statement and his “desire to justify himself.”

“Who is my neighbor?” the lawyer asks.

Does he not know the answer? Or, in his desire to justify himself, has he already reasoned his way to who he thinks is a neighbor? Has he had long conversations with other scholars on the nature of a neighbor? Chances are pretty good that yes, indeed, he already has an idea of a neighbor. Religious leaders of the time had decided that Gentiles were dogs and did not associate with them (unless they were converting to Judaism). Samaritans ranked somewhere about the same as Gentiles, maybe just a little higher.

A Samaritan was a descendant of Jacob, just as the Jews. The reason they were considered second class citizens (or worse) was that they had departed from the true worship of God specified in the Law a long time before when the kingdom of Israel was split in two. The northern tribes were given to Jeroboam (1 Kings 11) a son of Nebat, an Ephraimite servant of Solomon (1 Kings 11). But instead of staying true to God as he should have, he started a different religion and worship pattern. The first thing Jeroboam did after the split was make two golden calves (1 Kings 12) and placed them at two spots (Bethel and Dan) so Israel would not go to Jerusalem (in Judah) to worship as they were supposed to. Samaria was a city on a hill in the northern territory of Israel, bought by King Omri and inhabited later by Ahab and Jezebel (1 Kings 16). Down through the centuries Samaria (and Samaritans) became synonymous with perversion and idolatry; though Judah was hardly the pristine virgin of worshiping God she claimed to be either.

So how do you read the answer to the question? Do you think Jesus was straight with this lawyer? He says that if you follow the Law, you will inherit eternal life. How could this be? Doesn’t the church (or many in the church) say that the Law doesn’t save?

Well, it depends on how you define the Law. If you look at it like a point game, where the more commands you do the more points you get, and the more points you get the more you deserve eternal life, that would be the wrong definition. If you have the idea that God is a hard taskmaster, reaping where He doesn’t sow, and following the Law is a burden, that’s not going to cut it either. The Law is not that difficult, and it’s not a process for self-justification.

The Law has to be defined as a whole. Love is the main ingredient. Love for God, and love for neighbors. Loving God and loving a neighbor as you love your self is the essence of the Law. All the laws relate to one or another of these concepts. The Law simply fills out the details of how to Love.

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:8–10, ESV)

The word ‘fulfill’ means to fill up full. The one who loves fills the Law full of goodness and connects it all together. The one who loves does not need to be told how to treat a neighbor, or who is a neighbor. The Law also answers a ton of questions, raised by people who don’t really want to follow it in the first place. The less love you have the more laws you need.

That doesn’t mean that the Law doesn’t exist or that we can’t follow the Law. Jesus says that if the Law is followed (meaning all of it in love) then it really will help you inherit eternal life. We just need to have all of the Law, or more specifically all of God. The Law is not made up of two different sections – rules and love. It is one whole. The rules are love and love has rules. If love is the main motive and filling, then the individual laws are just expressions of that love.

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. (James 2:8, ESV)

For instance, if you love God and love your neighbor you don’t covet what your neighbor has. God has given you what you need, and loving a neighbor would mean that you don’t take what God has given them. If you love God and your neighbor, you don’t take the law into your own hands and murder. You rest on Sabbath. You have a Passover meal, and avoid serving pork or shellfish. Love does not look at the entirety of what God commands, or even suggests, and sit in judgment on it, picking and choosing what is followed and what is merely shadow, unworthy of attention. Love isn’t nitpicky in its definition of neighbor, either.

Our buddy the self-justifying lawyer does not understand love, though he knew by rote the answer to the test. If he knew love he wouldn’t have needed the parable because he wouldn’t have asked the question concerning neighbor identification. Jesus uses the story of the law-abiding Samaritan to show that it’s the person who has compassion who truly understands the Law and will inherit eternal life.

I think sometimes we read too much into parables, and lose sight of the simple message. In this case the priest and the Levite would move away from the injured person most probably because they do not want to become unclean by touching what might be a dead guy (or at least bloody). The Samaritan is willing to become unclean in order to render aid. It was common behavior for religious leaders of that time (and any time really) to hold to part of the Law (the letter of unclean) and ignore the bulk of it (love and compassion for hurt and dying). We know this because of the number of clashes Jesus had with leaders over traditions that were not found in the Law such as proper washing of hands (Matthew 15:2; Mark 7:3), healing on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:10; Mark 3:2; Luke 6:7) and plucking grain for a meal (Luke 6:1). The leaders were skilled at setting aside the commandments of God for the sake of their own interpretations and tradition (Mark 7:9).

The Samaritan, though reviled by the Jewish establishment for following God in wrong ways (some of which was deserved – John 4:20), in this parable follows God perfectly. He fills the Law up full with compassion for a suffering man beaten half to death, robbed and dropped in the middle of the road. The Samaritan helps the poor guy in the way he would want to be helped if he had been beaten and left for dead. He gives money for care and food for his recovery, promising to cover any balance that might be outstanding after the victim healed. The Law abiding Samaritan was a neighbor, seen from the angle of “whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

It’s not one or the other, rules or love. It is both, working together to bring us to our inheritance.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. (John 15:9–10, ESV)

These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (John 15:17, ESV)

Shalom
Bruce