We all live with ideals of perfection, even if we aren’t perfectionists. We all have ideals which, if we are honest, we rarely live up to, or, at times, don’t even come close in attaining. The plague of perfection is that we constantly strive, attaining a new level, a better position, a new station in life only to find ourselves longing for the next level, the next promotion, the next house, the next station in life. While our dreams may motivate us to push on, when we take stock of our lives, our dreams may only tease us with the unfulfilled expectations. But while perfection is a plague pointing out our foibles, there is also a great advantage to the forced frustration you feel as you constantly fail to live up to what you desire, or even more, what you know is right. This is most beneficial not in the mundane area of yards or personal aspirations, but in the real struggle we all face as we recognize we are not as good as we would like others to think, and what is worse, we are not as perfect as God demands. The benefit comes in when we see ourselves for what we are in the mirror of God’s perfect Law; we also then hear the offer of the good news that God provides a means of forgiveness and grace. That is what we see in Leviticus 11. In Leviticus 1-9 we see how God provides atonement. He initiates a relationship with us by offering us grace, by willingly providing for us a means by which we can associate with Him. But as God sets out the means by which we may relate to Him, He then demonstrates how serious He is that we come to Him on His terms. In Leviticus 10 God makes it clear that we come to Him only in His prescribed manner. In order to propel us toward his grace, God now instructs Moses and Aaron on laws regarding their diet. By so affecting their diet, God intimately involves Himself in their lives. He makes the simple act of making dinner a lesson in sin and grace, the law and gospel. These dietary laws which seem so odd to us, which some Jewish sects still follow, are sign posts to remind Israel of the important truth: we live in a fallen world. God demands a perfection we can never attain. The only hope then is from God’s initiative. PERFECTION IS THE GOAL OF LIFE The theme of Leviticus is played out again and again in each chapter as the crucial call to holiness is resounded. The reason for the food laws that we are looking at this morning is based in holiness. "For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth." Holiness is separation, being set apart. But more. The word also means completeness and wholeness. Often we see holiness as the super standard, going above and beyond normal duty. For schmucks like us, we’ve got to lower the bar a bit. But holiness is normalcy, it is the way life should be, but is not. When our culture thinks of holiness the image is that of a Mother Theresa, that self-sacrifice is the means to wholeness. Others elevate those who’ve suffered tragedy to sainthood as with the sorrowful sudden death of Princess Diana. But holiness is not measured by a transcendental halo nor a public sentiment of approval. Holiness is encompassed in all aspects of life, an internal and external integrity, simply put, perfection in all aspects of life. Holiness is the weed free lawn, the buffed body, and above all, complete and absolute moral impeccability. Holiness deals with standards. We all have standards. In the wake of Diana’s death as the lawyers try to sort out who is responsible, the public outcry is primarily directed at the Paparazzi as the agents of death. I had to laugh when I read that supermarkets were taking the high road in pulling from their shelves offensive tabloids with stories published before her death, but point to the never ending pressure put on Diana. I find it a strange standard that supermarkets and even some of the tabloids are now talking morality at this juncture, but it all goes to show, we all have our standards at some point. God’s standards are communicated in this passage in a way foreign to us. Reaction? Odd? These laws fascinated and perplexed generations of biblical scholars. We can see that the animals are grouped into three categories: land, sea and air. Hard to know why clearly, since many of the English translations are guess. Of the birds and reptiles only about 40% can we know with accuracy. Division based on two factors: Locomotion - split hoofs, fins, flies. Solid hoof like a horse is excluded as are animals with a paw, like a cat; digestion - chews the cud, not a bottom feeder, not a bird of prey Chews the cud: Ruminates are animals having a series of stomachs so that they chew, swallow, bring back up, chew some more and send the food to the next stomach. This rules out the pig, whom, it should not surprise you, eats like a pig. The edible animals can not be carnivorous. But why these laws? Arbitrary? Rationale known only to God, revealed as a test of obedience? Divine “Because I told you so”? Such a view may constitute good theology, but it is not likely to satisfy those of us who believe that it is our responsibility and privilege to use the minds God has given us to understand and apply the revelation given to us. There is a cultic explanation. Those animals forbidden were used in pagan worship or associated with particular non-Israelite deities. As a mark of fidelity to the covenant Israel must shun these animals entirely. Pigs were probably sacrificial animals in pre-Israelite times But this explains too little of the evidence to be of real use. Clean animals were sacrificed by pagans. The bull was used by many, especially the Egyptians and Canaanites, but allowed in Israel. There is the hygienic theory. This seems very practical to us today as we read time and again of bacterial poisoning from E Coli, as Hudson Foods recalled tons of hamburger and shut down Burger King for a week. We oyster and shrimp lovers have been warned about he dangers of such epicurean delights because of increasing pollution in our coastal waters. Unclean animals carried diseases. Clean ones are relatively safe to eat, but pork carries trichinosis, rabbits carry tularemia. Fish that are bottom feeders carry bacteria as do birds of prey. This theory is attractive in the 20th Century as we know about bacteria and are obsessed with health care and medical science. God may have given rules that contributed to the health of nation. These laws protected Israel from bad diet, dangerous vermin, and communicable diseases. Only in very recent days have better laws of health been possible with the advance of medicine. But hygiene accounts for only some prohibitions. Some clean animals are more questionable on hygienic grounds than some of the unclean. Trichinosis is rare in free range pigs. The passage does not hint that health is a concern; motive clauses are typical in the Old Testament, but not here. The issue is holiness, not health. If health, then why no warnings about poisonous plants? Why did Christ pronounce them clean by the 1st century AD? There's the Symbolic view. This view sees the dietary regulations as neither arbitrary nor for their personal health, but constructed to teach them an important truth. What could and could not be eaten reinforced the constant call to holiness, that God demanded perfection. This way of viewing the divisions was common among the Jewish rabbis, early Christians as well as with the Puritans. But the applications were often superficial. We don’t eat pork for the same reason we instruct our children not to eat like a pig. We say a deep thinker is ruminating, chewing the cud. We eat beef which chews the cud to remind us to meditate on God’s Word. As the animals are divided into three groups, those animals which may be consumed are those which adhere to the prescribed means of locomotion and digestion which correlates to that creature. There is an over-arching order here. Edible foods are those which behave properly. Land animals should behave like land animals, fish like fish, birds like birds. Remember this is not a moral distinction. It is not that lobsters are morally inferior to perch, but that God constructed Israel’s diet to remind them of the need to so order their lives. Holiness was crucial and holiness meant living the way God intended for people to live. Why split hoof and chewing cud? We're not sure. But this did set up boundaries. Some could be consumed, others avoided. With sea creatures it is easier to see. If something lived in the ocean, it was to behave according to its environment. If it walked under water, it was confused. Birds should not be carnivorous nor scavengers. Insects can not have wings and walk. Digestion and locomotion must be consistent with the animal. This served to remind them that they are to be a holy nation. As they distinguished between clean and unclean foods, they were reminded that holiness was more than a matter of meat and drink but a way of life characterized by purity and integrity. These dietary laws became the mark of the Jews which separated them from the unclean Gentiles. PERFECTION IS THE GOAD OF LIFE What would these laws do? Every morning while their neighbors had bacon with their eggs, the Israelite would not; for lunch they skipped the ham sandwich, and at dinner they didn’t have lobster. Even when they ate, they were reminded that just as the food they ate had to behave according the order God established, how much more must they be obedient. As God provided the sacrifices for sin, the very basic ordeal of eating food reminded them that perfection was necessary. In that way, the food they ate was a goad, a prod, a necessary signpost pointing out that God is holy and demands His perfection from His people. What will they not do? The Jewish dietary laws were a lot like Janet and my dream house on Piney Grove Road in Columbia, South Carolina. As it looked, from our perspective, perfect, it only caused us to despair at our home. But it could not make our home look any better. It was an external reminder, which could not affect the necessary internal change fifteen miles away at our trailer. Jesus confronted this issue among the religious leaders of His day who thought that by an exacting obedience to God’s law, by looking to God and by being very moral, they could please God. In Mark 7, Jesus begins to dismantle the distinction between clean and unclean and end the dietary laws. After He called the crowd to Him again, He began saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." When he had left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." Mark 7:14-23 Notice how He ends the sign and goes to the ultimate issue: Uncleanness is not a matter of following the regulations, but knowing what those laws pointed out, that uncleanness is a heart issue not a hamburger issue; it is what is inside you and me, not what we put inside of us. This had been the intention of the dietary laws; they were designed to show us that while we may be eating clean food, while God demands perfection from us, we are filled with the most vile of substances and sins. The food laws were meant to point to the unattainable demands of God’s law, the demand for perfection. They were not designed as a measuring rod of one’s personal performance. Neither those laws, nor any of God’s moral law, is a means to an end. It is a teaching tool, a guide not to direct our life, but to point out why life doesn’t work well. Using the law, whether it be using the food laws in Leviticus 11 or the 10 Commandments to order your life that it will run more smoothly, is like when you have trouble with your car, you pull out the manual from the glove compartment, place it on your driveway and sit down, expecting it to propel you down the street. The only thing you’ll get is a dirty seat of your pants and the much deserved ridicule of your neighbors. The food laws were a means of separation from the Gentiles while the Church was in its infancy. After the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the regulations were completely done away, and in so doing, God taught a valuable lesson to the Church. In Acts 10 the Roman Centurion Cornelius is being drawn by God to a saving faith. If any would illustrate an unclean animal, it would be he. But for him to respond in faith to God’s work of grace in him, he had to hear the gospel. What Jew would ever go to his house? God gets a hold of Peter in an unusual way in Acts 10:9-20. We often miss the fact how critical these food laws were. To us they seem archaic and odd. We like our ham and Swiss on rye. I love shrimp, and oysters are wonderful. But in the first century the church almost came to blows over this issue as much as it did over whether or not the Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to be saved. Observance of these laws were the mark of a faithful Jew. When God lowered the sheet with the unclean animals on it, Peter's reaction must’ve been one of complete revulsion. The very idea was so ingrained in his thinking after more than 1000 years of Jewish tradition, he could not consider to do that, hence the repetition of three times. But by the removal the dietary laws, the object lesson was removed. The purpose was served not only to reinforce that understanding that we must conform to God’s standards, but do not, but also that those on the outside were now invited in. The Gentiles were seen as the pigs, the unclean animals and Peter is being told here that he must accept the Gentiles now to. PERFECTION IS THE GIFT OF LIFE If food laws reinforce the unattainable, then what? "For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy." Leviticus 11:44-45 God pronounces His initiative in the process. His Covenantal name is the basis. The name given to Moses at Sinai, the God who is never changing, the God who demands perfection, has chosen them to be His. Our relationship with God begins with His initiative. In that we can take a great comfort. You are here not on your own, but God by His grace has drawn you, has worked in you. That Lord who makes promises He will keep is called “your Lord.” On that basis, He says, “Be holy!” He first establishes the relationship then He commands us. God reiterates the same process in verse 45. The promise-keeping God is the one who has redeemed you. He has brought you up out of Egypt. This is the God who has sent His own Son to die on the cross, to redeem you. He has made atonement not just possible, but has completed it on your behalf. The food laws are gone, removed as Christ pronounced all foods clean, but what they pointed to is, apart from Christ, far from clean. We know God’s perfect standards all too well, standards we’ll never measure up to. But God has promised still to nourish and feed us. He does this through His Word and Sacraments. The Lord’s Supper provides the nourishment we need. God used the every-day diet of the Israelites to remind them that as God had taken them out of Egypt that they were to be holy as He is holy; so also God uses the simple common elements of bread and wine to remind us that God sent His one and only Son to die for our sins, to rescue us from the chains of slavery to sin and set us free to serve Him, thus empowering us to live the holy lives He demands by means of looking to Christ alone for our salvation. The house on Piney Grove Road probably still is there, but, unless they did improvements over the years, the paint would have faded, the yard overgrown. The perfect standard of that house, like my own, exists only in my mind. But God’s law remains; it endures and apart from Christ it condemns. But God in His grace extends the good news in that He not only demands perfection, He offers it in Christ. |
