We Serve the God of the LIving

Christianity is about life. That's one thing the scriptures make patently clear. God brings life, God raise to life, Christ defeats death, Christ is the light of life. Christ has come that we may have abundant life.

"Let the dead bury their dead" Jesus says. Our mission is a mission of life. It is in this perspective that we turn to Leviticus 21. This can be a confusing chapter. God gives words of instructions through Moses to His priests. Here's what He says:

Leviticus 21:1–4 (ESV) And the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, No one shall make himself unclean for the dead among his people, 2 except for his closest relatives, his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, his brother, 3 or his virgin sister (who is near to him because she has had no husband; for her he may make himself unclean). 4 He shall not make himself unclean as a husband among his people and so profane himself.

There will be no going to funerals for any priests unless it is an immediate relative. Why? Because the priests are to be agents of life for people, not death. Their job in the temple is consumed with the death of sacrifices so that people may continue to live. They were to have an atmosphere of life for people as much as possible. I imagine that in the wilderness years and even in the Promised land in ancient times, death and funerals were far more common than they are today for us. There was not civilized medicine or vaccines. Death and funerals abounded. Priests were to avoid them. 

I also imagine this stipulation was for the sake of the worshipers - the non-priests. The image of a priest who ministered where God dwelt was to represent what God brought to humanity. Had they shown up at all the funerals this image could have been marred.  

What does this mean for us? The New Testament people are a royal priesthood of believers. We represent what God is like to the world. We are about the business of life, not death! Christ took our death so that we might gain His life. Sadly today, many Churches seem like funerals rather than resurrections. We wonder why no one wants to come. Funerals are depressing. Life is sad enough without the church making it worse. 

The instruction for today's priest (every Christ follower) is to attend to the business of LIFE and RESURRECTION. We are not here to represent death. We are here to show the world, there is LIFE in Christ alone! 

Secondly, they were to be sexually pure in their marriage partnership:

Leviticus 21:7–8 (ESV) They shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled, neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. 8 You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy.

Sexual purity was to be the standard of God's priests. They were to bear the image of a pure union. In this way they would represent God's original intent for marriage - one man and one woman in purity and holiness for each other alone. 

The Church today must sanctify herself sexually. This is our mandate for the world. The world must see in our sexuality what God intends and also what God has covenanted for us, His people - the holy and undefiled union of Christ and His bride. 

What's interesting about this passage is that Christ takes on what God calls His priests to avoid. Christ suffers death while becoming sin (impurity) for us! Because of His substitutionary death, bearing our sin and shame, we can have what He had - the life and purity of God in our hearts. 

Amen.