Bible Text: Leviticus 19:9-18, Matthew 5:38-48 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
As one commentary put it, the book of “Leviticus is a minefield full of topics that nobody wants to talk about in church.” If you have ever attempted to read the entire book you know that often either the laws are so monotonous that you can’t get through them without deep motivation, or they are so ridiculous that they are completely out of date or out of touch with reality. So many of us break many of the laws in Leviticus without even realizing it. This made me think of some of our own laws, and I discovered that there are some pretty interesting laws around this country. For example, one federal law states that vendors can say no to any purchase made over $5 using only nickels or any purchase made over $25 with only loonies. Just in case you were saving up for something big in your piggy bank. It is also an offence to make, print, publish, distribute, sell or have in possession for the purpose of publication, distribution or circulation….a crime comic, as in a comic book that deals with a crime series. So anyone collecting Spider-Man, Superman, or Wonder Woman comics and planning on selling them at some point better have a good hiding place. It is also illegal to scare the queen- but I get the impression she’s a pretty tough woman and would be hard to scare. In Toronto, it’s illegal to swear in a public park. I’ve been to parks in Toronto…and there are a lot of people breaking that law. In Windsor, it’s illegal to play an instrument in a park. Speaking of instruments, in Petrolia, Ontario, “Yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling or singing in public places is prohibited at all times.” I get the yelling or shouting…but who knew that whistling and singing could cause such a disturbance. Basically, having fun is illegal in Petrolia. Based on some of those laws, I can say with confidence that I have broken the law once or twice. In fact, I spent a week one summer in Petrolia, and I know we sang our VBS songs outside and I have indeed been in possession of a Superman comic, which I sold at a garage sale. The situation gets a little more concerning when we look at many of the laws in the Book of Leviticus. I enjoy my shellfish, my hamburger with cheese, and I’m pretty sure that even this morning I am wearing a blend of fabrics, all of which are forbidden in the Book of Leviticus.
Yet, before we write off the Book of Leviticus altogether, we come across these clear, succinct, compassionate laws as read this morning. We also have to understand the context from which the book comes. As I mentioned this book was for both the priests and the people but it gains its name from the Levites, the ones charged with looking after the spiritual well-being of the people. As late prominent Jewish scholar Jacob Milgrom once said regarding the law, “Israel attains it and priests sustain it.” The first 10 chapters are laws regarding worship and ritual. They particularly touch upon sacrifices and include such laws as, “When anyone presents a grain offering to the Lord, the offering shall be of choice flour; the worshipper shall pour oil and frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests (Lev. 2:1)”. Then in the following 5 chapters, Leviticus 11-16, is the section that is most likely going to make us blush as it deals with human bodies and sexuality and cleanliness. It deals with everything from childbirth to symptoms of leprosy, as well as what to eat and when. Then the remaining ten chapters, 17-27, are called the “Holiness Code” and they deal with not only what the priests should do, but what all people should do to remain set apart.
We have to remember that these laws were established to set the Israelites apart from the Canaanites, whose land they were not only entering but conquering. These laws make sure that they do not participate in any of the cultic, morally ambiguous, or different behaviours of the Canaanite people. While some of these laws seem outdated and strange to us, they were written to help establish who the Israelite people were and, sometimes more importantly, who they were not. The level of holiness was not only something for the temple on the Sabbath but also something that separated them from the other people in the land.
The passage we heard this morning is all about this holiness but it is not about the behaviour within the temple but rather within the land. For the Israelite community the land tied them to God, and so it is no surprise that there are laws regarding the land and its people in Leviticus. To be holy was to have a mark of distinction as God’s people, and this mark went beyond rituals. It seeped into ethical behaviour as well. Like most of our federal, provincial and local laws, these ones make sense and for the majority of us are somewhat easy to maintain. “Don’t steal, don’t swear falsely using God’s name, don’t exploit or rob a friend, don’t put a stumbling block in front of the blind.” But then they get a lot more complicated. “Don’t spread gossip or rumours. Don’t stand by when your neighbour’s life is in danger. Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people. Love your neighbour as yourself.” The book of Leviticus not only deals with unclean bodies but unclean behaviour and sometimes the rules about behaviour are the hardest rules to adhere to. The book of Leviticus is at the heart of defining who the Israelites and early Jews were, and therefore are at the heart of who Jesus was.
It doesn’t get any easier when Jesus turns around and uses these laws from Leviticus in his sermon on the mount. He even takes it further and says forget trying to be set apart from other people, try being set apart like God! If we were to consider the Sermon on the Mount, (which isn’t actually over, but which our reading of it is, as we celebrate the last Sunday in Epiphany this morning,) if we consider the sermon in parts, it began with Jesus bestowing knowledge, telling the people what to expect. Then Jesus gave instructions to the disciples on what to do about it and then on how to act. Now Jesus tells them what it is to be disciples to the world. In the context of our Leviticus passage we are now able to understand a little of what Jesus meant when he said he came to fulfil the law, not abolish it. For Jesus builds upon the holiness code and takes it a little further. Jesus implies that not only are we to care for the poor and the alien, but we are to love our enemies. Not only are we not supposed to hold on to grudges, but we are to let those who want to sue us to take us for everything we’ve got. Not only are we to love our neighbour as ourselves but to be perfect as God is perfect. You know what, I love these rules; I think they are good rules, but I have broken those rules time and time again. I have definitely not prayed for my enemy. I have definitely fought back if accused of something. I am not perfect. But while there are some rules in Leviticus that no longer seem to apply to our daily life, these laws spoken by Jesus are timeless. Jesus is not only speaking to his disciples of the 1st century, but the church of the 21st century.
In a couple of weeks we head into the season of Lent, a time of reflection based on our mortality and mistakes. Perhaps this is a great passage to help us launch into lent. Jesus was given the awful responsibility of truly practising what he preached. He was arrested, crucified and killed by people that were clearly his enemies. But what about what his friends did, as they betrayed, abandoned, denied, and doubted him. Karoline Lewis reminds me, “Love your enemies is an important message going into Lent, when those you hoped would walk alongside you end up abandoning you. Our enemies are not always those we deem our opposites, our detractors, our challengers or resisters. Our enemies are all too often those whom we do indeed love.” Nobody is perfect, not even the disciples. However, just as we humans tend to seek for truth, so too should we seek perfection. Because, in a perfect world we wouldn’t have the need for outdated rules, and we wouldn’t have enemies, only friends. Amen