October 29th

Leviticus 4:1-5:13, Mark 10:13-31, Psalm 27:7-14

Leviticus today has a clear example of the difference that Jesus makes. Having said that it was going to be heard I didn’t quite expect so much about unintentional sin and the fact that there would be a vast list of offerings that would need to be made.

At this point you could forgive the Israelite community for feeling a bit despondent. They had been given a set of rules that were all about being in community and being right with God, just the 10 rules with a couple of additions here and there, no big problem. They had just spent a long time building the tabernacle and feeling in a good place with God and then we start with all of this lot.

And that is where Jesus comes in. We don’t need to teach about which offering you need to make for what and what you are going to do with the various parts of the animal because our altar was the cross and our sacrificial lamb was Jesus. This old covenant has been fulfilled.

Jesus said in one of our earlier passages (Matthew 15:11) that it is not what goes into a man that makes him unclean but what comes out (links with Lev 5:2 about all the unclean stuff). And today he talks about the rich man. Now this is not about the fact that he was a bit of a Wayne Rooney but more a challenge as to what was in his heart and where his priorities lie. There is a direct link back to the 10 Commandments, but Jesus takes him one step further. “Where are you priorities, with God or with money?” “Sell all you have”.

Even the Palmist believes in a certain amount of grace. He clearly feels as though he has done something wrong and the Lord might be angry but he knows the nature of the loving God and asks for mercy. If we are to be right with God and right with other people then there are a certain amount of rules that we need to keep to, common sense really. But what Jesus is really asking us for is to put Him first, above money and all other things and come like little children.