Jesus is better
Luke 8:40-56
Numbers 5:1-4
Did you ever question the rules during the Covid Pandemic?
I know I am walking on controversial ground here, but hey…..
I questioned some rules!
Maybe it just my rebellious nature, but I think it is good that we question things- especially when it just doesn’t make any sense to us.
God gave us brains to think and question.
I questioned the rule of being able to sit down in a pub for a drink with your mates, but not being allowed to stand for a drink. How did they know that covid only transmitted to people who were standing?
I suppose it was trying to stop people moving around the pub and so if you had covid you wouldn’t pass it around as quickly, although if you are already sitting down with your mate in a pub, wouldn’t it just transmit anyway.
I questioned why in Victoria, you were not allowed to go for a game of golf with your mate and yet sex workers were allowed to continue to work. How did they know Covid transmitted more on a golf course than anywhere else?
I questioned why a daughter was not allowed to see her father’s dead body in the nursing home at Taree, because she had not been vaccinated. She wasn’t putting her dead father’s body at risk.
Thankfully, common sense prevailed and the daughter was able to say her last good byes.
I think we question things, because we rightly question the intent behind it.
I am sure the government were trying to protect us and save lives with the COVID rules and yet did some people use the Covid pandemic as a political tool to enhance their career? Possibly?
Did some people use the COVID pandemic to make some money?- Possibly.
Did some people use the COVID pandemic to gain control and power?- Possibly.
Today, as we come to this passage of Luke 8, I want you to first look at this passage from Numbers 5:1-4 and think with me, of why God would command his people to do these various things in the days of Noah, when God’s people lived in the dry, barren desert.
Why would God command these people to leave the camp?
Look at Numbers 5:2-3 with me:
Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous, or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean with contact with the dead. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp in the midst of which I dwell
It could seem harsh to our sensitive ears, - God commanded these people, and he didn’t discriminate between male or female, to leave the camp.
After Moses had led his people out of slavery from the Egyptians and brought them into the desert, God gave Moses a list of rules for the camp of Israel to follow.
Remember, God’s people at this time, where a large group of people in the desert. They were nomads, who set up camp, and set up the tabernacle where ever the pillar of cloud led them. God’s people where a bunch of people, who lived together, worshipped together and most importantly had God right in their midst as was symbolised by the pillar of cloud.
And so, if God’s people where not close to tabernacle, where not close to the pillar of cloud, where not close to one another, then they were very much on their own, in a big spacious, barren desert.
And so, when God commands Moses to separate certain people from the camp, it would have been a hugely troubling for all people, not only those being put outside the camp, but those inside the camp too.
Yet as hard as this was, we can also understand why God commanded these people to be separated from the camp.
The first person that was to be put out of camp, was a leper.
If the leper had remained in the camp, they were putting the whole camp at risk from also contracting leprosy and potentially dying.
The second person who was to be put out, was one who had a discharge of blood.
Again, anyone who had a discharge of blood was risking the lives of those in camp. The blood may have carried infections which could have spread quickly through out the camp.
The third person who was to be put out, was one who had been in contact with a dead body.
Again, after a person had been in touch with a dead body, they could have been carrying the disease that killed the person.
And so, for the sake of the whole camp, that person was put out of the camp.
And God in his mercy, did not just leave this people who had been cut off to rot in the desert, but he made a way for these people to return to camp, once they were sure they were no longer a threat. Once they were sure that they were not carrying a disease which could potentially kill the whole camp, they were allowed back in.
Normally, after a week, the priest would check on their health and through a number of rituals, the person would be declared clean and able to return to the camp, return to the people of God, where God dwelt.
Now, why did I start with looking at the commands for God’s people in the wilderness?
Why did I start with the commands to put out the leper, put out the one who had blood loss, or the one who had touched a dead body?
Well, you will notice that as we come to this passage in Luke, that when Jesus came into contact with a woman who had been suffering from a menstrual blood loss for 12 years, he didn’t separate himself from her. He didn’t tell this woman to shoe, but he embraced her touch.
When Jesus came into contact with a dead girls’ body, the daughter of Jairus, he didn’t separate himself from her. But instead he went towards her, he deliberately touched the dead girl’s body.
When Jesus came into contact with a Leper in Luke chapter 5, he didn’t separate himself from him. He deliberately touched him.
When all these people approached Jesus, Jesus didn’t run away from them, but he embraced them.
This is one of the amazing things about Jesus, God’s son- God in the flesh.
As these unclean people approached Jesus, people must have gasped with disbelief. There may have been shouts of “put your mask on Jesus!” “wash your hands” “keep at least 2m apart” “are you trying to kill us all- Jesus?” “Don’t you know the rules Jesus?” “You law breaker” “if you touch these guys- you too are unclean” “keep away”
As Jesus came into contact with these unclean people, he wasn’t worried about becoming unclean himself, he wasn’t worried of their potential diseases killing him, as any other human being would be, but instead, and this is the really awesome thing about Jesus, as these unclean people came into contact with Jesus, he made them clean, he healed them instantly.
The uncleanliness didn’t overcome Jesus, but Jesus overcame the uncleanliness.
The unclean didn’t make Jesus, unclean, but he made the unclean- clean.
Jesus did, what the priests couldn’t do, he did what the physicians couldn’t do, he did what we can’t do- He made them clean.
He healed them instantly- there was no 7-day wait, no ritual to perform, but instead as these unclean people reached out and touched Jesus, they became instantly well, they became instantly clean.
Jesus came to show that he was the one who was going to totally reverse the curse of sin, he was the one who was going to totally remove the consequences of sin, which is sickness and death, and ultimately separation from God.
Jesus showed as he came into contact with the sick and the dead, that we no longer have to ultimately fear sickness and death, or separation from God, because Jesus has power over them.
As Jesus lived on this earth, he showed us glimpses of what he will fully do one day, when there will be no more death or sickness, and we will be walking with God in our midst.
Now, with the background of the commands given to Moses in mind, I just want to mention a few points from this story of Jesus healing a sick woman and raising a dead girl back to life.
The first point is this- and it’s an obvious one.
Sin separates us from God and God’s people.
As the sick woman who had been suffering some menstrual bleeding for 12 years touched Jesus and as Jesus went into a dead girl’s house, the first thing the Jews must have thought was this……
Oh no, don’t let her touch you, don’t go to a dead person’s home, you too will become unclean, you too will be separated from God’s people, you too will not be able to go to the temple for worship. You too will be cut off from God’s people.
And yet Jesus turned that upon its head, because as Jesus let the woman touch her and raised the girl back to life, he made them clean, he made them well, he made them alive, he made them instantly able to join in worship with God’s people.
Friends, these illnesses, this physical death are just symptoms of the more serious illness that we all have – and that is sin.
You see, the scriptures tell us that sin not only separates us from God, but it separates us from God’s people.
And so just as leprosy, blood discharge and death separated God’s people from the camp, it also separated them from God, who was in the midst of the camp, ……It is sin that will separate us from God and his people in eternity.
It is sin, that separates people from God and his church now.
Since that is the essence of what church is now, it is God in the midst of his people now, by his Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul tells us that there are sometimes, when a person who is unwilling to repent of their sin, is better to be removed from the people for the sake of the church, but also for the sake of the person who is caught in the sin. Just like leprosy, that unrepentant sin, that boastful sin, can spread though out the whole church, causing the whole camp to sin.
In the apostle Paul’s day, it was a case of an incestuous relationship, which was not only tolerated but celebrated by the church.
Friends, unfortunately, we have perhaps often confused toleration with love.
Perhaps we think, we should tolerate things out of love, where sometimes, it is better to confront the sin, rather than tolerate it, not only for the sake of the church, but for the sake of the person caught in the sin.
If the church tolerates sin, it gives us all permission to sin, and as we know sin will separate us from God forever, if not dealt with.
Friends, Jesus did not tolerate our sin, but he confronted it and dealt with it.
Listen to what the writer of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 13:12-13
So, Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured
Jesus was rejected by his own, he was rejected by the religious leaders, he was considered an outsider by his own people.
But more than that, Jesus’ suffering outside the camp or the city gate, is a symbol for Jesus taking the consequences of our sin onto his shoulders. It symbolises that Jesus was like the leper who was separated from the camp, the person who bleed and was separated from the camp, the person who touched the dead body and was separated from the camp.
When Jesus died on the cross for the penalty of my sin, your sin, he experienced separation from his father. He experienced his father turn his face from him.
He experienced hell on earth and why?
So that we would never have to experience that.
And so, when we continue to struggle with sin, we don’t need to sit out of church for a week, we just need to bring it to Jesus and receive immediate forgiveness. We don’t just tolerate it and let it grow, but we ask for forgiveness and know that Jesus has dealt with the penalty for our sin- head on, as he was driven out the camp for us.
Friends the best thing about the camp in the desert, was that God was in their midst.
The best thing about heaven is that God will be with us.
The best thing about church is that God is with us.
Let us pray
Comments