DAY 51

EXCLAMATION POINT!

Leviticus 26 & 27 and Mark 2

After yesterday’s Jubilee you might think this an awkward ending to Leviticus. At first blush you might be right and some scholars have even called it a post-script. Consider:

Leviticus 26 is not to retell the rules, instead it introduces consequences. This is the first place that God spells out in some detail the blessings and/or curses that will flow from the behavior of Israel. Many people have trouble with the curses, as if God is somehow withholding Himself from the people. Yet Israel is not losing their place as God’s people, the chapter makes this clear. In verse 40 God again declares that He accepts those who are repentant, in verse 42 he proclaims his faithfulness to the covenant, and in verse 44 he says he will not “spurn them”. God is faithful. Chapter 26 is less a post-script and more and exclamation point!

Leviticus 27 similarly may seem out of place, but think about it for a moment: when do people (you and me) make promises to God? Picture this, “Oh God, if you deliver me from this mess, then I promise…” How about this, “Dear God, if you would just this once do this, then I promise…” Then of course there is, after reading God’s Law this, “We promise to keep all your laws”. In some ways chapter 27 is a logical conclusion.

While chapter 27 is not full of exclamation points, I imagine now that you’ve finished reading Leviticus you will want to put an exclamation point on getting through it!

Mark 2 is rich with exclamation points. The healing of a paralytic, the calling of Levi, the identification of his time on earth as one of a feast and not a fast, and the claim of being Lord of the Sabbath – each in the their own right a high point!

I want to focus on one of these; the call of Levi.

Similar to the other disciples Jesus calls, there is this immediate response. Many people when they read these sections of the Bible think, “This doesn’t make sense, why would a person drop everything to follow Jesus?” There is a logical, and I think powerful, explanation.

The Jewish school system would have all the boys and girls go to primary school and memorize the first five books of the Torah (so far you have read three). The best students would then go to secondary school and memorize the rest of the Hebrew Bible. The best of those students would be interviewed by Rabbi’s to be their disciples. If chosen, the Rabbi would essentially be saying, “I think you can be like me”.

Imagine you’ve made it through secondary school, you’ve memorized large, in fact entire books of the Bible. Rabbi after Rabbi has come by, but no invitation. Or worse imagine you didn’t make it through secondary school. Either way you find yourself doing a most detestable thing to earn a living. You are collecting money from your own people to give to their (and your) oppressors. And “by the way”, they don’t pay you, you earn your living by the “extra taxes” you can figure out how to collect. You are pretty much at the bottom of your society, and you know it.

Then one day a remarkable Rabbi comes by; one that has been doing amazing things, one that there is news about through all the region. And that one comes and says, “I think you can be like me!” Might you drop everything and follow him!

The same is true for each of us. I am not commenting on where you find yourself in the socio-economic ladder of life, but rather what Jesus says to each of us. He says, “I think you can be like me, come follow me!”