The
idea of the sacrifices that Israel’s given in Leviticus is not new to Israel. Sacrifices and
blood enter into the story of humanity right at the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel both bring sacrifices to
the Lord, Cain brings the fruit of the ground while Abel brings fat offering from
the first born of his flocks, offerings that involved the shedding of blood of
these animals. These echo ahead to the sacrifices laid out in Leviticus,
pointing ahead to the offering of Jesus’ blood for our sin; his death for our
lives.
Blood
becomes one of the symbols of life. In the sacrifices we see how the Lord
uses them to point out, and remind the Israelites of the seriousness of our
sin; that the cost of our sin is the shedding of the blood of innocent animals;
again, pointing ahead to Jesus, the one-person innocent of sin, and the
shedding of his blood for the guilty.
Over
time, people began to believe that our life force is found in our blood, as well as the
blood of animals. As this belief grew more common, people began to develop
rituals to take the life force of animals or their enemies for themselves, to
make themselves more powerful. These rituals often involved eating or drinking
the blood of enemies or strong animals. God now steps in and gives his people
laws to prevent the unnecessary shedding of blood, whether animal or human,
revealing how God honours all life, and that all life comes from and belongs to
God. This is why Israel was to drain the blood of an animal they had
slaughtered and pour the blood out onto the earth and cover it.
This
is also reflected in how the people are to bring their sacrifices to the Lord. All those who
sacrifice an animal on their own without bringing it to the priests to be
approved, are to be considered guilty of bloodshed and cut off from the rest of
the people. Blood sacrifices, because they involve the taking of the life of a
creature, need to be treated respectfully, acknowledging that the life belongs to
God and is not to be taken by their own hands for their own sin offences before
God. Only the Lord’s representatives, the priests, are given this important
responsibility. In the sacrifices, we see how they point
to the seriousness of our sin, that the cost of our sin is life through the
shedding of the blood of the animals.
Sin’s
not to be treated lightly. The sacrifices are a temporary solution to allow the
people to come close to God, but in the end, God requires a perfect sacrifice,
a first-born without blemish, holy, set apart completely for God, perfect as
God is perfect. Jesus tells us in Matthew
5:48, “Be perfect, therefore,
as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus is the only person who is
perfect because he’s also completely God. Because he values our lives so
deeply, he sacrifices his own life for ours, so that we can be with God into
eternity. God sends Jesus to pay the price for our
sin through the shedding of his own blood on our behalf so that we’re washed
clean from our sin and made holy in the eyes of God. I appreciate the
imagery Scripture gives us of what is accomplished in Jesus’ sacrifice, that when our sins are washed away through Jesus’ blood, as Isaiah 1:18 tells
us we’ll be “white as snow,” a visible
contrast to the scarlet red of blood. The blood of the sacrifices, and later of Jesus,
becomes the way of reconciling God’s people to himself, becomes the way of
atonement for our sins.
Because
life is a gift from God, and all life belongs to him as the giver of life,
God gives Israel some powerful warnings to respect life, “‘I will set my face
against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and
I will cut them off from the people. For the life of a creature is in the
blood…. it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life…. That is why I
have said to the Israelites, “You must not eat the blood of any creature,
because the life of every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut
off.” This respect for the life of all creatures reminds us that our
first task in the Garden of Eden is to care for creation as God’s stewards.
So,
what does this have to do with today since we no longer do sacrifices? Creation care is
still important; we’re still stewards of creation. How we live in and with
creation is rooted in our relationship with God. Living in a part of the
country that is heavily agricultural, this is probably understood a little better
as caring for life-stock and ensuring the land is healthy for producing crops
is part of our DNA.
Yet
there’s more here in this passage. Life is a gift, from conception to death. If the life of an
animal is treated with such respect by God, how much greater the respect for
the lives of those created in the image of God. How do we live this out in our
lives and relationships, within our communities? A couple of the issues in our
time are abortion and medically assisted dying. Abortion, the respect for the
lives of our youngest and most vulnerable has been part of our Christian
identity since the time of Rome. In ancient Rome, the practice of infanticide
by exposure was common. Families, often constrained by poverty or social customs,
would abandon unwanted babies to die from starvation or wild animals. These
babies were sometimes left on trash heaps, city walls, or in remote areas. Early
Christians, believing that all humans are made in the image of God, stood
against infanticide and abortion. Christians would rescue abandoned infants and
raise them as their own. These acts of compassion provided a powerful image of
the Gospel at work in everyday life.
People
noticed that Christians showed love for those society had rejected. Over time, this brought
cultural change. By the fourth century, Christian emperors outlawed infanticide.
It’s not just enough to say we're against these
things, we need to live out sanctity of life by walking along woman who are
considering abortion, surrounding them with support. Being pro-life is not just
about the birth of the child, it’s providing a community of support and
encouragement to help her and her raise the child to maturity, being involved
in their lives through the good and bad times. It’s easy to say we’re against
abortion, but it takes Christ-like commitment to life to ensure all children
are raised with all that they need to grow into healthy adults.
MAID
is another huge issue today. When it comes to medically
assisted dying, we need to look harder at palliative care and providing
comfort and care for those approaching death. Life is a gift, but it can also
sometimes feel like a painful weight. Today, people are taking their own lives
in order to not be a burden on their families; there’s a call here to walk with
the person considering death, and with their family, addressing the big
picture, not just the dying. Lewis Smedes tells of a woman named Grace who took
her own life because she had developed MS and was completely dependent on her
husband who was also busy with caring for their 5 children. She did this to
help her family, but was it effective? Smedes asks some hard questions: “Did
she in the long run really make life better for her husband and children? Who
can tell how much good they lost from life when they lost the burden of caring
for someone they loved?”
“Canada is now noted as the fastest growing
assisted dying program in the world,” a University
of Alberta research team wrote. At the end of 2014, 76,475 MAID deaths have
been reported in Canada since it was legalized. We’re expected to reach the
100,000th MAID death by this summer. A parliamentary committee is now meeting
to expand MAID to those whose only condition is a mental illness. How are we
caring for those facing death, for those struggling with suffering in life; how
are we walking alongside their families and supporting their care-givers? These
are the Jesus following questions we need to wrestle with.
Valuing life is about creating communities of shalom where people can flourish, find meaning and purpose, where they’re
valued for who they are and not just what they produce. Lewis Smedes writes
that believing that life is sacred sends us toward any neighbour who needs help
to keep going because God loves them. God gives life, God alone reserves the
right to take life away. Jesus offers his blood as a sacrifice so that we might
live, to wash away our sin which brings death. As we’ve been reflecting over
the past few weeks, this looks like coming closer to God, like forgiveness and
reconciliation, like respecting life and protecting life, working towards
shalom life for all. Because we’ve been given new life through the power of the
sacrificed blood of Jesus, we’re called to live for life as Paul writes in Romans 12:1–2, “Therefore,
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper
worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s
will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” And in living in a sacrificial way, living
for ‘we’ rather than ‘me,’ we bring life that reflects the new life found in Jesus.
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