Leviticus 19
February 19, 2017
Compliment or criticism? He’s holier than thou. If you’re saying that about someone are you
building him up? It’s a critique. Not a one of us would want to be called
‘holier than thou.’ Yet, I suggest that
in our effort to see more of God and to know God better, in our lives, we must
strive to be holy.
One of my parenting tasks is to help
my kids with grammar and writing homework, so I have to note something about
this well-worn phrase, holier than thou. The word ‘thou’ is archaic and it means
you. The word ‘holier’ is in a
comparative form: holy, then the comparative ‘holier,’ and the superlative
‘holiest.’ Holier than thou is a phrase steeped in competition. He’s not just holy. He’s holier than you!
No wonder it’s used as a
put-down. Holy becomes a synonym for
‘better.’ He’s holier than thou. He’s better
than you. O no he’s not! We think.
We never stop ponder what makes someone better than someone else. We just resist the idea that one person is
better at being a person than another person; we don’t like to think someone
else is better at humanity than we are.
Holier
than thou. We say it out of the side
of our mouths, a euphemism for cocky. He’s so full himself, so holier than
thou. He thinks his stuff doesn’t stink.
We’re so resistant to spiritual or
moral comparisons, and yet much in our worldview is comparison-based. We value competition. Think about your own view. Do you see the world through a
cooperation-tinted lens or a competition-tinted lens? In order for one to get ahead, does another
necessarily fall behind? Let that
question settle. Are you more prone to
competition or to cooperation? Let the question
simmer as it pertains to how you move through life.
Is it enough that the Tar Heels are
having a really good basketball season?
Or, is it only truly successful if they are not only good, but better
than Wake Forest? Or N.C. State? Or especially Duke? Competition is admired in sports and it
should be. I want my favorite team to be
highly competitive. What I am asking us
to consider is how this cooperation-competition dynamic spills over into life
and into our thoughts about God and our own identity in Christ.
In the campaign of 2016, Donald Trump
gave a specific compliment to Ted Cruz.
He said of Cruz, “He’s fighter.”
Later, Trump said the same thing of Hilary Clinton. “I know this about her,” he said, “She’s a
fighter.” In both cases, he said it with
admiration. He appreciates that tough,
competitive spirit. So did Barak Obama. So do most Americans. Toughness; competitiveness; we see these as
admirable qualities, except when we are dealing with holiness.
Holiness is a title reserved for the
pope. To be extra reverent, we say ‘the holy Bible.’ But people, who are supposed to be
competitive in all things, are suddenly expected to be humble and self-effacing
when it comes to holiness. The great
irony is the Bible really doesn’t commend us to be great champions in sports or
politics.
From the Proverbs to the Parables, the Bible
commends deference. Put others ahead of yourself. Don’t brag.
Take the least significant place at the table. These are paraphrases of actual teachings
from scripture – the Bible we call “holy.”
In life, we are to put other ahead of ourselves. We’re not told by God to be “winners.” It’s strange that we say the Bible is authoritative
in our lives. But some things we highly value,
toughness & competitiveness, are not Biblical values.
But you know what is? We just read it in the holy Bible; but not just the Bible! This is the Torah, the law on which the rest
of scripture stands. Here at the center
of Torah we read this command, Leviticus 19:2.
“You shall be holy. For I, the
Lord your God am holy.” God did not say this to the Pope. This is not an inner-trinity conversation, Father-God
speaking to God-the-Son. This is to
every one of God’s people. This is to
you and me. We must be holy, for the
Lord our God is holy.
A quick aside: this is not a wholesale rejection
of competitiveness. In your work, you
may have to compete for grants. Compete
hard! I want the scientists who get the
grants to be scientists who worship HillSong.
Compete hard in the interview for the job. Strive excellence in the things you do in
life. Strive to be an excellent parent,
an outstanding friend, the best student you can be, a quality, trustworthy
employee. Be a leader in the workforce. If you coach a basketball team, strive to win
every game. Compete in life.
However, when it comes to our primary calling,
the Bible is directing us to view life through a cooperative prism, not a
competitive one. We don’t need others to
fail for us to succeed. In fact, the
Biblical picture of holiness painted in Leviticus 19 is inherently
cooperative. It’s not something we fight
for. We join with one another in a
mutually beneficial effort for the good of society.
Leviticus 19 appears to be a re-working of the
10 commandments. There’s the insistence
on Sabbath-observance. There the
prohibitions against coveting, lying, and stealing. There’s the rejection of idolatry. This is a helpful way of understanding
Leviticus 19, but note this. The
emphasis here is on relationships with people.
Our obedience to God’s absolute command is seen in how we relate
cooperatively with people. Samuel Ballentine
writes, “the importance of how one lives in relationships with others in the
human community is equal to, if not even greater than, the requirement of
[faithfulness] to God. … Ethical
behavior is not merely the necessary consequence of love for God; it is the
fundamental prerequisite that establishes the authenticity of that love.”[i]
In other words, we know we are striving to
obey God’s command to “be holy” when we cooperate with other people for their
good according to the guidelines given in the Bible.
Let’s go through it and see this cooperation
woven throughout the commandments.
Leviticus 19:3, “You shall revere your mother
and father.” We know we are striving for
holiness when we honor our parents. And
honoring our parents is a matter of cooperation within the family.
Verse 4, “Do not turn to idols.” In ancient cultures, idol worship involved
looking at a statue, endowing that statue with qualities reserved for God, and
then serving and worshiping the statue. This
practice was the root cause of the destruction of society. When we give what belongs to God – our
worship and devotion – to something that is not God, then our social
orientation is so off kilter the damage ripples throughout society.
In ancient times it was statues – literal
idols. Today, our idolatry is seen when
we give the loyalty and the allegiance that is exclusively God’s to someone or
something else: a political party, a value like consumerism or patriotism, or a
country. “Do not turn to idols,”
Leviticus says. God should be our center
and our all-in-all.
Verses 9-10: don’t harvest everything! This made sense for the agricultural society
in which these commands were originally given.
Land-owning farmers who worked hard to maximize the productivity of the
land were told point-blank not to harvest everything. Leave some of it for hungry people. Cooperate with those people who don’t own
land and might starve without your help.
In today’s contex, this command might be
worded don’t hoard. Don’t keep
everything. Why not?
Remember the overarching command in verse 2 –
“Be holy.” The only reason God gives us is “I am the
Lord,” and this phrase is repeated in verse 4, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 25, 28, 30,
31, 34, & 37. In 2017, when we read
Leviticus 19:9-10, it sounds like this.
“When you receive your paycheck, don’t keep it all. Take some of that money and share it with
someone who is struggling. No, that
person with whom you share it didn’t work for it. You did it.
So why in the world should you share it?
What the heck? Why?”
“I am the Lord.” It’s the only reason given.
To say one person is holier than another, as
in ‘holier than thou’ makes no sense. It’s an absurd notion. Holiness is not comparative at all, when we
understand it Biblically. One cannot be
holy as God commands us to be holy alone.
The only way we can obey this command of God is in relationships of
cooperation with others. We have to
cooperate in our worship community to exalt God and only God. Together we reject idolatry by rejecting
idols.
Together we honor our parents. This is true in our own families but also in
our church family, where we honor those who are elders among us. We honor them for the work they do in the
life of the church today. Our elderly
are as active as anyone. Second, we
honor them for the wisdom they’ve acquired over years. It’s a cooperative effort in which we all
experience blessing.
Together we honor everyone in the community by
recognizing that the paychecks our hard work produces are a means of
cooperation. When seen this way, we
realize we aren’t giving to charity when we share our money so others can eat,
be clothed, be educated, and have housing.
The sharing of money contributes to helping everyone in the community
join God in holiness.
Verse 17 couldn’t be clearer. “You shall not hate in our heart anyone of
your kin.” Based on the life and
teaching of Jesus, we know our “kin” is the human family. We are not to hate anyone, period. That is followed up with something that might
be familiar to New Testament readers.
Leviticus 19:18. “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.”
We Christians are tempted to think of
ourselves as New Testament people who no longer practice the system of worship
described in Leviticus. We don’t do
animal sacrifice. However, as New
Testament people, we would readily submit to the authority of the books in the
NT, including First Peter. First Peter
2:9 says, to us, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
God’s own people.”
That verse colors our reading of Leviticus
19. No, we don’t undertake the
sacrificial system of worship prescribed in Leviticus because Jesus was the
sufficient sacrifice, once and for all.
Our worship involves singing praise to the one true God. It does not involve sacrifices. After the cross, that’s no longer necessary. However, the values of Leviticus, especially
the holiness commanded in chapter 19, are formative for anyone who would be a
God-worshiper.
Leviticus 19:17 says, “You shall not hate
anyone of your kin.” How do I accomplish “holiness?”
How can I be holy as the Lord my God is holy? Don’t
hate anybody and love your neighbor. Who
is my neighbor? The person who needs my
help. Why would I love him? God’s answer comes at the end of verse
18. We do it because God says to us, “I
am the Lord.”
And to drive the point home, in Leviticus 19:34,
God says, ‘you shall love the alien who resides among you as you love
yourself.’ That’s it. When we meet immigrants, people from other
places, our first and only response to them must be as Christ-followers, people of God, a holy people. It doesn’t matter where they are from. It matters who we are. Who are we?
We are a holy people (First Peter 2:9).
Because of that, what drives us is love.
We love the alien who travels to our home town. Why?
God says, you do it because I am the Lord.
Every message this year at our church has been
driven by a desire to know God. From
Leviticus 19, it is clear God wants us to know Him. He loves us so much, he gives us guidance for
every aspect of life. God doesn’t want
us confused. God wants us to be assured
of His love for us and our place in His Kingdom.
This week, our task is to strive for holiness;
not to be holier than thou, but rather to be holy alongside thou. We do this and we will see God.
Our starting point is love. Who is hurting? Who has deep need? Who is the neighbor in our path we are called
to stop and help? There is so much noise
in America right now, and most of it competitive in a damaging way that will
leave us all defeated. This week, let’s
raise a different sound. Let’s make some
noise for cooperation – cooperation rooted in the holy love described in
Leviticus and demonstrated in the life, crucifixion and resurrection of
Jesus.
Let’s go from here as holy witnesses who use
everything we have to help people find their way into the Kingdom of God.
AMEN
[i]
S.Ballentine (2002), Interpretation: A
Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Leviticus, John Knox Press
(Louisville), p.161.
