One Step at a Time
Leviticus and the patient work of spiritual transformation
Welcome to today’s reflection.
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In my younger years, Leviticus was the book of the Bible everybody passed over.
Genesis had stories. Exodus had plagues, miracles, dramatic confrontations with Pharaoh and an entire nation escaping slavery.
Then you arrived at Leviticus.
Suddenly, you were reading detailed instructions about sacrifices, skin diseases, bodily discharges and which parts of an animal belonged on the altar. It all rather killed the drama.
I remember flicking through its pages and wondering why any of this had made it into the Bible at all. Surely there were more inspiring stories worth preserving than endless instructions about fat, kidneys, blood and, of course, the long lobe of the liver.
Leviticus begins with five kinds of offering. Then come pages of careful instructions. The fat goes here. The blood goes there. This portion is burned. That portion is eaten. For most modern readers, it sounds grim and completely disconnected from ordinary life.
Very few of us wake up wondering what to do with the fat from our sacrificial animal. Our concerns tend to look rather different. We worry about relationships, careers, finances, anxiety, guilt, purpose and whether we are becoming the people we once hoped to be.
So what possible relevance could an ancient book of sacrifices have for us?
Things start to become a bit clearer when we stop looking only at the sacrifices and ask what they were for.
