A Reflection on Leviticus 19

(Click on the title to hear JJ's sermon on Leviticus 19 from October 26, 2008)

In 1861, Harriet Jacobs wrote the first slave narrative composed and published by an African American woman entitled “Incidents in the life of a slave girl.” This is what she wrote about her early childhood mistress:
“After a brief period of suspense, the will of my mistress was read, and we learned that she had bequeathed me to her sister's daughter, a child of five years old. So vanished our hopes. My mistress had taught me the precepts of God's Word: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." But I was her slave, and I supposed she did not recognize me as her neighbor. I would give much to blot out from my memory that one great wrong. As a child, I loved my mistress; and, looking back on the happy days I spent with her, I try to think with less bitterness of this act of injustice. While I was with her, she taught me to read and spell; and for this privilege, which so rarely falls to the lot of a slave, I bless her memory.”

I have no doubt that Ms. Jacobs’ mistress was a deeply religious woman. But like many that we come into contact with everyday, I am not sure she was really Christ’s disciple. For some reason, religion and discipleship are thought to be separate from each other – as if what we do on Sunday has nothing to do with what we do during the week. I suppose that the people of God have always tried to separate them; and I suppose the prophets of God have always tried bringing them back together, as they are brought together in Leviticus 19.
Leviticus 19:2 says – You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Following this bold declaration is a litany of laws that may seem unreasonably legalistic, authoritarian, and completely foreign to our worldview, but whose purpose, simply put, was to make God’s people holy.

What does it mean to be holy? Ubiquitous in both the Old and New Testaments, holiness sounds like a religious concern, not a discipleship one. The very word ‘holy’ tends to conjure into our minds images of cowled monks huddled in a chapel at the top of a mountain praying day and night.

To be holy is to be separate…it is to be distinct. Leviticus 19 equates holiness with righteous and ethical living. Holiness has a purpose, it is about treating other people the way God would have us treat them and seeing within them the image of God that we believe is in us. Holiness means that the people of God, as part of God’s family, are held to a higher standard of behavior than anyone else because God is holy and we are to reflect this divine attribute.
But what is this higher standard of behavior? Many people believe that Christian life means that we abstain from things. But simple abstention is not what Leviticus 19 or I are talking about. Let me highlight three areas or ethical behaviors which I believe are necessary to be holy that I think are problem areas for us today.

In verses 9 and 10 we are told that as we go about our regular routines of life, in this case harvesting crops, we should be intentional about helping the poor. How many of our regular life practices are designed with the poor in mind? Whole facets of our society have been built to get away from the poor (and others) – we call them suburbs. We rationalize the separation by saying that suburban life is best for our families – crime is lower and schools are better out here. I am sure that we are all possessed of the best of intentions. We likely never intentionally decided that we would live here to be away from certain types of people. However, the truth is that we unwittingly participate in the process of keeping people in poverty by living in the suburbs (much could be said here about the connection between white flight, the culprit behind the ‘burbs, and the poverty of the city). The ease and comfort of the suburbs have lulled us into forgetting the poor (and others), the very people to whom, as Jesus said, belongs the kingdom of God. Do we have to have to move into the city to be holy? No. But we must intentionally engage with those areas that are historically poor and marginalized if we are going to be holy. To be holy means to take care of the poor.

A second area of ethical concern from the text comes from vs. 32, where we are told to rise before the aged and defer to the old. Sometimes, in our society, the elderly are perceived as an unbearable burden. Like the poor, elderly people are put out of our sight (thank you nursing homes), and frequently out of our mind. It is sad to me that even the church, which has received specific instructions from the New Testament writers about honoring our elders, champions the cause of the young over the old. Young people speak of the elders as hampering our new and exciting agenda and holding us back. Church programs are designed to attract youth because there is at least an implied idea that somehow young people are better for church growth than not-so-young people. But as Christians, we are challenged to come up with clear and unwavering commitments to honor our elders—for our holiness sake, and for the Lord's.

Before moving to the third area of ethical concern, let me mention vs. 18 and the familiar command to love neighbor as self. The treatment of the neighbor says more about one's theological commitments than any ecclesial confession. Indeed, how one defines who is one’s neighbor reveals the kind of God in whom one believes. Racism, sexism, and homophobia are theological issues because conforming to such prejudices hinders us from viewing those of other races, genders, and sexual orientations as neighbors. I have highlighted 2 areas of concern for the church today – the poor and aged. But they are only examples of a far-reaching problem within today’s church. Christians have gotten it into our heads that we get to choose who we are going to treat with respect and who we will not; who is worthy of the gospel and who is not; who bears the image of God and who does not. Leviticus 19 and the New Testament which relies upon it do not afford us this luxury. It is no wonder that Jesus, Paul, and James all appropriate this statement from Leviticus 19:18 as being fundamental to what it means to live as a Christian.

This is why many of the commands in chapters 18-20 end with the phrase “I am the Lord,” or “I am the Lord your God.” This phrase recalls to the mind the broader context of Israel's relationship with God. The God who speaks to Israel is the God who has already faithfully and redemptively acted on Israel's behalf: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (v. 36). By placing these instructions in the context of deliverance, the writer understands them not as the arbitrary dictates of power for power's sake, but as the practices that will continue and extend the effects of God's redemptive presence among the people.

Finally, perhaps the most incendiary area of concern from Leviticus 19 comes from vs. 33, where we are told to love the aliens who live among us as ourselves. This has obvious relevance in America where a major political battle is being waged regarding what should be done with people who live here illegally. I make no claim to solve the political debate in our country. Let me just say this. How we treat someone or speak about someone must not be determined by that person’s legal or illegal status in our country. We might be tempted to say that this is another time and place and Israel did not have the problem of aliens in the land like we do. However, if you remember your Bible, Israel was not supposed to have any foreigner in the land at all so as to protect the purity of the people. Yet despite that fact, Israel was still told to treat the foreigner, the alien, the illegal alien as fellow citizens of Israel. What can we say about the foreigner who lives among us except this – we were once foreigners who lived in a strange land; we were once sinners, alienated from God, but in God’s love we were welcomed into the kingdom of God’s glory and grace and if we are to be holy then our hospitality must extend to those who are strangers in the land as well. In our time there is perhaps no other issue that will demonstrate what our theological commitments are than this one. The true test of ethics and holiness will be whether or not we can speak of and treat the immigrant among us, legal or otherwise, as neighbor.

There are many other things to be said about Leviticus 19. Let me end with this: holiness demands that we put the injustice perpetrated on Harriet Jacobs by her owner to rights. Let us demonstrate that a holy people will champion the cause of justice and equality because that is the cause of our holy God. If we would be the people that God calls us to be; if we would be followers and disciples of Christ then we must land on the side of justice and holiness for that is where Jesus is. And where Jesus goes, we will follow.