Leviticus 17:1-18:30
It’s worth sticking a mental bookmark against the regulations on blood that are outlined here. In particular 17:14 is foundational for understanding why blood is at the centre of the covenants between God and mankind. In the Jewish mind there is something precious about blood that ties it inextricably to the life and personality of the being through which it flows. Perhaps it is similar to our common understanding of the heart being the defining part of a person. Blood is seen as the foundational element of both the old and the new covenants between God and his people. I think this is about justice. As God recklessly gives abundant life on one side on the equation, justice demands that there be some sort of payment of life on the other side of the equation. In the old covenant that life is represented by the blood of bulls and goats while in the new it is represented by the wine of the Lord’s Supper. The remarkable thing is that in this covenant that rules in our day, our entry into true life is balanced out by the blood of Jesus; we have been bought not just by the death of God but by some of his life as well.
Mark 14:17-42
Peter probably believed he had done his betraying of Jesus by the end of this passage. I suspect he assumed that his falling asleep 3 times in Gethsemane was the act of disowning that Jesus had predicted. I would certainly have assumed the same thing if I was in his shoes. And yet we know that in tomorrow’s reading Peter goes much much larger in the disowning stakes in just a few hours time. That seems to be at the core of the tragedy of humanity that Mark is asserting here - we as people know that we are weak and in need of help but are blind to quite how bankrupt we really are. That is why Mark is at such pains to point out that Jesus’ situation was so desolate as he was dragged towards the cross. It is crucial to Mark’s faith that Jesus was thrown down into the deepest corner of the pit of despair and that he rose from such a place. Jesus was hurled into the most tortuous place of discord and confusion and then his peace reigned. This is vital for us having real confidence that our faith really cuts it. You could be a victim of all kinds of abuse, you could be at the heart of a financial meltdown, you could be so desperately alone and you would not have sunk lower than Jesus’ grace can reach. Alternatively, you might think you are ‘all that’ and that the sun is shining out of the creases in your freshly-ironed chinos and yet you would find it to be just a facade and a delusion and that you are more dysfunctional than you yet know. Humanity is bitterly stricken and only One Man has the remedy for its ills.
Psalm 31:9-18
We started this psalm yesterday and find here many more prophetic allusions to the fate of Jesus on the cross. It is quite extraordinary how God revealed all this stuff in an through the life and worship of David.
