Among the things you get from a reading of the books of Leviticus and Numbers is that the Old Testament writers were almost obsessively concerned with the issue of cleanliness. Many of the laws dealt with what made a person "unclean" and the process by which one could become clean again.
And this wasn't just about hygiene. In the culture of the time, the categories of clean and unclean determined one's status in society. If you were unclean, you could not participate in the life of the community. You were quarantined, isolated, alone until you were able to regain your "clean" status. Someone who was unclean could not even approach the temple and participate in the worship life of Israel by offering sacrifices.
The reasons for these categories have long been the topic of speculation by scholars and pastors. Some say it had to do with community health...and perhaps they are right. Others say it had to do with God's holiness and the fact that one who was unclean was not worthy of being in God's presence. Whatever the reason, though, it was set in stone that the unclean were excluded.
Except.
Except for Passover. In Numbers 9, the people are in the midst of receiving all the cleanliness laws and they have a question: What about the Passover? God commanded that all Israelites participate in that? If someone is unclean when it comes time to celebrate the Passover, what should that person do and what should the community do?
These were important questions, because the Passover was a celebration of what God had done by bringing the people out of Egypt. It was the identifying celebration of the Israelites. And now God had given another law that seemed to exclude some from participation in the celebration of that liberation.
God, through, Moses, answers the question in Numbers 9, verse 10:
"Tell the Israelites: 'When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they are still to celebrate the Lord's Passover...'"
This is Good News for the unclean! They are not completely forgotten. They are not completely excluded. When it comes to their core identity as members of God's community, not even unclean-ness according to the law could separate them from God. God provides a way for even the most defiled Israelite to participate. And later in the same chapter, God even offers the opportunity to celebrate Passover to immigrants in Israel.
This is yet more evidence that we worship a God who includes and not a God who excludes. God is not looking for reasons to keep you or me or anyone else out of God's Kingdom, to exclude us from participation in the life of the community. The truth is far more exciting - God is looking for reasons to include us in the life of the community.
So the question I would close with is this: If the God we meet in the Bible repeatedly looks for reasons to include instead of exclude, why do we in the church do the exact opposite?
jB
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