Exploring My Strange Bible - Make Me Clean - Gospel of Matthew Part 13

Episode Date: July 23, 2018

In previous episodes, we explored the Sermon on the Mount, but now we turn a corner back into the story Matthew of chapter 8. We explore this story of Jesus healing a man with a skin disease, which holds a lot of symbolic freight. Most importantly, this story is about Jesus’ contagious holiness. Jesus embodies the healing power of God’s holiness. This is an amazing story, especially once you take into consideration all of the Old Testament context.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Well, in this episode, we're going to continue in our series on Matthew exploring All right, well in this episode, we're going to continue in our series on Matthew exploring the gospel according to Matthew.

And this was a series that I contributed to years ago when I was a teaching pastor at Door of Hope. In previous episodes, we have been exploring the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5 through 7. And so with this teaching, we kind of turn a corner back into the story of Matthew. Matthew chapter 8 picks up the storyline of the drama of the gospel according to Matthew. We're going to consider in this teaching a fairly well-known story of Jesus performing a healing. He heals the skin of a man who has some kind of skin disease, which had all kinds of symbolic freight and context in a Jewish setting. If you've read the book of Leviticus at all, and you got to that chapter that's all about categorizing skin diseases and why it excludes you from worship in the temple, and you've wondered,

what does this have to do with anything? Pay off. Finally, this story assumes that you have reflected deeply on the nature of skin disease and ritual impurity. But more importantly, this story is about Jesus's contagious holiness. I don't know what the word holiness brings to your imagination when you hear it, but Jesus comes to embody the healing power of God's holiness. This is an amazing story, especially once you take into consideration all of the Old Testament context, which of course, you know me, we're going to take time to do. So let's open our minds and our hearts, get ready to learn, and let's dive in. There were three of us from Door of Hope, three pastors from Door of Hope, myself, Tom McGregor, and John Abraham. And we were invited to, it's like we won the lottery,

you guys. Basically, we got this email back in the fall that said, you're invited to come on an all-expenses 10-day trip to Israel-Palestine and to come tour the site. And it's like one of those emails where you read it and you're like, wait, did I just read that email? And you read it again, you're like, oh yes, that's really what's happening right now. It was this really unique opportunity. We were invited by an organization, a non-profit called the Israel Collective and they've just existed a year or so and their basic goal is to recruit young 20 and 30 something Christian pastors and leaders

to go on these trips and just expose them both to the history and heritage of Israel, Palestine but also to really learn about the complexity of the situation and the tensions that are over there right now and to become voices to just pray and advocate for peace in that part of the world. And to have somebody else pay for you to go do that,

you're like, what planet am I living on right now? So there were about 35 people who went on the trip, and just through different ways, about half of that group were people from Portland, different pastors. Four churches represented, Imago Dei, Bridgetown, Mosaic, and then Door of Hope. And it was so great, you guys. It was like going to camp. It was like going to camp, junior high camp, but in Israel, because it was like all the Portland people, we were all friends, you know, we all know each other. And so you'll be glad to know we represented Portland well. We were the back of the bus, you're right, and like cynical and semi-pretentious and that whole deal, like so that all went over well. And, but it was just, it was remarkable, you know? And so we got to both tour these ancient places,

but also to meet with these people from very, very, all ends of the spectrum, right? So we had breakfast with an Arab Muslim newspaper reporter, but also had breakfast with a Jewish rabbi and Israeli military personnel, but then also Palestinian Christian pastors. And they all have very different views of what's happening in that part of the world. And the point was just to meet them, to hear their stories, and to come to our own convictions, you know, about what we need to do or not do, right? About what's happening over there.

Anyway, it was rad. And I really miss Door of Hope because there's nothing quite like Door of Hope anywhere on the planet, in my humble opinion. So it was super great, and I'm really glad to be back. It's good to be with you guys. One of the places we went, just the first few days of the trip, was up in the northern part of Israel-Palestine called Galilee, and it all centers around the body of water called the Sea of Galilee in the New Testament. And it's not a sea. It's actually a lake. It's a big lake, but it's a lake nonetheless. And on the northern end of the lake is a church kind of up on a hillside,

which you can kind of see a picture I took from a hillside up on the northern end of the Lake of Galilee. And there's a church. There's a Catholic church up there. It's really cool. It's called the Church of the Beatitudes. And it commemorates a hillside that's a typical hillside, you know, up on that part of the Sea of Galilee that commemorates Jesus giving the Sermon on the Mount, which we just spent three months crawling through, right, on our Sunday gatherings. And so I just thought you might want to see the mountain, right, that's being referred to right there. Because look at the first line here in our story today. Jesus came down from the mountainside after, in Matthew, giving the sermon on the mount.

Now, just, you know, look at the picture. And so that's a mountain in Israel. You know what I'm saying, right? So we're in the Pacific Northwest, the Cascades. When you hear mountain, you think mountain. When you're in Israel, Palestine, the word mountain means Mount Tabor, like Southeast Portland, right? So that's about how a little bit taller than Mount Tabor, but that's the idea here. So just imagine Jesus has been up on this hillside. He's been out there announcing the kingdom of God that it's here. And remember, that's what you would hear Jesus talking about on any given day, announcing the nearness of the kingdom of God that it's here in him and in what he's doing. And so he has all these followers.

So he goes up to this hillside up from the sea. And just that's a typical scene right there. You can just see for miles and miles all around. And so Jesus, he's up on this hillside, people are gathered around, and for three chapters he's exploring and explaining what it means to be his disciple and what it means to enter into the life of God's kingdom. And then today is significant because we finish the Sermon on the Mount and we're going into a new section of the book of Matthew as we go through it. And here it's where Jesus comes down off the hillside

and he starts going down, entering into just day-to-day life in these small villages and towns that kind of dot the whole landscape along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And the first story that Matthew tells us of Jesus re-entering and now bringing the kingdom, not in his words, but in his actions and in his reality,

the first story Matthew tells us is a story about this guy with a skin disease who approaches Jesus and walks away from that encounter just completely transformed. And this is the setting where Jesus performed and did these very things. It's a wonderful, quiet, still today a fairly undeveloped part of the country. And it's serene, and you can see Jesus walking in bare feet in your imagination, and it's awesome. Existential and all that, right? Okay. So, but that's the

setting of this story right here. So let's come back to the story. It's a very simple story, and it's short. Josh got three quarters of a chapter last week. I get four verses this week. It's great. So Jesus comes down off the hillside, all these crowds around him, and this man with leprosy. Now, some of your Bibles might have a little footnote around that word right there. And in our vocabulary, leprosy, I'm not a doctor, so I'm just quoting a dictionary right now. So our word leprosy has a specific reference to a certain kind of skin condition called elephantitis or Hansen's disease, something like that. In the Bible, it's much broader. The Bible refers to, leprosy refers to a much broader set of skin conditions. So we don't actually know what this guy's deal was,

but he's got a skin disease of some kind. And he comes and he kneels in front of Jesus. And look at, actually, look at verse 2. Look at how he approaches Jesus. It's really remarkable, his words. He says, This is really remarkable, his words. He says, Lord, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean. So just stop and think about that. I think most of us on a first reading, what we probably heard him say is, if you are able, will you make me clean?

But that's not what he says, is it? Do you see the difference between those two? See, I think most of us, we would wonder, is Jesus capable of doing anything about my problem, about my situation? Will you do something? But that is not this guy's question. Do you see? He comes, and his question is not whether Jesus is capable of dealing with his sickness and his disease. Do you see that, right? Are you guys with me here? Do you see what I'm saying? It's a very simple little observation, but it's profound. What is this guy asking for? He is convinced that Jesus can help him. He's like, yeah, you're totally able to help me. How does he know that? Well, Jesus, right, he's been up on the mountainside.

The stories are starting to spread about him. We're told that he has already been healing some people from their sicknesses. This is the first story about an example of that. But somehow he's convinced that Jesus can heal him. But what he's not certain about is whether Jesus would do something like that. And so what he's not certain about is Jesus' character. He knows that Jesus is powerful, but he doesn't know that Jesus is good or compassionate, because this is apparently his first time encountering him. And so that's what this story is about. This guy, he comes to Jesus and he asks, are you willing? Would you help somebody like me? And the story is very simple and powerful.

Jesus reaches out his hand and touches him. And notice how the story just slows down on this moment. It's just, you can see Jesus' hand extending and touching. It's like Matthew wants to focus and do slow-mo, right, on this moment right here. And Jesus says, absolutely, I'm not only capable, I am willing. Be clean. And immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. And he says something that we'll talk about in a minute, but that's the story. It's a very simple, short little story, isn't it? You guys get it? It's great. It's a great story.

If you didn't know anything about Jesus, let's say this is the first time you're reading any stories about Jesus. This is the first story of Jesus healing somebody. Let's say you don't know anything about the Old Testament scriptures and you don't know anything about Jewish culture, right? You can just read this story and what do you conclude about Jesus? Good guy, bad guy? It's a good guy, right? Compass can just read this story, and what do you conclude about Jesus? Good guy, bad guy? He's a good guy, right? Compassionate or mean? Compassionate, right? Concerned about

the well-being of others or selfish? Right. He's awesome, right? You read this. It's a very simple story. You don't have to be a scholar or anything. You read it, and you just go, this guy's awesome. I like this guy a lot. Are you with me here? It's very simple. And that's how, actually, most of the stories in the gospel accounts, the four gospel accounts in the New Testament, they're like that. You read them, and there's a whole layer. They're very simple to get in one sense. Jesus is awesome. He's incredible. He's compassionate. He's brilliant. He's profound. He loves others. He lays down his life for others. And it's a very powerful story about Jesus being willing and compassionate to move. I mean, how significant is it for this guy? Why does Matthew highlight in slow-mo this moment of Jesus touching him? What's this guy's problem? He has a skin disease.

All right? So when do you think was the last time someone embraced this man and hugged him or touched him? And what happens to human beings when we're deprived of touch from other people? It's not good. Actually, physiologically, bad things happen to us when we're deprived of embrace and touch from other people. And so Matthew focuses on this beautiful, humane compassion of Jesus to touch this man that no one else would want to touch and to embrace him and the encounter heals him. Jesus is awesome.

So we could just stop right there. You know, we could. I'm not going to, but we could. I can just walk away and be like, Jesus is incredible. But he's even more incredible than that. Just simple reading of the story would lead you to know. There's a simple layer to the story as there are with all the stories of the Gospels. They're easy to grasp, but there are always layers. These stories are like onions, right? And you can see it's an onion and it is what it is, but you can start peeling it back and be like, oh my gosh, there's so much more to this story. And there is a lot to this story. Why did Matthew choose this story as the

first story to put in front of us after Jesus walks down off the hillside, right? Because for a Jewish reader, for somebody who does know the storyline of the Old Testament scriptures, this story is category breaking. It just breaks all, shatters everything you thought you knew about the Bible and about God in different ways. And it's all wrapped up in one word. Look, again, look down at verse two with me. There's one word that's at the center of the story. What does the guy ask Jesus? He says, Lord, if you're willing, you can do what? What does he say?

You can make me clean. Now, why does he say that? Is he dirty? Does he have dirt all over him or something? Like what? And you might say, well, he has a skin disease. But yes, but you could have very good personal hygiene and have a skin disease.

You know what I'm saying? Brush your teeth and take a shower. So he's not dirty. He's not actually dirty. But he asked to become clean. Why does he use that word? And Jesus affirms it. He says, be cleansed.

What is this about? There's a perfectly good words in Greek and in Hebrew for healing, for being healed. But that is not what he asked for. Of course, he is asking to be healed, but there's something even more that he's asking for. He's asking to become clean again. And that little word opens up a whole dimension of power and significance to this short little story, and I think for why Matthew puts it first. And so you guys know me, it's story time, it's story time now. So get your coffee, have a sip, and we're going to explore why Matthew puts this first, what this whole concept of cleanliness and holiness and uncleanness is about, and why this story should break all your categories of what you thought you knew about God.

All right? You guys with me? Story time. So let me tell you a story about the people of Israel. So go back to the beginning. Everything's awesome, could have been wonderful, but we blew it. Pretty good summary, right? And so we blew it and create hell on earth. And God chooses one family out of all the corrupt, stupid, rebellious nations called the family of Abraham. And he's going to restore blessing and goodness to all humanity through this family. They end up in slavery to the big bad guy in Egypt, right?

You've seen the movie. They end up in slavery to the big bad guy in Egypt, right? You've seen the movie. And so Moses is raised up as a leader to rescue the people out of slavery in Egypt. And so they go through the wilderness to the foot of a mountain. Okay, here we go. This is what's important. And God enters into a covenant relationship with this family, the tribe of Israel.

And he wants them to become his people. And more so, he wants to restore that Garden of Eden presence relationship that we were all made for but have forfeited and lost. And so what God does is he wants to plant his personal presence right in the midst of this family in Israel. And so the form that that takes is what? The form that that takes in the people of Israel. Some of you know the story. What is the structure and the thing in their midst here? It's a tent. Well, actually, it's a box. It's a little special box carried on poles by priests. And then there's

the presence of God in this cloud and so on is over it. And then that goes in this sacred tent that they build to house the presence of God right at the center of the people of Israel. And what's that tent called in the Bible? It's called the tabernacle. And the whole point of this was that God's unique holy presence is in the midst of Israel. And so here's just one of many passages from one of your favorite books in the Bible, right? Leviticus. Where God describes the significance and the implications of planting His presence right in the middle of the people of Israel. So this is what God says to the Israelites. He says, What's the repeated word here in this paragraph?

Holy. All right. Very good, class. Very good, you guys you guys so holy so really here's what's about to happen we're gonna we're gonna take some time and learn about concepts of holiness and cleanness and uncleanness and purity from the book of leviticus that's my mission right now so how many of you would want that mission right you'd be like no of you would want that mission, right? You'd be like, no, you don't want that. I'm going to put you all to sleep right now, but I'm not. Just

watch. This will be fun. Trust me. So holiness, this all comes down around holiness. And once you, these are such central concepts to the storyline of the Bible. Really, once you get these, they're pretty simple to grasp. Once you grasp them, seriously, whole parts of the Bible will begin to come alive with significance and meaning, and you'll begin to spot these language and ideas all over the stories about Jesus and in the New Testament, too. It's really important. So God, here's the point. God is holy, and He's going to plant Himself in the midst of Israel, and so they are to become holy holy too. Now, what on earth does holiness mean? For most of us, we think, I think in English, Western culture, we think of holiness mostly in terms of morality, being a good moral person. You guys with me? That's what most of us, he's so holy, or he thinks he's holy, holier than thou,

this kind of thing. And when we say that, we mean they think they're a better person morally than other people. And morality is a part of it, holiness in the Bible, but it's just one part, and it's not even the main part. So this word that gets repeated a whole bunch of times right there, the Hebrew word, it's the word kadosh. Kadosh. Kadosh. Good job, class. And whatever kadosh is, you see here, it's set up in opposition. It's the opposite of unclean. You guys with me? So don't, I did this. There we go. unclean I can spell, I can spell so you have holiness so don't become unclean

because y'all are to become holy just like I am holy in your midst so kadosh, what on earth does that mean and it's basic meaning is to be unique to be unique one of a kind, distinct, different

whatever words you want to use. And because of that uniqueness, somehow you're set apart. To be holy is to be one of a kind, unique, and then set apart for a specific purpose. So here's an analogy that I found helpful. In the Bible, God is holy, and therefore the space around God is holy, and people who are near God are supposed to become holy. God is holy in the same way that in a hospital, an operating room is holy. So how many of you have ever been wheeled into an operating room before? Okay, quite a number of us. How many of you have been in a hospital before? Okay, now that's interesting. So here's what that means. That means there's

these buildings all over town that most of us have been into, but they have a special room that you've never been into. Very few of us have ever been in, and only under certain circumstances and for a set amount of time for a specific purpose. It's holy, right? It's holy. It's set apart, and it's unique. Now, what is that space? What is an operating room set apart and holy for? What happens in that room?

Surgery, right? Operations. And what's the purpose of operations? For 99%, that room is set apart for people to go into and they have some kind of life-threatening condition or they have a sickness, something going wrong with their body, their quality of living is really bad because of something with their body. So the purpose of that room is about saving life and improving people's quality of life. That's the only reason that room exists. And the only reason you're supposed to ever go into that room is for that purpose. You guys with me? And who can go into

that room? So the patient, all right, but who are the special people who can go into that room? They're also unique, set-apart people. So surgeons, doctors, and nurses, and what kind of process do they have to undergo before walking into this holy space? Right? They have to be sterilized. Well, school? Did you say a lot of school? Years of school. That's true. And so that's true. It's this long process of becoming set-apart and holy, and then you have to take off your other clothes, put on special clothes, wash your hands, be sterilized, mask, that whole deal. What's happening? What's happening? These are rituals, right? They're rituals that are all about this reality that this is a unique, holy space that is dedicated to saving life and improving the quality of people's life. That's

what this space is for. And so there are all kinds of things out here that would threaten to contaminate this space, right? So there's dog poop on your shoe, right? So you'd like, don't wear that shoe if you're a doctor into that thing. You know what I'm saying? So whatever, you have a runny nose and. You know what I'm saying? So, whatever. You have a runny nose and you just wiped your hands or whatever. So, call another doctor if you have a runny nose so they do the surgery and not you so you don't drip your mucus into their open brain cavity or something like that. You guys know what I'm talking about. Are you guys with me here?

So, we get this. This is intuitive. I'm sorry. I didn't say that at the night. But you guys get what I'm saying. That we get this. I'm trying to use concepts that we resonate with to help us understand what seems like this weird backwards foreign part of the Bible. Right? So we get this. This totally makes sense to us. And in the Bible, God's holiness is like that. So God's holiness is mostly connected, we'll see this in a minute here, to the fact that God is unique and one of a kind as the author and creator of all life, and all that is good

and beautiful and just and pure. and beautiful and just and pure. And so when God takes up personal residence amidst people, they too are to become like that too and reflect that in their own lives. And so there's to be this distinction, right? This separation between anything that's marked by the opposite of that that could contaminate it or could defile it, right? And so there's actually a very clear list of ways that you become unclean. If you're an Israelite, you can read the book of Leviticus and Numbers, right? Your second favorite book of the Bible. And there's very clear ways that you become unclean. The rules are very clear. They're not difficult. It's very clear. Numbers chapter 5. Let's just read from your second favorite book of the Bible right now. Yahweh said to Moses, command the Israelites to

send outside of the Israelite camp anybody who has a defiling skin disease, one, or two, a sexual discharge of any kind, or three, someone who's ceremonially unclean because of contact with a dead body. There you go, right there. Skin disease, sexual discharge, contact with a dead body. Whether they're a man or woman, send them outside the camp so they don't defile the camp where I dwell among them. Now, this may seem weird and backwards to you. And so here's the deal.

Anytime that we open the Bible, and we forget, people forget this when they become accustomed to the Bible over years of being a part of a church community. It's that you're flying to another land and another culture when you open the pages of the Bible. It's a cross-cultural experience. And what's funny is that many people, especially in Western culture, we end up thinking the Bible is backwards or archaic or stupid and primitive or somehow. But if you were to have that mindset of flying to some other country in the world today and they'd view the world differently, it's a totally different

culture, and you're like, how stupid and primitive these people are. You would be called the most closed-minded, intolerant. You know what I'm saying? But we have that mindset all the time when we open the pages of the Bible. It's because we're closed-minded, right, to the Bible. And we're not open to another way of seeing the world in reality. And so let's just humble ourselves for a second here. There's something actually really profound underneath all of this.

So it seems weird to us. So there's something about these three things, skin disease, sexual discharge, coming in contact with a dead body, that they make you become unclean, which is like a status. It's a state. It's like having a cold or having a sickness. You wouldn't want somebody with a runny nose and a head cold who just buried their family dog in the backyard and then not wash their hands and then waltz into the operating room and start touching everything. You know what I'm saying? That's gross. We get that. And in the same way, these three things mark you with a status that prevent you from coming into the holy space. And you can kind of just put it together, like a skin

disease. It's kind of intuitive. You can say, yeah, like you're marked by disease and death in some way, and so you shouldn't waltz into the holy space where the author of life is. You've contacted a dead body, you know, just waltzing into the holy space. You can kind of make sense of that. Now, sexual discharges. So we're going to talk about this right now in church. We're going to talk about this. And again, because this might seem stupid to you, but it's actually really profound. What are we talking about here? We're talking about fluids, Unique fluids in your body that have a unique, they are holy. They're sacred.

Because those fluids have a unique purpose that's associated with the creation of life. Right? Because when man and woman make a covenant partnership with each other, and those fluids mix, I trust that we're not learning anything here right now. So, right? When those fluids combine, humans are created. That is incredible. And life is sacred and profound. And those fluids are sacred and holy. And there's something unique about them. Like if I spit on the ground and then, you know, you spit on the ground, new humans aren't created. You know what I mean? Like that does not happen. There's something unique and set apart about these fluids in a man and in a woman. They're unique and holy. And so when they,

when in the context of covenant and so on, but when those fluids, so to speak, leak out of your body on some other occasion that is not connected to the purpose of making new humans, it makes you unclean. It's like you're leaking life fluid, so to speak, right? So, that's not how we think about it, but that's how they thought about it. And it's actually kind of profound that reproductive fluids are so sacred and holy that when you're exposed to them, it's like they're radioactive or something like that, right? They put you in this status of unclean. And so what's underneath all of this?

I think a simple way is that all three of these ways of becoming unclean, you've come into contact with something that reminds you and that's a symbol and a reality of your mortality and death, right? You're leaking life fluids. You've touched your dead body. Your skin is disintegrating or you have a disease in some way. And so this is a whole cultural symbol system that's meant to say this. It's meant to say that God is the author of all life, has taken up residence here in our midst among the people of Israel. And so we're going to honor and recognize the holiness and the goodness of God's presence by keeping away anything that would contaminate or defile it. Now, here's two things.

One is the most major misconception that we tend to have about this whole concept of being unclean and so on is that somehow it's wrong or that it's sinful, and that is not the case. In the Bible, becoming unclean is not wrong. You're not a sinner if you become unclean because you had to bury your grandfather or something. Becoming unclean is a natural part of the cycles of life in human life and so on. That's not what's wrong. It's temporary, right? After seven days pass or whatever, you take a bath, go off for sacrifice, and you're clean again. That's the way it goes. Except for the guy with the skin disease, right? Because if that skin disease goes on and it's prolonged, then all of a sudden he's blocked from all contact.

He can't go into the holy space and so on. And so what's wrong is not being unclean, just like having a cold is not sinful or wrong. What was wrong for them was to waltz into the holy space when you're in an unclean state. Because symbolically you're bringing death into the presence of the author of life. And so this is what is safeguarded against in sending them outside the camp. Are you guys with me here? So this is their culture, right? This is just

Israelite culture. This is what the people of Israel did, and it was their way of honoring God's presence as the author of life. Okay. So if you guys are with me, this is where the story goes. But it's not the last word in this story here. Fast forward about 500 years from Moses and so on, and there's this story that kind of develops this whole idea in a new direction. And it's a story about one of Israel's prophets, a guy named Isaiah. And Isaiah lived in Jerusalem. He lived right in the vicinity of the temple where God's holy presence had taken up residence. And he has this vision, he has this dream or something of some kind, where he wakes up and he's in the temple. He's in the very presence of the holy God of Israel.

And this is the story about his experience. It's utterly remarkable. He says, Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. So he doesn't say what happened. All of a sudden, he's just in the temple, which he would have never been allowed to do in real life. That's how we know for certain this is a vision or a dream of some kind. And he's right in the temple, and the temple, they view the temple as this connecting point of heaven and earth. And so he sees God on a throne, and it's like his upper half is in the dimension of heaven,

and his lower half is right there in the temple. And so it's like he sees this image of God's robes that fill the temple and so on. And then it gets, this is a crazy dream. You're like, what did he smoke before going to bed that night or something, right? Because look at this. Above him were seraphim, these six-winged creatures. Two wings, they're covering their faces. With two wings, they're covering their feet. And with two wings, they're flying, right?

Now, this is crazy. These creatures. These creatures are called seraphim here. They're called cherubim in other parts of the Bible. And you should not think about a plump baby with wings, all right? Definitely not that, right? In fact, don't even think a human-like creature at all with wings. There are no human-like creatures with wings anywhere in the Bible. Creatures with wings are always described in God's presence as being animal-like. And that's exactly what these are. The word seraph means snake. So you're supposed to imagine some kind

of reptilian multi-winged creatures and so on. It's a crazy dream, but it's his dream. Respect the man, right? Respect him. And what these animals do, these animals are these representative images of all creation, every part of creation, giving voice to praising the author of all life. And so what are they screaming out? They're screaming out, Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh is Yahweh Almighty. And how do they define God's holiness? They say the whole earth is full of His glory. It's not just that Yahweh is morally good or pure. It's that he is the author of all life and beauty and goodness. And so at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds are shaking and the temple's filled with smoke. Now, you're an Israelite.

You are happy that Yahweh is your God and his presence is there. And so Isaiah, he has this vision. He's right there in the very presence of the holy God. And what's his response? Is he like leaping for joy, praising God, intimacy with God, hooray, you know? What's his response? Look at what he says. He's absolutely terrified that he's going to get incinerated on the spot.

Look at what happens next. He says, whoa to me. This is the most horrible thing that could have ever happened. I cried. I'm ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips. And I live among people with unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty.

This is not good. This is not good, you guys. That's what he's saying. So he is not literally unclean, he says, in terms of touching a dead body or bodily fluids or something, but he uses this now as an image of his own moral corruption. He says, my uncleanness is much deeper than just my body. It's my mind and my mouth and my words and my thoughts.

I'm a man with unclean lips, and I live in a culture that speaks death, that speaks and lives in a world of selfishness, where might makes right, of grave injustice and idolatry. And that's who I am, and that's my people. And here I am, in the presence of the very author of all beauty and goodness in life. He's terrified because this is not supposed to happen. You're never supposed to do this.

You're supposed to go through many rituals of becoming ritually clean and pure before you even think about going in. And he's like, this is the worst thing that could have happened. And so look what happens next. Then one of the seraphim, they flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

So in the temple, there was a table. Inside the temple, there's a table with bread there 24-7, and then a table with coals burning incense 24-7. And so it's like one of these creatures comes and gets one of the coals and is coming at him. This is not good. It's not good at all. And with it, Isaiah says,

he touched my mouth. Now just stop. Pretend you don't know what's happening in the story. Is this good news? You know what I mean? If you were at my house for a barbecue and I do this to you, like, ah, you know, I'm full. It's horrible.

It would be terribly painful. It would be excruciating. This is not a pleasant scene. That's what I'm trying to get across here. If you're familiar with this story, we missed this. This is horrifying. And certainly he's thinking, this is it. I'm done for.

Like I'm going to get incinerated in the hot coal. And it's painful. And then all of a sudden, what happens is the very opposite of what he thought was going to happen. He hears the voice say, look, this has touched your lips, but instead of incinerating him, it's cleansed him. It's somehow purified him. It's burned him pure. He says, your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for, which means covered. So somehow he thought what would happen is that he's defiled and contaminated God's presence. He's operating within a mindset set by the book of Leviticus that says it's death and uncleanness that's contagious and it will contaminate the holy space. But what he's experiencing in this crazy vision or dream or whatever is just the opposite. It's actually not his uncleanness that's defiling

or contaminating God's space. what's happening is just the opposite. Do you see this here? This is remarkable. This is remarkable because what's happening is actually it's God's holiness, this sacred holy coal, is not defiled by touching Isaiah's unclean lips, but rather it's God's holiness that becomes contagious. And God's holiness and purity and power as the author of all life encounters this man, and it's painful as it purges him, and then it transforms him completely, and his sin is burned away, so to speak. You guys with me here? What on earth? He has no categories for this. What's happening here? Ideas about who God is and what's happening are just shattering for him. And this is in the Old Testament.

And so this theme develops throughout the book of Isaiah. And this is one of Isaiah's unique contributions to the story of the Scriptures, is that God's purpose was never that this remains a permanent situation and that people are forever isolated from God. This is meant to communicate a profound truth that you and I are broken and really screwed up and marked by death and sin and that God is the author of all life. But the story doesn't end there. This story is moving towards God's holiness actually becoming contagious and infecting the world with his own holiness and power to cleanse and transform it. That's where the story of the Bible is going.

And so you march forward from Isaiah to 700 years, and you read a story like this in Matthew, where you have Jesus of Nazareth, who at his birth, one of the names given to him is Emmanuel, God with us. God's very holy, powerful, pure presence right here embodied in a human, in the person of Jesus. And so here's Jesus coming down off this hillside into the hustle and bustle of daily life in this fishing village in Galilee. And the first story Matthew puts in front of us to show us what happens when the kingdom of God invades normal

people's lives, it's a story about this unclean man with a skin disease who for however long he's had this uncleanness, he's been barred from the temple, he can't go to Jerusalem, he's cut off from the worshiping community, he's considered unclean. And here's the very embodiment of God's holy presence. And see, what should happen? What's supposed to happen when Jesus, slow-mo, Matthew slow-motions the moment for us. He extends his hand and touches him. What's supposed to happen in that moment? What you would think has happened is that man's impurity makes Jesus unclean. That's what's supposed to happen, according to Leviticus. But Leviticus is not the end of the story, is it?

What actually happens is Isaiah's vision becomes reality. And Jesus is the embodiment of God's sacred power and purity. It's actually Jesus's holiness that's contagious, and it transfers to this man, and it's like it eradicates his uncleanness and makes him holy and pure. Are you guys with me? See, this will preach. If I was a preacher, this is where I would start preaching right now, right? Because this is so powerful. And again, these aren't your cultural categories, and so we're kind of like, whoa, we're learning all this at once. But if you grew up steeped in this worldview of clean and unclean, you would suggest how radical this is. That Jesus comes and people's

uncleanness and sin and corruption is not threatening to him. It's not threatening to him at all. He comes with this power and this authority, right? At the end of Jesus teaching the Sermon on the Mount, everybody's like, oh my gosh, we've never heard anyone talk with such authority and presence. It's as if he's speaking for God. And that's precisely what he's claiming to do. And then he comes not just to speak for God, but to be the actual presence of God,

moving towards people whose bodies are riddled with death, moving towards people whose cultures are riddled with unclean lips, with cultures of death and sin and selfishness. And Jesus is not intimidated. He moves right towards it. He extends his hand and says, not only am I able, this is what I came to do. I am willing. This is my purpose. Be clean.

And then look what Jesus tells the man. He says, okay, look at verse four. He says, first of all, see to it you don't tell anyone. I'm trying to keep a low profile, at least for a little bit here. But go, go down to Jerusalem and go show the priests what's happened to you and go offer the sacrifice like you're supposed to do, and this will be a testimony to them. Because see, in the priest worldview, God's holiness is limited to the place of the temple, and so you protect it from being defiled and so on.

But Jesus has come, and he's shattering this and creating this whole new story where God's holiness is not limited to the temple anymore, that he is embodying the spread and the contagiousness of God's holiness coming out into the world and purifying and cleansing and forgiving and cleaning unclean, sin-ridden, screwed-up people. And so Jesus says, just go tell them and let your own personal story of this encounter be a testimony to them that there's something new going down here.

This is very powerful. It's extremely powerful. This is the Jesus that we worship, you guys. And so how does this speak a word of God to us, right? Because most of us didn't grow up knowing any of this, right? But think of it this way. If you're a disciple of Jesus and you have just really blown it in some way, right? Think of a time where you acted against your conscience, you acted against the

teachings of Jesus, you just blew it, big time. Anybody? So, right? We shouldn't have to think very long or hard about that. Now, think about what goes on in your mind after you fail, whether morally or ethically somehow. What goes on in your mind? And what I know goes on in at least half the room, half of us, we undergo this thing of like, God's ashamed of me. And what you end up doing is you end up actually avoiding Jesus, because you think that somehow he's threatened, or that you're not good enough to be near him, or maybe that

you'll contaminate his goodness by your failure, or moral failure, or whatever. So how many of you guys know what I'm talking about here? And what you end up doing is you end up avoiding prayer. You end up avoid meeting Jesus in the scriptures. You avoid other Christians. You avoid coming to the Sunday gathering. You avoid taking the bread and the cup because you think, I can't. I can't go near it, right? How many of you guys know what I'm talking about? And you need to understand that Jesus passionately disagrees with you on that point. Do you know that? That's just the wrong, it's the wrong story. You're living in a different story that's not the story of the gospel. The story of the gospel is this boldness that God is not threatened or intimidated by your sin.

Think of it this way. How many of you have a little line in your head that says, Think of it this way. How many of you have a little line in your head that says, a holy God will not tolerate sin in his presence? Right? That's probably a line many of us have heard before. And do you see that that is a half-truth, that if it remains a half-truth, it's actually dangerous and will distort your whole view of Jesus?

Are you with me? The whole point of the gospel, can God tolerate sin in his presence? You betcha. You bet he can. What's the story of Isaiah all about? And not only does God tolerate it, he moves towards it with such passion and intensity that Isaiah is forced to own it, to confess it, and name it, and instead he's transformed by that encounter with God's holiness. Are you with me? encounter with God's holiness. Are you with me? And then in Jesus, like this guy, Jesus finds this guy. You know what I'm saying? Jesus is God's holiness on a mission. Your sin is not threatening to Jesus. And it doesn't mean that like you have license to do whatever the heck you want. It's that dude, he's not going to leave you alone. He's going to burn you clean, right? And that's good news for people like you and I,

because we live in a culture of uncleanness and death, and we're bred with this mindset, and Jesus comes to just transform a whole different story. And so there are some of us here today, and what you actually believe is that God wants nothing to do with you because of your failure. And the good news of a story like this is that you could not be more wrong about Jesus' character. Lord, if you are willing. See, he doesn't doubt Jesus' ability. He doubts Jesus' character of whether Jesus would move towards an unclean person like him. And Jesus says, you couldn't be more wrong. And he touches this man and he walks away transformed.

And so I wonder how many of us are here today, it's just good old-fashioned good news for sinners, is that we're here together in a sacred space in a sacred time, a unique time and place for us to worship Jesus, to celebrate good news, and to announce that there's hope for people like us and for a world like ours. And so whatever you need to do, whatever story came into your mind, whatever story of failure, whatever you're thinking about yourself,

it's not threatening to Jesus. And as we come to worship and to sing and to pray and to come to the tables to take the bread and the cup, come with a bold confidence knowing that Jesus has both the power and the desire to burn you clean through his holy presence. You guys, thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible podcast. We're going to continue on in the gospel according to Matthew. And in the meantime, grace and peace be with you. Let's follow Jesus together. Thank you.