God Made Us Messy
This is Part Two of “The Inevitable Messiness of Being Human” series on Leviticus 15, the chapter about the uncouth escape of certain bodily fluids, which we blush to read in public. In Part One I merely established that since all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for doctrine, reproof, and training in righteousness, there myst be a way to bring expositional application to our lives from some of the stickier passages in Leviticus.
My proposition for the sermon on Lev 15 was:
3 MESSY REALITIES ABOUT BEING HUMAN SO THAT YOU GRASP HOW UNAVOIDABLE YOUR UNCLEANNES IS AND HOW MUCH YOU NEED A SAVIOR TO CLEAN YOU
1. GOD MADE US MESSY
2. GOD WANTS US CLEAN
3. GOD MAKES A CLEAN
Today we look at the first one:
God made us messy.
As a result of the Fall and subsequent Curse (Gen 3) humans have been left in a state of broken messiness in every conceivable way: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Many sermons address the need we have for spiritual repair. But Leviticus 15 presents our physical grossness and portrays a picture of how unavoidable our uncleanness is.
The inevitable leakiness of our bodies is a reminder that simply being human makes us unacceptable to a pure, holy, clean God.
At the Fall in Gen 3, everything fell. The universe fell. Our bodies, our emotions, our will, our spirits, everything. Work was a blessing before the fall, but when work was cursed it became impossible for a man to find fulfillment in his work. In fact, in the very text of the pronouncement of the Curse, one bodily fluid featured prominently: sweat (Gen 3:19). {Fun fact: humans sweat 227 litres a year–enough to fill a Honda Accord’s gas tank three times–amounting to 227,000 litres in a 75 year lifetime.}
Bearing children would have been an untainted blessing before the Fall, but when childbearing was cursed (Gen 3:16) the joy became mixed with pain and discomfort. One bodily fluid we associate readily with emotional pain is tears. {Fun fact: Human basal tears could fill the average bathtub each year.}
But the most persistent pain in childbearing is associated with blood. From the time a woman hits puberty, her body hurts her every month until she gets pregnant (her period). Then it hurts her while she’s newly pregnant (morning sickness), then it hurts her while she’s very pregnant (antenatal kung-fu in the womb), and then it hurts to deliver the baby (or so I’m told), and then there’s the pain of nursing, and the torture of sleepless nights. And the inconvenience of parenting persists until finally the offspring all come of age and leaves the nest (the age used to be eighteen, but thanks to Playstation and unemployment it’s now closer to twenty-three for boys). But then there is the pain of not having them in the house., or “empty nest syndrome.”
Why?
Tune in tomorrow for the answer.
