Monday Morning Munch No. 84 – Lepers and Jesus

“The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.” -Leviticus 13:45-46

You know it’s going to be a good blog when it starts off with a verse from Leviticus…

…said no one ever. Except maybe that one guy we all know who loves Leviticus because it makes him sound super spiritual.

Anyway, I’m reading through Leviticus as part of M’Cheyne’s Bible reading plan and made it to this chapter last week. The last three sentences got me.

A leper is unclean.
He shall live alone.
His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

#depressing

…that is until you look at this the way my boss and pastor told us to read Leviticus.

“What does this passage tell me about Jesus and how does it point to the Gospel?” 

“For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood.” –Hebrews 13:11-14

Jesus wasn’t a leper, but He was put outside the camp.

He suffered there.

Alone.
Rejected.
Spotlessly clean, yet treated as the dirtiest of all people.

He suffered outside the gates just like the lepers.

Why?

So He could cleanse us, diseased with sin, and make us pure.

Wow.

Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon Suffering Outside the Camp, said it this way:

There are about a million and a half  other applications and lessons from these passages but as we begin our week, let’s remember this one.

On this Monday, may the light of the Gospel shine in your heart brighter than ever before as you remember Jesus, the perfect One who suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify us through His own blood.