Wrap-Up

I suppose you might not have expected us to revisit the topic of food when we entered this lesson. But holiness relates to everything, doesn’t it? And what Jesus faced in His day was a classic misunderstanding of sacred rituals that put the mechanism in place of the meaning. 

So what kinds of misunderstandings do we face today? Do people still resort to some forms of magic—whether they call it that or not—even in their Christian faith? Trying to manipulate God rather than honor Him as holy? Do we have any rituals we think have intrinsic value, without realizing that “the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart”? On the other hand, some of us may come from anti-ritual traditions that have no place for anything sacramental—maybe in the name of everything being sacred. Well, if that’s your view, is there a challenge here to review your regular activities to see if more of them could move from routine to ritual?

We’re not done with holiness yet. We’ll be looking at sacred time and the sacred community in the lessons ahead. This was our mid-point stop to make sure we were catching all the nuances of the one word that dominates Leviticus: holy.