our great high priest

This is the summary content of the Bible Study portion of our February teaching at Bethany Bible School.

Leviticus 14:1-9 details the cleansing of one who is to be cleansed of his leprosy. He will be "brought to the priest", who will "go outside the camp" to "make an examination" to determine whether the "stroke of leprosy is healed" in the person. If the disease has indeed abated, the priest will command that two birds, cedarwood, two red cords, and hyssop be brought to him. Then the priest will slaughter one of the birds over a clay vessel filled with clean water. The blood of the slaughtered will mix with the water. Then the priest will take the living bird, together with the cedarwood, the cords, and the hyssop, and dip them in the mixture of blood and water. With the latter elements he will dash the mixture seven times upon the one who is to be cleansed of his leprosy. The living bird, carrying the blood of its slaughtered counterpart, he will release to the open field. Following this, the one who is to be cleansed will shave off all his hair, wash his clothes, and bathe his body. Then he can reenter the camp.

Upon reentry, however, the law dictates that he will "stay outside his tent" for seven days. On the seventh day, he will again shave, wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh, after which he shall be definitively, finally, clean.

Mark 1:40-45 also describes a scenario involving one who is to be cleansed of his leprosy. For his cleansing--"that which Moses commanded"--he was instructed to "show himself to the priest." The one who gave him such an instruction, however, had already cleansed him.

"If you want," the leper, begging and bending the knee, says to Jesus, "you are able to make me clean." "Moved with compassion and stretching out his hand to the leper," Jesus responds: "I do want, be made clean." "Immediately the leprosy left him."

Ignoring through his joy Jesus' warning to him not to tell anyone but to "show himself to the priest as a testimony to them", the cleansed one embarks to spread the word broadly, to the effect that Jesus is no longer able to move about freely in the city, so great is the demand on his time by the many who seek healing for their afflictions. Instead, Jesus finds himself "outside, in the desert place."

Taking upon himself the disease of the afflicted, the one who was so able to make the afflicted one clean, is himself now unable, cast outside of respectable society to dwell in the desert place. Like the bird contaminated by the blood of its slaughtered counterpart, Jesus is expelled to the field carrying the diseases of the people. In fact, like the bird which was slaughtered, Jesus too will be crucified outside the city, with the consent of the chief priests of his religion.

Yet the one who was cleansed will no more be able to return to the priests of his religion, so complete is his healing by the compassionate touch and loving words of the One who is able to make him clean.

For his sake--for ours--the Able One has been disabled. The Healthy One has become sick. The Just One has become a sinner: "God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us in order that we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21).

-Joe