The Cost of Forgiveness

 If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible.  Leviticus 5:17

Forgiveness' Price
By Rev. William Dohle

I want you to do something... This week, I want you to count how many times you hear people say: "I forgive you."  When you need to apologize or when someone apologizes to you or when you overhear someone apologize to someone else, I want you to count.  How often do you hear "I forgive you" spoken.

I bet you hear it very VERY few times this next week or the weeks and months after that.  Why?

It's not because people are getting any better.  Sins abound in our lives all the same and they ain't going away.  So it can't be because we don't need forgiveness.

Nor is it because people aren't apologizing anymore.  I can't say it's because we don't hear "I'm sorry" on the streets.  In fact, I hear "I'm sorry" a lot, especially in my house.

No, I think the reason why you won't hear "I forgive you" spoken is because, deep down people know how costly forgiveness is!

Forgiveness requires a sacrifice on someone's part.

Most of the time forgiveness costs the forgiver the most.  They give up the right for retribution and for repayment.  If someone says: "Your loan is forgiven" it is the one who forgave the debt who took a loss.  If someone says: "You are forgiven" regarding a wrong you have done, they have sacrificed their right for vengeance.  They have said, "You owed me for that...but I have given debt up.  I will not hold it against you."

Forgiveness always costs the forgiver but sometimes forgiveness costs the one asking for forgiveness too.  Absolution in a catholic confessional, for example, has certain requirements.  "Say 5 Hail Marys and 5 Our Fathers".  Every action has its consequences and these consequences are passed down to the one asking for forgiveness.  They still must suffer loss for what they have done.

It is this second model of forgiveness that we see demonstrated in the book of Leviticus.  In this chapter, sin offerings are described for everything from intentional sins of the priest that affect the entire congregation to unintentional sins committed by the assembly to intentionally unintentional sins committed by individuals.

For an entire chapter, we are told what sacrifices to make in order to be forgiven.  Bulls, lambs, and doves are killed and chopped up, their bodies given to God in a certain way, and, in the end, the same refrain plays over and over again...

In this way the priest will make atonement for them before the Lord, and they will be forgiven for any of the things they did that made them guilty.

I wonder sometimes... why such graphic detail?  Why describe the sin offerings in this way?

Christians borrow much of our language for Jesus' blood atonement directly from Leviticus.  It is here we see sacrifice atoning for sin.  The biggest difference, however, is that intentionally these sacrifices were not human ones.  Israel existed at a time when sins were atoned in other cultures by human sacrifices.  Somebody had to be killed in order to appease the gods.  Israel's laws changed that.  By sacrificing an animal you eliminate the need for a human sacrifice.  You take a loss...but not in human blood.

Details aside, though we realize through this reading that forgiveness is costly.  Very costly in fact.  The consequences for sinning against God and against each other, even though unintentional, still remain.  Someone must suffer the consequences of sin!  Someone must suffer.

Though very few Christians read these passages as anything significant, we still believe the world view they assert.  We still think that forgiveness is costly...not to us so much but to God, to Jesus the Christ.  In Christian thought, Jesus ransoms us from sin, death, and the devil with his blood.  He is lamb of God sacrificed for the sake of the world.  Despite our sweamishness at these passages, the sacrificial system itself remains intact for Christians...animals have just been replaced by Jesus Christ himself.

Though we'd like to think we can get rid of these passages and avoid them, truth is these passages make up the heart of much of Christian theology.  Getting rid of them would rid us of the need for a sacrifice for sin and, in many minds, the need for Christ himself.  Christ comes to forgive our sins through his blood on the cross.  That image is straight out of this text.

But, as Christians, we must realize too that forgiveness doesn't stop with God either.  Though God may have forgiven us, we still must pay the consequences of our sin and that is often very difficult.  It requires us to repent to others and humble ourselves in their presence.  It requires, at times, a sacrifice of time and even resources to truly say "I'm sorry."  It requires a price, smaller than the price paid by God, but a price nevertheless.

God help me forgive others as freely as you forgave me.  Give me strength to pay the cost of repentance, even as you paid for my sins.  Amen.

Come and eat with God!

It is a burnt offering, a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.  Leviticus 1:9

Come and eat with God!
By Rev. William Dohle


A year ago or so, a member of my congregation, having gone to France just a month before, invited my wife and I to a grand feast.  Food that she had sampled in France was reproduced before us to eat and share.  A glass of wine began the meal followed by appetizers followed by a meal that still makes my mouth water.  Six of us were invited to such a feast.

It was one of the most intimate and enjoyable experiences I have ever had!

There is something to be said for eating with someone.  Entering into their home.  Sitting down for a meal prepared by them.  Smelling the food.  Tasting the wine.

There is no closer experience.  To this day, I covet such experiences, enjoying the closeness such sharing can bring.

But how would you reproduce these events and invite God?  What would you cook?  How would you fix it?  What would you need to bring and prepare?  And how would you prepare it?

Such questions are at the heart of these first chapters in Leviticus.

Upon first glance, the sacrificial portions of Leviticus seem barbaric.

"You are to cut it into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and the fat, on the wood that is burning on the altar. You are to wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest is to bring all of them and burn them on the altar." (Lev. 1:12-13)

Such language often can make us shudder!  Why would God command his people this way?!

We wonder what a barbaric people the ancient Israelites were that such things were commanded by God!  And we thank God that such sacrifices are not done today!

But, before we dismiss this entirely, perhaps we should look at the reason WHY these sacrifices were made.  We are apt to think that ancient Israelites sacrificed animals to APPEASE God.  But that's not the case at all!

Ancient Israelites sacrificed animals to gain intimacy with God.  Literally to eat with God!

If you wanted to prepare a meal for an unseen, almighty deity, what would you make?  What could God possibly want?

Perhaps a bull... but how would you prepare it?
Or a bird...but how would you slice it?
Or perhaps an offering of grain and bread?

And what would be the occasions for such a feast?  When would you be expected to throw a dinner for God?

For an ordinary meal with God... what would you bring?
If you're thankful to God... what should you give?
If you have sinned against God, either intentionally or unintentionally, how do you say "Sorry?"

All these are questions that Leviticus answers in detail.

Do they apply to us??  Well... yes and no.

We do not literally sacrifice anything, bulls or otherwise.  Nor do we need instructions on where to put the fat on the altar and what to do with the carcass.

But...

Leviticus does point to the why of sacrifice and the need to give back to God.

Sacrifice was never done to appease God.  The aroma was said to be pleasing to God, but it was never meant to stop God's wrath or anger.  That was never the purpose of sacrifice in the first place.  The people sacrificed to God to gain intimacy with God and to obey his commandments.

We may crave this too... but we cannot sacrifice or worship God as they did.

Still... we need to give back to God.  We need to celebrate with God.  We need to give of ourselves when times are good, in thanksgiving for what God has done.  We need to give of ourselves when we are sorry, as a way of repenting for what we have done wrong.  We need this give back more than God does.  And the more ways we give back.  The more ways we sacrifice what we have to celebrate with God, the more connected we will feel we are to God.

And the aroma of our sacrifices will be pleasing to God too!

God you give everything to us and hold nothing back.  Give us sacrificial hearts too that we might give back to you what you have first given us.  Amen.

To Keep or Not To Keep

These are the commands the Lord gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.  Leviticus 27:34

To Keep or Not To Keep
By Rev. William Dohle

It's amazing what laws are still on the books...even though they are rather ridiculous!

Take a few laws from my home state, Utah.

• In Salt Lake County it is illegal to walk down the street with a violin in a paper bag.
• In Trout Creek, Utah it is illegal to cure a cold with gunpowder.
• It is a felony to persistently tread on the cracks between paving stones on the sidewalk of a state highway.
• It is illegal to hunt whales in Utah.  (By the way, Utah isn't even close to the ocean!

In Illinois, where I live now...

• The English Language is NOT to be spoken.
• Law prohibits eating in a place in Chicago that is on fire.
• It is forbidden in Chicago to fish while sitting on a giraffe's neck
• In Galesburg, no one may keep a smelly dog.
• And in Kirkland, IL bees are not allowed to fly over the village.

Google Outdated laws yourself and see what you find.

The funny part is that...these laws are STILL on the books.  I wonder sometimes if anyone has been caught breaking these laws.  What would they do to them?

The Bible too is full of outdated laws.  Whole books of them in fact.  Many are obvious.  Some not.  Laws, for instance, that concern the treatment of slaves do not apply to a society without slavery.  A Templeless religion has no need for instructions about burnt offerings and priesthoods.  And a society that gives the right to kill to the state has no need of laws with corporal punishment.

But how do you decide?  How do you choose?  How do you know what laws to keep and what laws not to keep?  How can you tell?

The book of Leviticus is itself a book of laws.  With few real stories within it, Leviticus was written to aid God's people to walk God's path.  It exists to help design Israel into the the people that God would be proud of.  It contains commands on what to eat and not to eat, how to clean your home from mildew, rules on the various festivals that are celebrated among other things.

It was written thousands of years before Christ, but its words still sting today.  Many of the Bible's worst critics and strongest allies quote from Leviticus to bolster their arguments.  The best known passages, like the ones about sexual behavior which only constitute one chapter of the book, are thrown around so much that we might think they were written yesterday for us and not to another people thousands of years ago.  Many laws in the book are ignored while other laws are held up as models of what God wants.

So... how do you decide what to keep?

As I come to the book of Leviticus in my journey through Scripture, I am sorely tempted to skip the book altogether.  It would be easy to put it behind me and focus instead on the narratives in Numbers and the passionate discourse in Deuteronomy.  Anything to keep from dealing with Leviticus!

But something compels me to look deeper.  The Spirit of God perhaps.  Something calls me deeper into the book... to wrestle with the laws that disturb me and to celebrate the laws that invigorate me.

So... join me through the season of Easter, as we explore the book of Leviticus further and understand the laws that the Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, knew by heart.  And God help us on the journey!

Your word, O Lord, is full of disturbing and uncomfortable commandments, many of which I don't follow.  Give me eyes that I may see you through the words on the page.  Amen.