Contagious Holiness and Vocation

Last week we spent a lot of time talking about the contagious nature of sin. We said that sin was like a pollutant, that when released defiled everything around it. One of the interesting details though in last week's and this week's reading is that holiness can be "contagious" as well. There are objects that are so holy that they make holy everything they come in contact with. Here are two examples:

Exodus 29:36-37
Also every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall offer a sin offering for the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it, to consecrate it. ³⁷ Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy; whatever touches the altar shall become holy.

Leviticus 6:26-28
The priest who offers it as a sin offering shall eat of it; it shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting. ²⁷ Whatever touches its flesh shall become holy; and when any of its blood is spattered on a garment, you shall wash the bespattered part in a holy place. ²⁸ An earthen vessel in which it was boiled shall be broken; but if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, that shall be scoured and rinsed in water.

So anything that touches or is touched by the altar of burnt offerings or the "sin" offering becomes holy. A similar dynamic of course is at work with the oil of anointing for the priests (8:30); whoever is anointed is now "holy". This "contagious holiness" has some important implications for our theology and how we think about our mission as God's people:

1. God gives His servants the ability to make things holy. Our job therefore is not to simply hide from sin and impurity (a route some have gone), but rather to use the tools God has given us to purify and make holy the world around us. We are to consecrate our lives and the world around us by aligning them with God's order and by inviting His Spirit to move through us into the world through our words and deeds. Because we have been purified by Christ's blood (like the altar) and filled with the Holy Spirit (anointed) we do not need to fear being "polluted" by the world but are rather sent to extend God's holiness into the world. We do this of course by sacrificially loving our neighbors and calling them into God's family.

2. Our model in doing this is of course Jesus. Jesus was the ultimate sin offering; He is the one who purified each of us who believes in Him and atoned for the sins of the world. Furthermore, Jesus was literally "the" anointed one (that's what "Christ" means!). So, He is our pattern for how holiness is taken to the world. This also provides insight as to why Jesus did not worry about being made impure in the manner His opponents did. It's not that He had no regard for God's word about purity and sacrifice, but because He was holy in such a manner that it overwhelmed sin and impurity. His holiness trumped any impurity He encountered.

3. Contagious holiness also helps us understand what holiness is and how that factors into our vocation as God's people. You might have noticed the detail about pottery that is made holy in Leviticus 6:28:

An earthen vessel in which it (the sin offering) was boiled shall be broken; but if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, that shall be scoured and rinsed in water.

Why would you break the earthen vessel that's been made holy? Because it's no longer acceptable to use if for everyday affairs. In fact, it would be a sacrilege to now use it for "normal" activities. Whatever is made holy is now strictly to be used for God's purposes; this is what we mean when we say that to be holy is to be "set aside". To be holy then is to be God's property, and to be used solely for His purposes. This is a big deal because as Christians we are a "holy nation" (1 Peter 2:9). Therefore we are to serve God's purposes alone. None of us who are in Christ are intended for "ordinary" purposes; we all have a vocation to serve God's purposes in the world. Now this might very well happen in the "ordinary" circumstances of everyday life, but it is our job to never forget that there is nothing ordinary about our "Boss" and His plans for us. It is His work and purpose to use us, the ordinary earthen pots, into vessels that show His glory to the world (2 Cor. 4:1-10).

***Interpretive Aside:
When you read the Nadab and Abihu story, this concept of holiness (as being set-apart exclusively for God's use) is why God forbids Aaron from grieving. Someone who is in mourning is ceremonially impure according to Leviticus (because death is impure . . . more on this later). Because Aaron has been made holy and set apart to serve in the Tabernacle at the moment he cannot do anything to jeopardize His holiness. His calling supersedes everything else. While this seems harsh to us, this points us to Jesus' hard words about calling (being set aside for God) and other duties in life:

Luke 9:59- 60
 He said to another man, "Follow me." But he replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."