Sunday, 2 March 2014
(Jesus said) "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."--Matthew 11:28-29
When many of our relatives immigrated to this country, as their boat passed into New York Harbor, they saw the statue designed by Frederic Bartholdi. Originally called, "Liberty Enlightening the World," it has become better known as the "Statue of Liberty."
While the statue itself was a present from the people of France, the folks of the U.S. had to come up with the funds for the base to the giant piece of art. To help in that cause, a small book of collected writings, including a poem by Emma Lazarus, was put on the market.
The book and Lazarus were soon forgotten.
After Lazarus' death, her poem was rediscovered and all 14 lines of that poem were carved out and placed at the statue's entrance. In case you have never heard all of them, they read,
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
May I tell you that those words changed the purpose of the Statue of Liberty?
You see, Bartholdi had originally thought of the statue giving encouragement to the people of the Old World who were fighting oppression. But Lazarus' words changed that. Rather than providing assistance to folks who were living in Europe, it gave hope to those who were leaving that continent.
In short, the Statue of Liberty had been transfigured; that is, it had been given a new and nobler purpose.
This weekend many churches are celebrating Transfiguration Sunday. It is right that we remember how the Lord acknowledged His only Son who was living His life to save the souls of lost sinners. Read the Gospels and you will soon discover that when people thought of Jesus, they generally thought of Him only in human terms. He was a Prophet, a Teacher, a Samaritan, a Sinner.
But Jesus' transfiguration tells us that while Jesus is true Man, He is also true God. For us He was doing that which only God could do. By that I mean Jesus lived His life sinless and successfully resistant to all temptation. But more than that, He actually shouldered the sins of the entire world and carried those sins to the cross where He died in our stead.
His glorious resurrection three days later says His work had been completed, and all who believe on Him as Savior are forgiven of the past and given an eternal home in heaven.
Paraphrasing the last lines of Lazarus' poem, the living Lord Jesus says, "Give Me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning for forgiveness free, the doomed refuse of your teeming shores. I call these the once-lost sinners to Me, for My blood alone opens heavens eternal door."
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, true Man and God, Your life was lived for my eternal salvation. May the faith I have been given create a transfiguration in my life. This I ask in Your Name. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Leviticus 14:1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, 3 and the priest shall go out of the camp. The priest shall examine him, and behold, if the plague of leprosy is healed in the leper, 4 then the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. 5 The priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 6 As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water. 7 He shall sprinkle on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird go into the open field.
8 “He who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and bathe himself in water; and he shall be clean. After that he shall come into the camp, but shall dwell outside his tent seven days. 9 It shall be on the seventh day, that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his body in water, then he shall be clean.
10 “On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without defect, and one ewe lamb a year old without defect, and three tenths of an ephah[a] of fine flour for a meal offering, mingled with oil, and one log of oil. 11 The priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed, and those things, before Yahweh, at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
12 “The priest shall take one of the male lambs, and offer him for a trespass offering, with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh. 13 He shall kill the male lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering. It is most holy. 14 The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 15 The priest shall take some of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand. 16 The priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before Yahweh. 17 The priest shall put some of the rest of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering. 18 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, and the priest shall make atonement for him before Yahweh.
19 “The priest shall offer the sin offering, and make atonement for him who is to be cleansed because of his uncleanness: and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering; 20 and the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meal offering on the altar. The priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean.
21 “If he is poor, and can’t afford so much, then he shall take one male lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and one tenth of an ephah[b] of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering, and a log of oil; 22 and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to afford; and the one shall be a sin offering, and the other a burnt offering.
23 “On the eighth day he shall bring them for his cleansing to the priest, to the door of the Tent of Meeting, before Yahweh. 24 The priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering, and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before Yahweh. 25 He shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. 26 The priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand; 27 and the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before Yahweh. 28 Then the priest shall put some of the oil that is in his hand on the tip of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place of the blood of the trespass offering. 29 The rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed, to make atonement for him before Yahweh. 30 He shall offer one of the turtledoves, or of the young pigeons, such as he is able to afford, 31 even such as he is able to afford, the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, with the meal offering. The priest shall make atonement for him who is to be cleansed before Yahweh.”
32 This is the law for him in whom is the plague of leprosy, who is not able to afford the sacrifice for his cleansing.
33 Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, 34 “When you have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put a spreading mildew in a house in the land of your possession, 35 then he who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘There seems to me to be some sort of plague in the house.’ 36 The priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest goes in to examine the plague, that all that is in the house not be made unclean. Afterward the priest shall go in to inspect the house. 37 He shall examine the plague; and behold, if the plague is in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, and it appears to be deeper than the wall; 38 then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days. 39 The priest shall come again on the seventh day, and look. If the plague has spread in the walls of the house, 40 then the priest shall command that they take out the stones in which is the plague, and cast them into an unclean place outside of the city: 41 and he shall cause the inside of the house to be scraped all over, and they shall pour out the mortar, that they scraped off, outside of the city into an unclean place. 42 They shall take other stones, and put them in the place of those stones; and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaster the house.
43 “If the plague comes again, and breaks out in the house, after he has taken out the stones, and after he has scraped the house, and after it was plastered; 44 then the priest shall come in and look; and behold, if the plague has spread in the house, it is a destructive mildew in the house. It is unclean. 45 He shall break down the house, its stones, and its timber, and all the house’s mortar. He shall carry them out of the city into an unclean place.
46 “Moreover he who goes into the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening. 47 He who lies down in the house shall wash his clothes; and he who eats in the house shall wash his clothes.
48 “If the priest shall come in, and examine it, and behold, the plague hasn’t spread in the house, after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed. 49 To cleanse the house he shall take two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. 50 He shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water. 51 He shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times. 52 He shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, with the living bird, with the cedar wood, with the hyssop, and with the scarlet; 53 but he shall let the living bird go out of the city into the open field. So shall he make atonement for the house; and it shall be clean.”
54 This is the law for any plague of leprosy, and for an itch, 55 and for the destructive mildew of a garment, and for a house, 56 and for a rising, and for a scab, and for a bright spot; 57 to teach when it is unclean, and when it is clean.
This is the law of leprosy.
Footnotes:
a. Leviticus 14:10 1 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel
b. Leviticus 14:21 1 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel
Mark 8:1 In those days, when there was a very great multitude, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to himself, and said to them, 2 “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have stayed with me now three days, and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come a long way.”
4 His disciples answered him, “From where could one satisfy these people with bread here in a deserted place?”
5 He asked them, “How many loaves do you have?”
They said, “Seven.”
6 He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves. Having given thanks, he broke them, and gave them to his disciples to serve, and they served the multitude. 7 They had a few small fish. Having blessed them, he said to serve these also. 8 They ate, and were filled. They took up seven baskets of broken pieces that were left over. 9 Those who had eaten were about four thousand. Then he sent them away.
10 Immediately he entered into the boat with his disciples, and came into the region of Dalmanutha. 11 The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, and testing him. 12 He sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, “Why does this generation[a] seek a sign? Most certainly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”
13 He left them, and again entering into the boat, departed to the other side. 14 They forgot to take bread; and they didn’t have more than one loaf in the boat with them. 15 He warned them, saying, “Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.”
16 They reasoned with one another, saying, “It’s because we have no bread.”
17 Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, “Why do you reason that it’s because you have no bread? Don’t you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened? 18 Having eyes, don’t you see? Having ears, don’t you hear? Don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”
They told him, “Twelve.”
20 “When the seven loaves fed the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?”
They told him, “Seven.”
21 He asked them, “Don’t you understand, yet?”
Footnotes:
a. Mark 8:12 The word translated “generation” here (genea) could also be translated “people”, “race”, or “family”.
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