Jesus Makes Us Kosher*

If you were living in a Jewish culture in the first century, one of the major social faux pas to avoid would be becoming “unclean”. No, we are not talking about laundry or personal hygiene. We are talking about ritual purity that made one fit (or unfit) to join the community in worship.

Lots of things could make you “unclean”: skin diseases, touching a dead body, eating pulled pork or bacon, stepping on a grave, having your period, or going into a gentiles home (to name a few). If you were “unclean” you were barred from worship. And in a synagogue centered society, you might as well be wearing a scarlet letter.

So what does Jesus do in Luke chapter 8? He delivers a demon possessed man among the tombs and pigs. He has contact with a woman with a discharge of blood. And he touches a dead girl to heal her. Each of these acts would technically make him “unclean”.

But instead the opposite happens: The man is delivered, the woman is healed, and the girl is raised from the dead! They all become clean through contact with Jesus.

You see, Jesus is stronger than “unclean”. He makes unclean things clean again. “Cleanness” flows from Jesus!

So why are you trying to “clean up your act” so you can approach Jesus? With all your sin, and guilt, and shame, you can’t make yourself clean enough to approach him anyway! But here’s the miracle: just go to him and you become clean. Just touch him and his cleanness flows to you! When you draw near to Jesus through faith, you become clean!

Go ahead, give it a try!

The well wisher of your soul’s happiness,

Pastor Tom

*(“Kosher” is the Jewish word for “clean”!)