Who Is Unclean?

You would think the church of Jesus today would welcome all people because we are all sinners in need of God's grace. Why then are some people excluded or not welcome? Why do we treat the poor and the sexually immoral as unclean? Did not Jesus break down these walls and did not Peter finally start getting it when he had a vision from God in Acts chapter 10? But what about the Levitical law of Moses? Since we still don't get it, here are some questions we might want to ask God or Jesus?

1.  Leviticus 25:44 says I can possess slaves as long as they are from neighboring nations? A friend of mine says this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify why I can't own Canadians?

2.  I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Ex.35:2 clearly said she should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill her myself or should I ask the police to do it?

3.  Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Leviticus 19:27. How should they die?

4.  I know Leviticus 11:6-8 says touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

5.  My uncle has a farm and violates Leviticus 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field and his wife wears garments made of two different kinds of material (cotton and polyester).  Do I have to get the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16)

Do you start seeing the problem by the absurdity of all this? Unless we interpret the law of Moses by the spirit of Jesus rather than as surface legal codes, we will miss the deeper, spiritual, and moral implications of these texts. These biblical laws and texts are speaking about not living or imitating the sinful lives of the dominating demonized culture around us. Why do we do what we do? To please God or to please others around us? Do we care about what God may think about holiness or do we get our new codes of ethics from the surrounding culture around us? Maybe that is the question?