Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : March 16, 2005
The Red Heifer
Lent
Note: This sermon was presented in mid-week Lenten services by Pastor Al Schluesener of Hope Lutheran (Dousman, WI) at several churches in the Waukesha area.
You are encouraged to read the text first using the link above before reading this sermon.
As we read through this text, did you find your mind saying, "Whoa! I don't have a clue what this is saying"? You're in good company. King Solomon looked deeply into the laws and regulations laid out in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and understood many of them. This ritual from Numbers 19 baffled him.
As I first began studying this text, and even after preaching on it once, I was still miffed as to all of this ritual. Take a red heifer, without blemish, outside the camp and kill it in the presence of the priest; but the priest does not kill it. He only watches. Then the priest dips his fingers in the blood of the heifer and sprinkles it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. After that the heifer is totally burned up. Its ashes are gathered up by a ceremonially clean person and put in a ceremonially clean place -- again, outside the camp. Then the ashes are mixed with water for use in cleansing anyone who has touched a dead body or been exposed to death. What is going on here?
Is God really concerned about touching a dead body? Will we get cooties or germs from Grandma who just died or from the dead cat? Or if the Tupperware container is open instead of closed will the contents go bad because someone died in the house? I am lost and its okay for you to admit you are also.
Well, take all these verses and boil all this down into one succinct message: it means "DEATH -- BAD!"
In Genesis 2 and 3 we are introduced to Adam and Eve and the perfect Garden of Eden. God gave Adam the privilege of eating from all the trees in the Garden. But there was one tree in the center of the Garden which God told Adam not to eat from. "When you eat from it you will surely die." Adam was to pass this command on to Eve and to all their kids and their kids...
Then Satan comes into the garden and says, "...did God really say?" -- trying to cast doubt on God's words and trick these two innocent creatures, Adam and Eve. Satan came to Eve, while Adam was with her. Eve looked at the fruit, it sure looked tasty. She grabbed one of the fruits, dismissed God's command that Adam had passed on to her, and they ate. Did they die immediately? Did Adam succumb to a heart attack the minute the fruit's juices touched his lips? Did Eve suddenly bulge with cancerous sores and cease living? No. It took 900 years for Death to catch up with them.
But they did die immediately. They died spiritually. And physical death was now implanted in their bodies, just waiting to pop out. Romans 5:12 says, "...death came to all men, because all have sinned."
Who has ever had a sore tooth? A bad knee? Hair missing on top? Bad breath? Arthritus? A broken leg? A sprained ankle? These things were never meant to happen to you. When Death started taking over Adam and Eve, and their bodies started aching where they hadn't before, they passed this same death on to their children and down, eventually to you. Now you have signs of death living in you. You are constantly exposed to it.
There is also another point about death that needs to be made. In Numbers 19:9-12, verse 9 calls this water that the heifer's ashes were mixed with, "purification from sin." But in verses 11 and 12, God says that exposure to death means you must be purified. Did God forget what He wrote in verse 9 -- it said purification from sin? Then in verses 11 and 12 it refers to needing purification if you touch a dead body. How do these connect?
They show, along with Romans 5:12, that death and sin are inseparably linked -- where there is sin there is death; where there is death there is sin. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death." Death follows sin all over. Those signs of death you see in your body, those signs that show death will eventually get you somehow, those all mean that sin is there too. We need to fix this problem. That is why God gave us this beautiful text from Numbers 19 -- to show how the problem would be fixed once and for all.
So let's explore some of these points a little deeper: Take a red heifer -- A red heifer is unique; difficult to find a pure red heifer. Even today, the Jews are still waiting for a pure red heifer to show up. They haven't had one since right about the time Jesus showed up on the earth 2000 years ago. A few years ago, they thought one had been born, but sprigs of white hair started to show up and blemish the heifer. A red heifer is difficult to find -- especially one without blemish. A blemishless man, a person without any sins staining their record, is hard to find. The only one who has ever showed up on this earth is Jesus. This Old Testament ritual, as a foreshadow, is pointing to Jesus.
Then they are to take the Red Heifer outside the camp and kill it in the presence of the priest, but the priest is not to kill it. Where was Jesus taken to be crucified? Outside the camp -- outside the city! The priest watches but does not kill the heifer. Who stood by and watched as the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus' hands and feet to the cross? The chief priests and teachers of the law!
The heifer is then totally burned up. Jesus gave everything, including his own life. Jesus totally submitted himself to saving your skin. He wouldn't hold back, even in the least.
Then the ashes of the heifer, which was totally consumed, are gathered by a ceremonially clean person and put into a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the men who took Jesus down from the cross. Who was the other? Nicodemus -- the Pharisee from John 3 -- A Pharisee would be ceremonially clean; they were sticklers about such things. Then they placed Jesus' body in a tomb -- outside the city. Coincidence? I don't think so.
Then the ashes of the heifer were to be mixed with water in order to purify from sin and to purify anyone exposed to death. This one is challenging unless you look at this verse from Romans 6:3-4. "Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
We are connected to Christ's death -- his perfect, total sacrificial death, by Baptism -- Water! In Numbers 19, the waters cleansed from death and sin. Jesus' perfect death connected to this water in Baptism cleanses us from death and sin. Now we are also connected to His life.
What does that mean? Death has been dealt with. God is showing us that the cure for death is found in the perfect sacrifice of Jesus. God is also showing us that He connects the cure to water in Baptism. The death that is in us is not the end. We will live again because we are connected to Jesus -- many of us through Baptism. All of us who believe in Jesus are connected by faith which the Holy Spirit produced in us through the Word of God.
It also means that small, medium and large sins are erased. My brother, when he was about 5, walked into the grocery store with our family and stole a peanut. It was no big deal, really. C'mon, it was a peanut. But my mother would not let it go because she knew it was not the size of the item, it was the sin in the heart that was the problem. That seemingly little sin was forgiven.
What about the medium sins -- like a few miles over the speed limit, or getting mad at your brother and hitting him, or deciding what your mother says is not for you to obey? Those are forgiven too!
All that makes sense - but there are sins that seem pretty big. Maybe I've done them, and maybe I haven't. Are they washed away also? Yes. Abortion, pregnant outside of marriage, 35 years of anger and resentment -- All forgiven!
How do we communicate this truth to the neighbor who comes screeching into the driveway at 2:00 A.M., loud music, foul language, tattoos up and down his arm, etc. Is he forgiven too? Can we actually look at him and communicate with him the way Jesus did? Jesus was close and personal. He sat down and ate with them. He showed that He was not there to condemn, but to save; to wash all sins away and to not belittle the person. Jesus was real with them and really showed how much He loved.
Jesus real, total death and sacrifice has made us all clean. There is no more death or sin attached to us. Praise God. Amen!
