Another troubling passage -- No Levite with a defect or disfigurement or disability could come near and present an offering or approach the curtain or altar. How do we reconcile this with the Lord who is no respecter of persons? Was this more because of us than for God? We make a big deal about the disabled now but it hasn't been that long ago we kept them hidden away. Still this passage seems to reinforce that old way of thinking. The personal cruelty and shame of it make my heart ache. No matter what God intended this to mean, it is the nature of man that we would infer from this scripture that the disabled are outcasts. It's just our nature. God, forgive us.
"The Lord said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron: "For the generations to come none of your descendants who has a defect may come near to offer the food of his God. No man who has any defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with crippled foot or hand, or who is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or who has any eye defect, or who has festering or running sores or damaged testicles. No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the offerings made to the Lord by fire. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar; and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy."' So Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites." [Lev. 21:16-24]
I can only confess I don't know the mind of God. There is understanding and reason there beyond my ability. Thankfully, their disability did not keep them from communing with God and eating the holy bread.
But then I'm heartened by the slaves who were given the special privilege conferred to the Levities and were told to eat of the sacred offering -- "No one outside a priest's family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired worker eat it. But if a priest buys a slave with money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food." [Lev. 22:10-11]
I also like the concept of the Year of Jubilee discussed in this reading. Every 50 years is the Year of Jubilee, a time when the fields are rested, everyone returns home, the land returns to its former owners, inheritances are returned and slaves are set free. It had to be a time of celebration for many and a reminder to all that we don't own anything. We're tenants here. In the Year of Jubilee, no matter our situation -- whether slave or rich -- we will give it up and return home.
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