In accordance with the principles already referred to, there was a special provision made for the leper, even in respect of his cleansing and consecration. Besides the usual sin, trespass, and burnt offerings required by others, there was the impressive and expressive ceremony of the Two Birds. By the command of the priest these birds were taken, and one of them “killed in an earthen vessel over running water.” That is—of course the death of Christ “come in the flesh,” —the earthen vessel,—and in inseparable connection with the living “water of the word.” Birds pertain to the ethereal sphere; that is to say, the highest conception of His being and personality is required in such a case as that before us. Of course it is always the same Christ in absolute perfection that is our atonement in fact, but the different values of the figures used indicate the different degrees of estimation in which His work is held by persons of different capacities. The poor man, that is, the man with a poor capacity and apprehension, brought a handful of meal that was his apprehension of Christ—very meager the rich man brings a bullock; that is his apprehension of Christ, a far higher degree of estimation. A great difference in apprehension but no difference whatever in application, for in each case the infinite merits of the infinite Savior apply. This difference of capacity to apprehend is often caused by the sense of the evil of sin being weaker in one than in another. The poor woman in Luke loved much, for she felt that she had been forgiven much; “but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little”.
In the leper's case it is not so much amplitude of apprehension as altitude of apprehension that is contemplated. It is the soul from out of its dungeon in the deepest abyss of human woe looking up and apprehending the advent of the heavenly Christ in His most celestial aspect, imprisoned and dying in the “earthen vessel,” —albeit over running water,—and the cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop—that is to say, all that pertains to the glory, majesty, and ambition—and even the humility—of the world, dipped in the blood, buried in the grave of Christ.
Happily that is not all, or it were but a dead hope. The priest takes in his hand, with the cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop, the second bird, the living bird; and plunging them all under the blood of the dead victim, he sprinkles the leper seven times there from—thus identifying him in the most solemn and awful way with the whole of these transactions. He then lets the living bird loose in the open field, and the leper is. pronounced clean. The meaning of all this is very obvious. It is the death and resurrection of Christ. In the slain bird He is delivered for our offenses; in the freed bird He is raised again for our justification. It is liberty out of condemnation. The idea of setting birds free in order to express deliverance from captivity,—as, for instance, the lazzaroni of Naples did in honor of Nelson after the battle of the Nile, by which conflict they considered their liberties secured,—is a very old and well-known one. In this case, the bird being dipped in the blood of the slain one is identified with it. It is in a sense the same bird. It is the same Savior risen again from the dead, and the fact is full of infinite meaning. Yet unfortunately how few give it consideration. How few consider what is implied by the resurrection of Christ, “for if Christ be not risen ye are yet in your sins;” there is no justification., nor is there assurance that the sacrifice is sufficient and acceptable, nor that there will ever be any resurrection at all.
Yet how many Christians there are who see only the slain bird, who stop at the cross and do not go forward to the opened sepulcher; and in consequence of this do not see how great and thorough their deliverance has been. That is why at the beginning the apostles used to preach “Jesus and the resurrection.”
The details are then given of the cleansed leper's consecration. He is the only one except the priest concerning whom such particulars are given. He is submitted to the action of water (the word), of blood (the Atonement) and of oil (the Holy Ghost) The water goes all over him. The blood is put on the tip of his right ear, the right thumb, and great toe, and then the oil on the same places, signifying that all that pertains to his actions, “walk,” and receptivity should be in accordance with the solemn ordeal through which he has passed—should be such as is not unbeseeming to one who has been cleansed by the blood of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Noblesse oblige. For the future his position demands of him a certain course of action, attitude, and thought. No blood is put upon the head but the remainder of the oil is poured thereon. “The head of every man is Christ,” and when Christ personally is typified, He is anointed without blood, for He was personally sinless and needed no expiation. Thus when the High Priest is separately consecrated, he is bathed and then directly the oil is put upon him in the same way as, when our Lord was baptized in the Jordan, He was “anointed by the Holy Ghost” by the immediate descent, in the form of a dove, of the divine Spirit. Had it been anyone else, atonement (either typically or otherwise) would have been required before the anointing could take place.
Thus is the leper raised from the very lowest depths of human misery to the highest altitudes of divine felicity, the variety and extremity of his need only serving to disclose—in a way that nothing else could—the exhaustless affluence of the unsearchable riches of Christ.
(continued from page 45.)