MaxLucado.com: Pigeonholing
Life is so much easier if we can put labels on people! Pigeonholing permits us to wash our hands and leave.
“Oh I know him—he’s an alcoholic.
“She’s a liberal Democrat.”
“He’s divorced.”
Categorizing others creates distance and gives us a convenient exit strategy for avoiding involvement. Jesus took an entirely different approach. He was all about including people.
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”
Jesus touched lepers and loved foreigners. His Facebook page included the likes of Matthew the IRS agent, and some floozy he met at Simon’s house. Jesus set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave. He became human!
Jesus sends this message: Don’t call any person common. Don’t call any person unfit! Every person matters to God.
From GRACE
Leviticus 16
The Day of Atonement
1–2 16 After the death of Aaron’s two sons—they died when they came before God with strange fire—God spoke to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to enter into the Holy of Holies, barging inside the curtain that’s before the Atonement-Cover on the Chest whenever he feels like it, lest he die, because I am present in the Cloud over the Atonement-Cover.
3–5 “This is the procedure for Aaron when he enters the Holy Place: He will bring a young bull for an Absolution-Offering and a ram for a Whole-Burnt-Offering; he will put on the holy linen tunic and the linen underwear, tie the linen sash around him, and put on the linen turban. These are the sacred vestments so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. Then from the Israelite community he will bring two male goats for an Absolution-Offering and a Whole-Burnt-Offering.
6–10 “Aaron will offer the bull for his own Absolution-Offering in order to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he will set the two goats before God at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and cast lots over the two goats, one lot for God and the other lot for Azazel. He will offer the goat on which the lot to God falls as an Absolution-Offering. The goat on which the lot for Azazel falls will be sent out into the wilderness to Azazel to make atonement.
11–14 “Aaron will present his bull for an Absolution-Offering to make atonement for himself and his household. He will slaughter his bull for the Absolution-Offering. He will take a censer full of burning coals from the Altar before God and two handfuls of finely ground aromatic incense and bring them inside the curtain and put the incense on the fire before God; the smoke of the incense will cover the Atonement-Cover which is over The Testimony so that he doesn’t die. He will take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the Atonement-Cover, then sprinkle the blood before the Atonement-Cover seven times.
15–17 “Next he will slaughter the goat designated as the Absolution-Offering for the people and bring the blood inside the curtain. He will repeat what he does with the bull’s blood, sprinkling it on and before the Atonement-Cover. In this way he will make atonement for the Holy of Holies because of the uncleannesses of the Israelites, their acts of rebellion, and all their other sins. He will do the same thing for the Tent of Meeting which dwells among the people in the midst of their uncleanness. There is to be no one in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Holy of Holies until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole community of Israel.
18–19 “Then he will come out to the Altar that is before God and make atonement for it. He will take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and smear it all around the four horns of the Altar. With his finger he will sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times to purify and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the Israelites.
20–22 “When Aaron finishes making atonement for the Holy of Holies, the Tent of Meeting, and the Altar, he will bring up the live goat, lay both hands on the live goat’s head, and confess all the iniquities of the People of Israel, all their acts of rebellion, all their sins. He will put all the sins on the goat’s head and send it off into the wilderness, led out by a man standing by and ready. The goat will carry all their iniquities to an empty wasteland; the man will let him loose out there in the wilderness.
23–25 “Finally, Aaron will come into the Tent of Meeting and take off the linen clothes in which he dressed to enter the Holy of Holies and leave them there. He will bathe in water in a Holy Place, put on his priestly vestments, offer the Whole-Burnt-Offering for himself and the Whole-Burnt-Offering for the people, making atonement for himself and the people, and burn the fat of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar.
26–28 “The man who takes the goat out to Azazel in the wilderness then will wash his clothes and bathe himself with water. After that he will be permitted to come back into the camp. The bull for the Absolution-Offering and the goat for the Absolution-Offering, whose blood has been taken into the Holy of Holies to make atonement, are to be taken outside the camp and burned—their hides, their meat, and their entrails. The man assigned to burn them up will then wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. Then he is free to come back into the camp.
29–31 “This is standard practice for you, a perpetual ordinance. On the tenth day of the seventh month, both the citizen and the foreigner living with you are to enter into a solemn fast and refrain from all work, because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. In the presence of God you will be made clean of all your sins. It is a Sabbath of all Sabbaths. You must fast. It is a perpetual ordinance.
32 “The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father is to make the atonement:
He puts on the sacred linen garments;
33 He purges the Holy of Holies by making atonement;
He purges the Tent of Meeting and the Altar by making atonement;
He makes atonement for the priests and all the congregation.
34 “This is a perpetual ordinance for you: Once a year atonement is to be made for all the sins of the People of Israel.”
And Aaron did it, just as God commanded Moses.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Sunday, August 31, 2025
by Karen Huang
TODAY'S SCRIPTURE
Mark 1:40-45
A leper came to him, begging on his knees, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”
41–45 Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there the leprosy was gone, his skin smooth and healthy. Jesus dismissed him with strict orders: “Say nothing to anyone. Take the offering for cleansing that Moses prescribed and present yourself to the priest. This will validate your healing to the people.” But as soon as the man was out of earshot, he told everyone he met what had happened, spreading the news all over town. So Jesus kept to out-of-the-way places, no longer able to move freely in and out of the city. But people found him, and came from all over.
Today's Insights
After Jesus showed compassion and healed the man with leprosy, He gave him “a strong warning: ‘See that you don’t tell this to anyone’ ” (Mark 1:43-44). He gave similar warnings in Mark 1:34; 3:12 (these commands were to evil spirits); 5:43; 7:36; 8:30; and 9:9. Why wouldn’t Christ want people to know He was the Messiah? Because it wasn’t yet time for His identity to be fully revealed. Jesus was still establishing His authority over our enemy the devil with His miracles and teaching. Christ understood how seeing these miracles might cause people to jump to the wrong conclusion about His mission and purpose. Regardless, He never sought publicity. In Mark 1, because the man spread the news of his healing despite Jesus’ warning, He chose to remain “outside [the towns] in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere” (v. 45). We’re always drawn to this one who lovingly removes our shame as we believe in Him.
Jesus Reaches for You
Jesus . . . reached out his hand and touched the man. Mark 1:41
Letty, a cleaner in an office building, was known for walking fast—really fast. In doing so, she could easily avoid people. Wounded by poverty and accustomed to condescension, she passed others with one hand reflexively covering part of her face. Her shame, in her words, over not being “like normal, beautiful, educated people,” was profoundly deep. When a woman at work extended her friendship, Letty began to heal.
A man with leprosy lived with a shame perhaps deeper than Letty’s. His disease rendered him revolting and ceremonially unclean by standards of the Mosaic law, separating him from mainstream society. The man’s wounds weren’t just physical; they were also lesions of the soul and spirit. With this woundedness, the leper approached Christ, begging, “If you are willing, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). Heal me, he was saying, but also remove my shame.
Jesus responded not with repulsion but with compassion. “I am willing,” He said, “Be clean!” as He reached out and touched the man (v. 41). Just like the friendship extended to Letty by a coworker, Jesus’ gesture was one of understanding all that the man had suffered and of acceptance despite it all.
We may walk through life hiding what we feel separates us from “normal, beautiful, educated people.” May we allow Jesus to touch and redeem these things that cause us shame. May we know that as God's children, we’re accepted and loved.
Reflect & Pray
What makes you feel shame? How can you entrust this to Christ’s redeeming love?
Dear Jesus, thank You for reaching out to me.
For further study, read Fully Human and Fully Free.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Sunday, August 31, 2025
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. — John 15:11
What is the joy Jesus mentions here? It isn’t mere happiness; using the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ is an insult. The joy of Jesus was the joy of surrendering and sacrificing himself to his Father. It was the joy of doing exactly what his Father sent him to do: “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). Jesus prayed that our joy might go on fulfilling itself until it was the same joy as his. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce his joy to me?
The fullness of my life lies not in bodily health, not in external events, not in seeing God’s work succeed. It lies in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with him that Jesus himself had. The first thing that will upset this communion is the irritation that comes from trying to control my circumstances. The worries of this life, said Jesus, will choke the word of God (Mark 4:19). God’s aim is to get me beyond worry to the place where I will be his witness and proclaim who Jesus is. Everything God has done for me until now is the mere threshold of this deeper relationship with him.
Be rightly related to God, find your joy in him, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a center through which Jesus Christ can pour living water. Stop being self-conscious, stop being smug and self-righteous, and start living the life that is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing. The lives that have been of most blessing to you are those which were unconscious of their influence.
Psalms 132-134; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The main characteristic which is the proof of the indwelling Spirit is an amazing tenderness in personal dealing, and a blazing truthfulness with regard to God’s Word.
Disciples Indeed, 386 R
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