Its been a few years since Ive read them, but I believe the Harry Potter books use a phrase: mudblood. Please, fans, dont crucify me if Im wrong but I believe the phrase refers to someone, like Hermione, who has a mixed heritage. One parent is magical and the other just a muggle. Did you ever think about what that phrase would look like in real life?
They say that during the crusades that when the so called Christians retook Jerusalem they went on such a rampage, that the streets had literally become rivers of blood. Muslim, Jew, Eastern Christian nobody was safe who was not wearing a crusader badge. Jerusalem was a dry, dusty city. Imagine what those rivers of blood must have looked like as battle drunk men waded through it soaked in the stuff looking for someone else to kill, something else to rob. Blood and dirt ran down together painting the city in horror.
Mudblood. The phrase is what came to mind earlier this week as I was reading Leviticus 8 and it seems whenever Ive had some down time Ive been thinking about historical instances of mudblood. Trust me, Ive been down some gory, brutal mental pathways, not much of it worth repeating here. Mudblood. I guess you can say Ive had some pretty dirty thoughts.
But thats the kicker. Theyre not impure. I know, theyre not quite Ivory clean but I think over time weve lost sight of what purity is really all about. Maybe youve got a more disciplined mind than me but Im guilty, often if not all the time, of thinking that if I can stay away from this, if I can avoid that, if I can keep the other thing far from me then I can stay pure. Fathers give their daughters a purity ring in the hopes that will help their princess stay away from the boys. In our striving for purity we try to stay away from the movies, dont listen to that music, and cut ourselves off from any friends who would rather sleep in or go fishing than dress up for their Sunday afternoon communal nap from eleven until noon at the pretty building on Main Street.
None of that makes us pure. The only thing that can make us pure is mudblood. We are pure only when we come into excessive contact with blood that has been soaked in this world. Lets go back to that first thought I had about mudblood. The story is found in Leviticus 8 but I dont know how many dozens of times Ive read it without really seeing what was going on. Moses, Aaron, and his boys are all there. Aaron and his boys all had their hands on a bulls head. (With much trepidation, Im sure. This is, after all, their first rodeo) While they stand there Moses slaughters the beast. He dips his fingers in the blood and touches them to the four corners of the altar. The bull then has the rest of its blood drained at the base of the altar.
That would be gory enough but the story doesnt end there. After taking out the intestines, the kidneys, liver, and all the fat and burning it all right there (while the dust underfoot soaks up the blood) they drag the rest of the carcass away and bring in a ram. Rams are surly creatures. I can imagine how much fun it must have been trying to get it there and everybody to put their hands on its head while theyre covered in blood and it is smelling all the blood and death and fire from the recently departed bull. After splashing its blood on the sides of altar, cutting it in pieces and burning some of them (including the head) right there its time to do it again. This time before they splash the rest of the blood on the sides of the altar, some of it gets to be put on Aaron and his kids. Lucky them. Later on they get to have their clothes splashed in blood as well.
Now heres the kicker. Theyre drenched in blood. This altar, made in gold by the most talented artist in human history (according to God), has been soaked in it. Three times. Right here, or at least in the immediate area, the three animals have been ripped apart. The Bible includes the poop (the offal, dung, etc depending on the version youre reading) among the parts carted away so you know were not just smelling some backyard barbecue. Theyre doing all this in the wilderness so its not like theres drainage ditches set up like there eventually be at the Temple so Moses and Aaron and his boys are all walking around in mudblood.
This is how Aaron was made pure. This is how the altar was made pure. It wasnt done so by the Holy Spirit filled artist who created it. It wasnt the gold, the beauty, or the pristine nature of it when Bezalel put in his finishing touches of his greatest work. It was made pure when gallon upon gallon of blood was put above and on all its sides and then that blood drenched the ground on where it stood.
Another mudblood memory. I dont think Ive seen a gorier movie than The Passion. Theres Jesus, beaten beyond what would have killed many. Hes drenched in it. The flesh from his back hangs in ribbons. Now theyre trying to make Him carry his crossbeam down the dusty road to the place of the skull. Problem is, every few steps he stumbles to the ground. Finally they break protocol and get someone to carry it for him. At this point the dirt from the ground has mingled with the blood pumping from a heart that refuses to stop. He has become mudblood.
And that is how I am made pure. It happens when his blood drenches me. The more Im willing to be covered in it, the more holy I become. But not just me, like the altar, it then flows off me to cover the world I stand in. Through him I become mudblood. It is a gory, disgusting, vulgar mental image, I know. But I am made pure because someone else got dirty. I am made holy because he bled out. I am clean because of His mudblood.
