Jesus, Take My Fat
/I need a Skinny Mirror! A few years ago, a woman pitched such a thing on the TV show, Shark Tank, that reflected a slimmer image of yourself to improve your self-esteem. She didn’t get a deal and closed the business a few months later, which is too bad because I could use the momentary deception. I know, a healthier option would be to actually shed some LBs and have the slimmer body the mirror shows, but, c’mon, sometimes it’s easier to look slimmer than to lose weight.
Considering more than vanity, I’m going to wrap my head around slimming down. Dieting would help me lose excess fat but, if I really want to be healthier, exercise also needs to be part of the equation. I’m not always motivated to exercise, though, and other things, like work, family, and (add your own excuse here) often get in the way. It would be easier if we could say to someone, “Here, take my fat,” but that’s ridiculous. Not only is it impossible, but who would want MORE fat, after all?
Who would want more fat? I wasn’t trying to answer that question while reading Leviticus but, by now, I’ve learned that sometimes I find answers that generate some pretty odd questions. Here’s the set up… in Leviticus 1 and 3, God gave Moses instructions about the sacrifices the Israelites should offer on the altar. There’s the burnt offering made as an atonement for sin in chapter one where, since sin infects the whole body, the entire animal was burnt by the priests. But the peace offering in chapter three was made in thanksgiving and petition, and so was to be divided between God, the priest and the person making the offering because peace is enjoyed in communion and friendship. In this three-way split, the priest and the offeror got the meat, and God got...yep, the fat.
There’s the answer—God wants more fat. He wants it so much that He even commanded it be given to Him.
“From the sacrifice of the peace offerings, he shall present an offering by fire to the LORD, the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them…” (Leviticus 3:3-4)
Those instructions are specific to a cow or bull being offered, but the entire chapter essentially repeats them for other animals. But why is God interested enough in animal fat to take up a whole chapter? Well, for a few reasons:
God wants the best we have to offer, and the fat is the most flavorful part of the animal.
As the most flavorful part, it also represents our desire for "flavor," or for the affections and lusts He wants us to sacrifice along with our offer of thanks.
Those affections and lusts are corruption within us, just as fat is within the animal. By taking the fat, God shows that He’s concerned more with what’s inside us than how we look on the outside.
Now, we can read that part of the Bible and these notes above and still think they’re not relevant to us. I mean, raise your hand if you still make animal sacrifices when offering thanks. Yeah, that’s what I thought. But before we absolve ourselves from it completely, let’s step back for a wider view and ask, “Um, can we respond to this?”
Well, it is good to thank God for what He does for us. And we can be thankful that He wants to help us lose weight, that is, the weight of our sin, because just like excess pounds, shedding sin helps us look better and makes us healthier, better people. Thinking of our sin like weight we carry, we can even consider giving God the fat is handing over the “corruption within us.”
Perhaps we still struggle with thinking of fat as a good thing to give to God, but only if we’re looking at it from our perspective and not His (which I think we can do, here). For one thing, our obedience in doing so pleases Him and even ratifies our thankfulness (because without obedience, we are only deceiving ourselves by thinking our thanks is fooling Him). And for another, removing that fat (sin) makes room within us for His mercies. It’s not that He doesn’t give mercy to sinners (or we’d all be lost), but ask yourself this, “If I’m filled with corruption, where will I put the good things He wants to give me? Right next to it?” I don’t think so.
But maybe we get it, that God requires our fat to be burnt to save our hearts, but still question how to give it to Him. Nobody raised their hand earlier to say they’re still making animal sacrifices, after all, at least not that I could see. We do know of the sacrifice Jesus’ death on the cross made for us, though, and it’s through that work that our sins have already been handed over to God, IF we acknowledge and accept His sacrifice.
And one more thing about Jesus’ sacrifice. When Moses recorded God's instructions, their sacrifices were made at the doorway of the tabernacle, which only the priests could go through. That door, then, was the nearest the people could get to God. Jesus invites us in, through the doorway:
"I am the door; by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." (John 10:9)
So, here’s the thing… forget the health benefits and better self-image for now. We’re too fat to even get through the door to accept Jesus’ sacrifice and offer of salvation, unless we pay that simple cover charge of giving it to Him.