Leviticus 1-4 - It's not just the thought that counts - details on offerings

Atonement for sin is a messy business; according to the biblical picture, it is in a sense bloody expensive.

Just a couple of comments on this section.

Firstly, the sacrifices are quite 'participatory' - e.g. the burnt offering involves identifying oneself with the slaughtered animal through laying hands on it, and the sin offering involves the priest dipping his finger in the blood of a bull and sprinkling it in the sanctuary. It seems to me that atonement was made tangible in these ways. Today perhaps a similar participation for us is to take part in the Lord's Supper, chewing the bread and gulping the wine in remembrance of the one-time sacrifice that unlike these ones mentioned in Leviticus does not need to be repeated and facilitated by a succession of priests.

Secondly, unintentional sins are also taken very seriously, whether of the community's leaders or of other community members (chapter 5). As Christ's sacrifice is a fulfilment of these things too, it has covered both our intentional and unintentional wrongdoings - both are in need of forgiveness, and both have the same ultimate solution. Thanks are due to God for making a way to right our broken relationship with himself; broken in various ways - sometimes publicly, sometimes privately - and often without our explicit awareness, but mended in just one, public, way.