January 7, 1996, I preached a sermon from Leviticus 19:28 – “Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.” Earlier that week, I shared lunch with several pastors who asked me what our church was doing about tattoos. I told them that the question hadn’t come up. How sheltered we were.
Fast forward to today. According to the Pew Research Center as many as one-third of millennials – those who reached young adulthood around the year 2000 – have a tattoo. Some estimate that half of all women under 35 have one. And there are many more than millennials who hide or sport tattoos. My older sister is one of only a few in her aerobic swim class without one.
This verse – apparently forbidding tattoos – raises profound questions for us. Was this a civil law, like some portions of Leviticus, intended only for the nation of Israel – but not for us? Some tattoos show gang allegiance or are satanic and encourage self-mutilation. Is that what is forbidden here? What about tattoos that are beautiful – meaningful? Our bodies are temples of God. Although God did not have wicked art in his temple, he did encourage beauty there. Is the same standard to be applied to tattoos?
Such questions have answers. I attempted to present many of those as I preached.
But, now, let me tell you a story. More than a decade after preaching that sermon – while walking to my Helena office, I met Bones, a tattoo artist and the son of a General. During high school, he had attended a private Christian school. I quoted Leviticus 19:28 and asked him what it meant. He’d given it a lot of thought.
Bones knew the word “tattoo” comes from the Hebrew word “queque” and is one of those rare words that is only used once in the Bible. No other passage helps us understand this word. Bottom line: we aren’t certain that “tattoo” is the best translation for “queque.”
But Bones also knew we were not at a dead end. Many times, the Hebrews rhymed ideas rather than words. Consider Leviticus 19:32 – “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly.” “Rise in the presence of the aged” and “show respect for the elderly” are rhyming ideas – they repeat what has just been said with a bit of variety. In the same way, “Do not put tattoo marks on yourselves,” may be intended to rhyme with “Do not cut your bodies for the dead.”
An Indonesian friend of mine, a long-time executive for Nortel, told me that cutting off a portion of your little finger is still practiced by some Indonesians as an expression of grief. To see pictures of similar mutilation, Google the Dani tribe of New Guinea.
Bones understood that some people cut or tattoo themselves on behalf of the dead. He would remove, free of charge, tattoos that honored death and destruction.
But did the Jews have the understanding Bones did? God reiterated this command in Deuteronomy 14:1 “Do not cut yourselves…for the dead.” Still, eight hundred years later, Jeremiah (41:5) tells us some Jews were still cutting themselves for the dead.
Our resistance to God’s standards can run deep. In the 1960’s the campaign: “Keep America Beautiful, Don’t Be a Litterbug” gained traction. We simply don’t litter today the way people once did. More recent laws that banned smoking from bars and restaurants have changed entrenched habits. But to some extent, God’s campaign to limit grieving Jews from cutting themselves failed in Israel.
Let’s get the bigger picture too. In Leviticus 19:28 God is also telling us we must put boundaries on expressing grief. Some who wouldn’t be caught dead with a tattoo are willing to let grief master them. God’s counsel is: “Don’t give grief the last word.”
In the Bible, there are acceptable ways of expressing grief – like shedding tears. The prophet Micah wrote -1:8 – “I will weep and wail; I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.” Jesus wept. Often clothes were torn in grief: Joshua, David, Hezekiah, Elisha, Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes.
Still, God limited the expression of grief – his people were not to cut themselves.
And to the man who said – Luke 9:59, 60 – “‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Jesus replied, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’” There is much to grieve in this world. Jesus knows that grief is one of the powerful emotions we can experience. We have little or no control over it. It can be like a terrorist – attacking without warning. For some of us, grief is fresh. But, Leviticus 19:28 and Luke 9:60 tell us that grief is not God.
Jesus is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus has great “compassion” – our English word means “to suffer with.” “Splanknizomai” is a tongue twisting Greek word that is often translated as “compassion.” It means: “being kicked in the gut.” There is nothing genteel about “splanknizomai.” “Splanknizomai” is used twelve times in the New Testament. Each is connected with Jesus. Jesus shows us that God is willing to suffer with us. He does not live in distant untouchability. Christian and those who will yet believe, Jesus has come near – to suffer with us – and more – to suffer for us on the cross. After his resurrection, he could have removed his stigmata. But, he did not. His scars were his Exhibit A to his disciples. He now displays those scars in heaven. In Latin, they are called ostentatio vulnerum – “ostentatious wounds.” He was willing to bear the stigmata of the cross – to be “cut” – can we say “tattooed?” – so that we would not grieve as others who have no hope.
Now, instead of the ache of grief mastering us, the love of Jesus may win us. Be astonished at how far the holy God goes to demonstrate his love for sinners like us. Meditate on Jesus’ vulnerability – his wounds – and realize the honor we have when by faith we join “doubting” Thomas. Upon seeing Jesus’ wounds, Thomas declared: “My Lord and my God.”
Although we “mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15), we focus on Jesus. He promised – Matthew 5:4 – “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Ultimately, life is not a tragedy for those who trust God. Psalm 30:5 – “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” In our grief, despite our grief let’s proclaim the kingdom of God.
