Life, Death, and Laundry: The Gospel in Leviticus Text: Leviticus 11:39-40
Introduction: God's Gigantic Object Lesson
We live in an age that is deeply uncomfortable with distinctions. Our culture wants to blur every line, erase every boundary, and flatten every hierarchy that God in His wisdom has established. But the book of Leviticus is a standing rebuke to this entire project. Leviticus is a book of lines, a book of distinctions. It is God teaching His people the fundamental grammar of reality, which is this: holy is not the same as common, clean is not the same as unclean, and life is not the same as death.
Now, when modern Christians come to a passage like the one before us, there is a temptation to either skip it as irrelevant Bronze Age weirdness or to treat it as a mere matter of hygiene. And while it is certainly true that God in His kindness gave His people laws that promoted public health, cleanliness is next to godliness, but it is not godliness itself. The primary purpose of these laws was not to teach Israel about germs, but to teach Israel about God. These ceremonial laws were a gigantic audio visual aid. For centuries, God was teaching His people a lesson with their lunch, with their laundry, and with their livestock. He was teaching them to think His thoughts after Him. This, not that. Here, not there. This is the way of life, and that is the way of death.
The laws in Leviticus 11 are not fundamentally about what is morally good or evil. Touching a dead animal was not a sin in the same way that adultery or theft was a sin. It was a ritual defilement. It made an Israelite ceremonially unclean, which meant he was temporarily unfit to approach the tabernacle, the dwelling place of the holy God. The entire system was a constant, physical reminder that a holy God dwells in the midst of a sinful people in a fallen world, and that access to Him cannot be on our own terms. Sin and death bring defilement, and defilement must be cleansed before fellowship can be restored. This is not just an Old Testament principle; it is the bedrock logic of the gospel.
The Text
‘Also if one of the animals dies which you have for food, the one who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening. He too, who eats some of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening, and the one who picks up its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.’
(Leviticus 11:39-40 LSB)
The Problem of Uncontrolled Death (v. 39)
We begin with the scenario God lays out in verse 39:
"‘Also if one of the animals dies which you have for food, the one who touches its carcass becomes unclean until evening.’" (Leviticus 11:39)
Notice the specific situation. This is not just any animal; it is one of the clean animals, one that the Israelites were permitted to eat. A cow, a sheep, a goat. But this animal "dies." It dies of itself. It was not properly slaughtered. The life was not drained out in a controlled, covenantal, sacrificial way. Death just... happened. This is a picture of death as it operates in a fallen world, an intruder, a consequence of the curse. Death is the wages of sin, and its presence is contaminating.
In the Levitical world, death is the ultimate source of ceremonial uncleanness. Why? Because God is the living God. He is the fountain of all life. Death is the antithesis of His nature. Therefore, to come into contact with death, even the death of a clean animal, was to come into contact with the consequence of sin, and this created a ritual barrier between the person and the presence of the God of life. It was a tangible sermon illustration. Every time an Israelite found a dead sheep in the field, he was reminded of the deadliness of sin.
The consequence for touching this carcass is straightforward: the person "becomes unclean until evening." This is not a permanent state. It is a temporary, ritual disqualification. He is, for a time, set outside the full fellowship of the camp's worship. The "evening" marks the end of the day. A new day represents a new beginning. This simple rule taught the Israelite that defilement is a real problem, but also that God has provided a way for it to be resolved. It is a small picture of the daily rhythm of repentance and faith. We sin, we are defiled, but through the means God has provided, we can be cleansed and restored before the day is done. "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5).
The Gradations of Defilement (v. 40)
Verse 40 expands on the principle by showing that the level of contact with death determines the level of response required.
"He too, who eats some of its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening, and the one who picks up its carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening." (Leviticus 11:40)
Here we have two actions: eating the carcass and carrying the carcass. Both result in the same consequences: uncleanness until evening, plus the additional requirement to "wash his clothes." Simply touching the carcass (v. 39) resulted only in temporary uncleanness. But eating it, taking that which is a symbol of death into yourself, or carrying it, bearing its weight, is a more significant contact with defilement. Therefore, a more significant act of cleansing is required.
This is God teaching His people that there are degrees of involvement with the things that defile. It is one thing to brush up against a problem; it is another thing to ingest it or to shoulder it. The law is training their consciences to be sensitive. But the remedy is what is most instructive. "Wash his clothes." Our clothes represent our external life, our actions, our habits. The washing is a physical picture of purification. It is an outward act that symbolizes an inward reality. You cannot just wait out this kind of defilement; you must take active steps to be cleansed.
This is not about getting dirt off your tunic. It is about God teaching a spiritual lesson through a physical act. The defilement of death must be washed away. This points forward to the spiritual cleansing we need. The writer to the Hebrews picks up this theme, arguing that if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer could sanctify for the purification of the flesh, "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrews 9:14). All this Levitical laundry was pointing to the ultimate, soul-cleansing work of Jesus Christ.
From the Carcass to the Cross
So what does this mean for us? We are not under the Levitical code. Christ has come. Peter was told in a vision to "kill and eat," signifying that these ceremonial distinctions have been fulfilled and set aside (Acts 10:13). So we are free to eat a steak from a cow that was struck by lightning, though for reasons of prudence and taste we might choose not to. The audio visual aid has served its purpose because the reality it pointed to has arrived.
But the underlying grammar remains. God is still holy. Sin and death still defile. And we still need cleansing. The world we live in is full of spiritual carcasses. We are constantly touching, carrying, and sometimes even ingesting the defilement of a world that lies in the power of the evil one. We are stained by sin, our own and others'. Our consciences become unclean.
The Israelite had a simple, tangible remedy. He was unclean until evening, and he washed his clothes. This was a daily, weekly reality. For us, the remedy is just as accessible, but infinitely more profound. We have been defiled by contact with death, the spiritual death that pervades our world. But Jesus Christ, the Lord of Life, entered into our world of death. He touched the ultimate uncleanness. He touched leprosy and was not made unclean; He made the leper clean. He touched the dead and was not defiled; He raised the dead to life.
On the cross, He did not just touch a carcass; He became one for us. He who knew no sin was made to be sin, and He suffered the full consequence of defilement, which is separation from the presence of the holy God. He bore our uncleanness so that we could be clothed in His perfect cleanness. He became unclean so that we might be made holy.
Therefore, when we are defiled by sin, when our conscience is heavy, the principle of Leviticus still applies. We must be cleansed. But we do not just wash our clothes in water. We wash our robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). We do this through confession and repentance. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). This is our washing. This is how we are made clean. The old covenant provided a temporary cleansing until evening. The new covenant provides a definitive, eternal cleansing through the blood of Christ, applied to us afresh every time we come to Him in faith.
So let us learn the lesson of the carcass. Let us be sensitive to the defilement of sin and death. But let us not despair. The remedy has been provided. The fountain has been opened. Come, and wash, and be clean.