The Oil of Joy

Parashat Pekudei, Exodus 38:21-40:38

Ensign Jacob Landers, UMJC Endorsed U.S. Navy Chaplain Candidate

Kehilat Ariel Messianic Synagogue, San Diego

Pekudei, the name of this week’s parasha, means “amounts of” and refers to the items donated by the people of Israel to Moshe and Aaron for the building and equipping of the Mishkan, or Tabernacle, culminating in the anointing of the Mishkan with holy oil. “You shall take the anointing oil and anoint the Tabernacle and all that is in it to consecrate it and all its furnishings, so that it shall be holy” (Exod 40:9 JPS).

We don’t much use oil for anointing kings anymore (we haven’t had a king in Israel since Yeshua ascended to the right hand of the Father), but we do still have ceremonies by which we consecrate items like a Sefer Torah, or people–like a new Rabbi. Such ceremonies mark a point in time in which one thing has been completed and a new thing has begun, a new thing devoted to service to Hashem and Yeshua for the benefit of the Kehilah.

I once read a blog about making olive oil, which struck close to home . . . literally! (My family in Sparta, Greece, has owned a large olive orchard for as long as anyone in the village can remember, and the trees still produce oil). The article explained that olives must be pressed in order to get the “liquid gold” from them. They must be pressed and squeezed and crushed and beaten, as the oil oozes out. Inside each olive, however, is an unbreakable seed that contains the essence of what is needed for a new tree to grow. So, after the pressing, the broken skins and the seeds are removed, and the oil is strained multiple times to ensure it is pure and clear (and delicious!). In much the same way, Yeshua was crushed and beaten so that his pure anointing oil could be extracted, yet the seed of his words and his works could not be crushed. They were planted in each of us, growing further orchards.

Even in the word Mashiach, we find further illustration of this rich mystery; Mashiach מָשִׁיחַ – Anointed One, comes from the Hebrew word mashach משׁח – to smear or anoint with oil. When a person is anointed with oil, they shine; not because they become the source of light, but because they reflect the light. As the Ruach enters and indwells the Temple that is our own bodies once we are immersed and anointed with the “oil” of Messiah, we begin to reflect the light of Hashem (Matt 5:14-16). What does that look like? One answer comes from slightly rearranging the letters of mashach to spell samach שָׂמַח– to be joyful!

The Jewish tradition of immersions borrowed, in part, by Christians (Judaism has different kinds of immersions whereas Christianity has just one) is a different form of the kind of ceremony like anointing or laying of hands, but nonetheless just as sacred. In Hebrew we call it Tevilah and in Christianity it is called Baptism, from the Greek word “βαπτίζω” (Baptizo). Its usage outside of the context of the New Testament includes the practice of dying garments.

The garments of the Priesthood in Parashat Pekudei are intended to be pure linen, signifying the pure nature of the service of the priests: “See, I have removed your guilt from you, and you shall be clothed in [priestly] robes” (Zech 3:4). Baptism, however, appears to be almost the opposite – in dyeing cloth, a whole cloth is submerged into a vat of dye, usually multiple times (maybe three times?), so that it now looks different than it did before it was immersed. In a way, the cloth is no different than it was before – it still has the same thread count, the same weaving pattern and style, the same shape for the same purpose of covering the wearer – but, in another way, it is now fundamentally changed. Every fiber of its being has been irreversibly steeped in the dye, making it appear completely different, and yet, somehow still the same. In tevilah, or baptism, this process is almost like having the stains of the dye of guilt or sin removed.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. e

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isa. 1:18)

Just like the process of dyeing cloth, immersion does the same thing to us: we are somehow both changed to our very core and yet still somehow ourselves. Parts of us are precisely the same (our ethnicity, our hair, skin, and eye color, our height, our gender) and yet, we are somehow now different and new. Our minds, our perceptions, our words and actions all reflect this deep change in us. After being immersed in the “dye” of the blood of Messiah, and with the natural outflowing of the Spirit now living in us, we are now like the Mishkan, the Tabernacle in the wilderness, consecrated for the purpose of serving Hashem.

Each of us, Jew and Gentile, anointed and immersed in the oil of the sacrifice of Yeshua Tzidkeinu, when the Spirit has come to dwell in us, reflects the light of Hashem through our joy, simcha. We are who we were before we knew Messiah and yet somehow fundamentally changed, reflecting our God and our Master.

As the Tabernacle was anointed with the sacred oil in Parashat Pekudei, may we walk in the daily anointing of God’s Spirit by loving God and one another, by giving joyfully, and by reflecting the humility of Messiah in all that we do.