Jwquaker's Blog
Sermon
Provoked to Love
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
November 14, 2021
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Hebrews 10:11-25
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
The past few weeks we have camped out on the concept of the priesthood of Jesus. The writer of Hebrews spends a great deal of time comparing the priesthood of Israel in the tabernacle and the Temple and that of Jesus. He spends so much time comparing the two that it almost becomes so repetitive that we begin to lose interest. We begin to overlook the connections and are tempted to skip forward to something else. Yeah, yeah, yeah Jesus is a priest what’s next. We forget the importance of the priesthood.
The entire point of the book of Hebrews is about identity. The reason it is called the book of Hebrews is because the main recipients of this letter were those followers of Jesus who came from Israel. We might not fully understand the significance of this, but for those followers they are facing a significant crisis of identity. To the people of Israel, the Torah was important. The books of Moses, what we know as the books of the Law, set them apart from the rest of the world. Without this who are they?
As we read through the gospels and the book of Acts, we notice the greatest threat to the Israelites was to be put out of the synagogue. The synagogue during the first century was the center of the Israelite culture. The synagogue was the center of education. It was the place where disputes were brought for discussion and justice was sought. The synagogue was more than a place of worship, it was the hub of their very society. And these synagogues were ruled by various scribes or teachers of the law, some of which were priests that had rotational obligations at the temple.
If the synagogue was the place of cultural acceptance and unity among the people, the temple was the place of acceptance within the larger story. The temple connected the synagogues or the people with the divine. To be put out of the synagogue severed not only your place within a community, but it questioned the very core of your identity. You were a member of God’s people, and now you are denied access to the only place where communion with God was found. Every time you approached that holy place scandal followed. The apostle Paul faced this struggle. One of the reasons for his arrest was that it was believed that he had brought a Gentile inside the place within the temple reserved only for the chosen people of God. The person in question was a friend from Ephesus who was seen with Paul in Jerusalem, but there was no evidence that he had brought him into the temple, it was all based on assumptions. This did not stop the accusations, and Paul was accused and beaten nearly to death.
The earliest followers of Jesus faced great struggles. They faced persecution, they faced false accusations, they faced ridicule. They faced all of this for one reason, they believed that God through Jesus was restoring all people. This new theology threatened what those within the religious community taught. It questioned their understanding and their power.
We sometimes do not recognize the power acceptance within a community has on us, even as adults. We recognize that acceptance is important to students we speak a great deal about peer pressure among the younger members within our community. Influences that our peers might make in our lives that might lead us into behavior that our community has accepted as being deviant in some way. When I was a student, this largely revolved around the consumption of Alcohol. We do our best to teach our children the dangers the world might pull them into and how those things might trap us into a life and lifestyle that is not best for them. Often though the teaching comes across as legalistic adherence to rules that no one can fully explain. Which often drives our children toward the very lifestyle we tried to convince them to avoid.
This is what those first century believers were facing. One side is urging them to return to the life they grew up in and the other is urging them to remain with Christ. One side has centuries of well thought out and presented teachings, and the other is a mystery. One lifestyle everyone knows their place, and the other is an adventure opening before them.
We find ourselves in positions like this. We all hesitate at the very thought of change. This is why the writer of Hebrews takes such pains in explaining the priesthood and comparing it to Christ. “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.” How many of us have thought about the sacrifices that were offered in the temple? I am going to make a wild guess and say nearly none of us. I say this because for two thousand years we have been reading the teachings of the Old Testament through the eyes of the New. The confusing sacrifices mention in the Torah we easily cover with Jesus because we have had this taught to us. It might surprise us that not one sacrifice ever took away sin. Not one.
It might be a shocking statement because we often read about sin offerings, I even spoke a couple of weeks ago about the offering made on the Day of Atonement. From our perspective these offerings were made to remove the sin, but that was not the intent. The sacrificial system was set up to illustrate the separation of humankind and the divine realm. We often look at the work done by the priests as making the people acceptable before God, but in reality, all the sacrifices are there to prevent our sinfulness from infecting the sacred places. The blood of the animals sacrificed during the rituals could never redeem the people, they were there to remind us that our sinfulness had a cost and if we wanted to have communion with God it would also come with a price. In today’s imagine we as humans are infected with the virus of sin, and the sacrifices are like masks. They are used to help prevent the spread of the disease, but not a cure.
Every day people would bring offering to the tent or the temple. Every day the priest would do their duty within that sacred space. Every day the entire community would look and watch as people struggled to the carry or drag livestock through the city and standing in line as countless other attempt to do the same. And everyone knows something. They know what each animal is for because they themselves have had to bring one at some point. Imagine the gossip that might erupt if someone in high standing within the community had to walk through town dragging a few bulls behind them.
The sacrificial system is not a cure, it is a visual reminder of our inadequacies. It is a testimony to the entire community that even the most righteous among us cannot stand before God, without a protective barrier. The writer of Hebrews says why would you want to go back to that? Why would you want to return to a system where there is no assurance, where there is not true communion. “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
One single sacrifice. The writer of Hebrews is showing us that what Christ offers is greater than anything we can offer. Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, while the priests of the temple are skittering around the footstool. He is right there with God.
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
Jesus opens before us something even greater than Israel experienced before. True friendship with God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” Through Jesus we are invited back. We are called to enter once again that place our first parents experienced before the deception in the garden. We are called to walk with God once again, not as creatures but as friends and members of his family. Through Jesus everything that once separated us from God is removed and forgotten, we are renewed and restored. We can know this because Jesus told his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for us. We know this because he told Thomas, “You believe because you have seen, blessed are those that believe yet have not seen.” We have not seen the risen Christ yet the place He prepared for his disciples is also open to us if we believe.
What is belief? I have mentioned often that there are three types of belief. The first is knowledge. We know something and we accept that knowledge in our minds. The second type of belief is trust. This form of belief recognizes that what we know has merit so we begin to enact it into aspects of our life. The third type or stage of belief is entrusting. This level of belief is faith. We have recognized not only the merits of the knowledge and observed it in some aspects of our lives. Now we have confidence to entrust what we have to that lifestyle. This is what Jesus and the writer of Hebrews is calling us to. Life filled with meaningless effort, or a life of Friendship with Christ.
There is power in the argument made by the author of this letter. Every animal sacrificed for the altar in the temple did not return to the flock. Yet Christ was crucified before the entire nation on a cross. He was sealed in a tomb, not just sealed but guarded because the teachers of the law listened to Jesus as he taught and they knew that he said destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days. They placed guards at the tomb because they knew that something might happen, because they knew that this same Jesus had restored to life a man that had been buried several days in tomb. Jesus laid in that tomb surrounded by guards, yet on the third day the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty of everything but the grave clothes. The tomb was empty, and everyone knew it because they had put a seal on the stone. Now they must explain why. The disciples claimed that Jesus was restored to life. Not just one or two, but scripture tells us that he appeared and ate with all the disciples, and to his unbelieving brother, and to the seventy, and Paul tells us Jesus appeared to more than five hundred at the same time. Jesus rose from the dead. Death is the penalty of sin, yet Jesus overcame death and is restored to life. We that believe are joined into that life, even though we face death we know that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, because he has faithfully proven this.
Why continue to strive with empty rituals of righteousness? Why do we continue to struggle to merit God’s acceptance through our own actions and abilities? Why do we continue to try to prove to those around us that we are good enough in ourselves? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Not one of us is righteous in ourselves. But while we were still sinners Christ died for us. While we still lacked faith, Christ rose for us. And while we still struggle Christ speaks for us to his Father, saying they are my friends.
“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering,” the author says. “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” This takes us back to peer pressure. The term to stir up is to provoke. Usually this is a negative thought, but just as we can be provoked or irritated enough to participate in the lusts of this world, we can also be provoked or encouraged to do good. The author encourages us, to turn away from the pressures of the religious, and the world and to focus on something greater. Provoke each other to love, and to good works. This is not empty attempts of righteousness to gain God’s favor, but participation in what Jesus has started in us. He has removed the sting of death and given us the hope of life everlasting through him. Our sins are forgotten by God, and Jesus is whispering in the Father’s ear that we are his friends so we can boldly approach God not as creatures but as restored members of God’s divinely appointed steward of the earth. We can once again assist God in making the entire earth into Eden where we can once more walk with God.
Let us become people of encouragement. Let us be tributaries of God’s love and blessing to others. Let us become people loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. Let us become Friends of God. This is all ours through the freely given grace provided to us through Jesus. Who passed through the heavens to become the son of man, who was sacrificed outside the city and buried in a tomb, and who rose again to overcome death and restore us to life. Let us not neglect meeting together to celebrate our hope. And let us be provoked not to anger or sin, but to love and good works.
If you would like to help support the continued Ministry of Willow Creek Friends Church please consider donating online:
https://secure.piryx.com/donate/nlcsJT87/Willow-Creek-Friends-Church/
To help support the personal ministry of JWQuaker (Jared Warner) online and in the community click to donate.
Skittering Around the Footstool
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
November 7, 2021
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Hebrews 9:24–28 (ESV)
24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
The letter of Hebrews is a letter filled with emotion. As we have read through this letter, have you noticed this? The author is pleading with those that hear the words to consider what, who, and where they are. The author is reminding those within the community of who they were, and who they are. This writer is pleading with those who will listen to recognize and hold on to the truth.
We often look at this letter and we identify key themes; one is Jesus is a priest. If you have not recognized that over the past couple of weeks, then might need to start making coffee again. The other theme that most of us recognize is later in the chapter where the author speaks of faith. Most of us only remember the chapter about faith, the rest of the letter we find strange and repetitive. Well at least I do.
But I have enjoyed going through this letter this year. I have enjoyed it because it has challenged me. I have been a pastor here at Willow Creek for nearly twelve years. This blows my mind a bit, I feel like I am still the new guy in the church and yet I also feel as if I have been here forever. At times we get used to being in one place, in one role, in one group and we forget why we are even there. I feel like I am new because there is so many opportunities that are all around us and it seems as if we have just started the journey. And then there are times where we seem to just continue going through the motions without ever thinking about what it is we are doing.
Twelve years. You might have noticed that I do not normally go into the letters over the past twelve years. I tend to preach in the gospel and leave the letters and the passages in the Old Testament for classes and Bible studies. I tend to do this for one reason, the letters and the Old Testament require a great deal of time, research, and study. There are things going on throughout the letters that we do not necessarily see in the pages of scripture that are influencing what is being said, and if we do not take the time to fully research and study those things, we can use our own culture to fill in the gaps.
This can be done through all of scripture, but I find the letters as being more difficult because these letters are filled with catchy phrases that we love to memorize and unfortunately take out of context. We have all done this, we have all used the writings of Paul and the other apostles to provide some support to our various positions. And we will continue to do this because we are human. We have ideas in our heads and when we see words that support our ideas, we put them out there as proof that we are right.
This is why I tend to shy away from the letters. I love the letters they are some of the most meaningful and encouraging scriptures, but they can also be used to divide and cause injury. They are used in this manner so easily because they were written for similar purposes. They were written to defend one idea over another. They were written to provide encouragement to continue in a way of life, to speak to a misunderstanding, or to highlight abusive behaviors.
The writer of Hebrews is encouraging the community to remain faithful to Christ. This was one of the earliest letters written, and it was written because those that believed were struggling. The early church in many ways resembled the gatherings of the first century synagogue because it was filled with people that emerged out of that lifestyle. The first followers of Christ were ethnic and religious Jews. They were by in large descendants from the tribe of Judah and could trace their heritage back to Israel. There were certain cultural understandings attached to this. The Jewish people have a rich history, both culturally and religiously. They had the greatest temple built to a single deity in all human history, and they were proud of this. Even the disciples of Jesus were proud of who they were and wanted Jesus to affirm their pride.
The thing about pride is it can often be misplaced. They marveled at the temple constructed by their hands and Jesus told them that on the day of the Lord not one stone would be left standing. Their pride was in themselves, not the God who was believed to be dwelling inside.
This pride continued even after the church emerged. The apostles knew that Jesus was greater. They knew that he had the words of life and they followed him. But pride hung Jesus on a cross. Jesus challenged the accepted cultural narrative, he exposed the sin within the religious pride, and that exposure angered the ones that benefited from that system. Their pride was misplaced, and when we misplace honor, we participate in sin.
This pride plagued the early church. We are told that Jesus came first to the Jews, and rightfully so. It is to and through the Jewish people that God made his revelation. God called Abraham. He chose him to be his portion, his people of all the people walking the earth. He chose him, and that choice was made so that through this one nation God could reveal the truth to all people. Why that nation? Why were they chosen? Are they better than everyone else?
The truth of this chosen people is that they were not great in themselves. They were in many ways least. In Genesis we are informed of the fall of humankind. Adam and Eve were deceived in the garden by the shining one that we commonly known as a serpent. I say the shining one, because serpent is a bit misleading. Snakes do not talk, yet Eve had a conversation with it. Adam and Eve’s job was to have dominion over the earth, they were to name and care for the animals and tend to God’s creation. They knew the animals, and yet a snake deceived Eve? She knew this being to be what it was, it was an intelligent being, a being devoted to God’s service, what we would call an angel. She listened to this being because from her experience it should have been speaking truth and assisting them in their divinely appointed work. Yet this being was in rebellion against God and convinced our first parents that to do the work God wanted them to do, they needed something that God was withholding from them.
This is what we all know as the fall of humanity, but that is only part of the story. Later we hear about a man called Noah. Noah was the only righteous man in all the earth. The entire rest of the population was corrupted and lead away from the one true God. And in this story, there is something strange. We are told the sons of God lusted after the daughters of men, and these interactions were what caused God to destroy the earth with a devastating flood. Who were the sons of God? Who were the daughters of men? Why would it matter? Some believe that this is a similar story to that of Adam and Eve. They say that the sons of God were spiritual beings in rebellion against God, and that these beings were giving and filling humanity with knowledge that was causing harm and destruction. And God needed to stop this rebellion so he initiated the flood to prevent greater destruction.
Then there is a third story, the tower of Babel. In this story humanity was inspired to build a tower to reach the heavens, so that they could have access to the divine realm. This prompted God to confuse the languages and scatter the people. In Deuteronomy we are told that God divided the nations among the sons of God. He left the people of the world under the dominion of the spiritual rebels, but chose one people to be his potion, Jacob. It is only after this scattering that Abraham is called to follow God. It is in this divine and spiritual battle over the hearts and minds of the people that God called his people, for one reason. He was going to gain victory over this spiritual rebellion, while reclaiming and restoring humanity to their rightful place.
This rebellion began because those beings were jealous of humanity. God created us to rule over the earth as his representatives. He did not give that task to the beings we know as angels. We were the last beings created, and we were given power over the angels. Some of those beings desired to destroy humanity. They thought if they could get humanity to turn from God, then God would reject and destroy humans. Pride and jealousy cause destruction, sin, and death. But God did not give up on us.
He established his portion through a single man, Abraham. And through this one man he built a nation, and through this nation, God came to dwell among us. But somewhere along the way the story was twisted. Pride reentered the nation. The idea of chosen to assist God in redeeming the world became chosen for other purposes. And that pride distracted from and twisted the truth. Israel exists to redeem humanity.
The community surrounding the writer of Hebrews is caught in this narrative. They want to follow Christ, yet their pride as children of Israel is also extremely attractive. Their heritage is enticing them to come back. They know their history; they know their place within that history. And following Christ is difficult, because the rest of the community around them is urging them to follow a different path.
The writer of Hebrews says, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” The whole narrative of Christ as priest is focused on how the Old Testament and the cultic practices of the temple are a mere shadow of the reality that is within Christ. Human hands made the temple. Human hands fashioned the altar, the lamp, even the Ark of the Covenant itself. The religious practices of the sacrificial system, although instituted by Moses and one hundred percent part of scripture, were not the full story. They were illustrations that pointed to something more, something greater. The human priesthood in all its honor was still corrupt and filled with sin. It would never fully connect us to God because it was built by and employed men. Every year blood would need to be carried into the holiest place and placed on the altar. Every year this life-giving organ, dedicated only to God within the religious practices of Israel, would be offered to God. It is a symbol that we are not enough. We do not have the power over life and death. We can only offer a symbol and hope for the best. We know we are not enough because the blood is not of our own. It is provided by a spotless, perfect animal. Have we ever really thought about that? The Israelites offered things to God that they had no control over. The perfect animals were offered to God, the creator. They could not use those animals for themselves. Meaning their breeding programs would always contain, imperfect stock, so everything they offered was a blessing provided by God.
Every year, these priests would go into the holy place created by human hands, begging that God would be faithful to his promise, even though humanity failed. Every year. And they knew full well that the system could fail, they had already experienced it. Their history recorded that eighty-three percent of their nation had been completely lost. Ten out of the twelve tribes were totally cut off from a relationship with God within the temple. And even the two tribes left were exiled to Babylon, due to their unfaithfulness. None of the sacrifices made by men could guarantee acceptance before God.
But Christ entered that holy place, not made by the hands of men. He entered heaven itself and appears before God’s very throne for us. I want us to build a true image of this scene. The Ark of the Covenant was in the holiest place of the temple. This Ark is often called the Mercy Seat, but it has another name. It is the footstool of the throne of God. The footstool. The priests within the temple system never fully enter the place of God, they never command the full attention of God, because they are crawling around the place God rests his feet. But Jesus, enters that place human hands have not built. He is on a plain above the footstool, meaning he has full attention and access.
I want us to consider that image. Human priests at the footstool and Jesus standing face to face. Which is greater? This is what pride, jealousy, and sin is doing to us. If Jesus has the Father’s attention face to face, the actions at the footstool are not even seen. They are vain, empty, and powerless. They lack value because there is something greater available. It would be like rummaging through the trash eating the scraps left over from making a Thanksgiving Feast, when you have a place set at the table to enjoy the real thing. The rebellion of the angels, which was passed on to us through our first parents, which grew into the division of the nations and the failing of humanity, were all the result of misplaced pride and honor. It was the wisdom of created beings that causes our own failings. And our attempts of righteousness are like mice skittering around the feet of God. What is our righteousness? It is nothing without the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The author of Hebrews says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”
Christ took on what we were unable to do on our own. He took our sin, our injustice, our inhumanity. He carried on his shoulders our attempts of righteousness which resulted in an unjust trial, execution, and burial of an innocent man. That is our righteousness, our pride, and our honor. We nailed Jesus to the tree. We do this constantly because in our pride, in our humanly wisdom, we continue to look at the world around us and attempt to make it into our image instead of making it into the world our creator intended. But while we were still sinners. While we were still trapped in the bondage of our best attempts of righteousness, Christ died for us. He took on our judgment so that when we stand before the throne of God, it is Jesus that stands there with and for us. No longer are we rats scurrying around the footstool but we are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of God. God does not see the sin that once separated us, God only sees love.
As it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. God loved humanity so much, that he took on the responsibility to bridge that gap, and all that believe in him no longer need to struggle in the bondage of sin, because he has released us to live life with him. Our righteousness is no longer bound to works of the flesh but are freed. We are free to love God, embrace the Holy Spirit, and live the love of Christ with others. This is all God wants and desires. Let us now eagerly wait for him, and trust that in Him we have all we truly need.
If you would like to help support the continued Ministry of Willow Creek Friends Church please consider donating online:
https://secure.piryx.com/donate/nlcsJT87/Willow-Creek-Friends-Church/
To help support the personal ministry of JWQuaker (Jared Warner) online and in the community click to donate.
Purified from Dead Works
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
October 31, 2021
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Hebrews 9:11–14 (ESV)
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
The past few weeks we have discussed the role of Jesus as our High Priest. At times we may not fully understand to role of a priest since we are two millennia removed from this practice. Even those traditions that have utilized the term priest as a leader within their forms of worship, do not use the word in the manner that the teachings of the Old Testament used the word. A priest is an individual appointed by God from among humankind to act in the place of the rest of the community.
We do not have this type of system anymore. Although some might be given different roles within a community of faith, they do not act on behalf of the community before God. This role has forever been removed from Abrahamic religions when the Temple of God was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. We have teachers of various sorts that assist in illuminating scripture with us, and individuals that walk the pathways of faith’s journey by our side. There is no longer a human agent on Earth that can stand in our place for us.
This is a dramatic change in the religious community. The responsibility of our spiritual lives cannot be laid at the feet of anyone other than ourselves. Your pastor, your teacher, your bible study leader is not responsible for you. We have been set free from this aspect of our existence. But this freedom comes with a great cost. Who is responsible?
In the ancient days of Israel, God established the priesthood. We look at this and we see it as being a wonderful thing. He appointed one family within one tribe to stand in the place of a nation. The whole tribe was sanctified to provide for the religious leadership, but only one family could enter the holy sections of the sanctuary. One family, for an entire nation. From the outside it appears to be a wonderful system. We know exactly who to go to, and where we stand. But this system was a compromise made by God.
God called Moses to be his voice to the people, and to be the voice of the people to God. But it was not sons of Moses that fulfilled the roles of the priest. Moses resisted his original calling, like so many people. He lacked the faith that God could do something that important through our weakness. God asked Moses to go to the ruler of Egypt to speak for Israel, and Moses denied God. Saying I cannot speak. Moses pointed out his own weakness and told God that he was not able to do what God had ordained. Does this sound familiar?
Because of Moses’ denial of God, God made a compromise with Moses. His brother Aaron would speak for Moses. Moses was originally appointed by God, but Aaron became the priest not Moses. We honor Moses as the Law Giver, but even within that story we get a glimpse at the weakness of humankind.
Moses was called, yet Moses lacked faith, so God used his brother instead. Then as we continue to read through the early history of the religious practices of Israel, we quickly see that Aaron fails. Aaron feared the people and authorized the making of an idol. Aaron’s sons introduced strange fire into the place of worship and they themselves died because they were careless before God. The priest appointed by God were human, weak, and corrupt. They were like us. Afraid of failure and afraid of success.
From the beginning we as humans recognized the vail of separation between humankind and God. We recognized that there was something about God that was dangerous and unapproachable. Our first parents were deceived and entered a spiritual rebellion, this introduced death to humanity. The curse of death was transmitted to us all. What do we do with this separation? Some of us make attempts to bridge that gap, while others seek to live life to the fullest before the curse overtakes us. But no matter what we do at any moment we will face that day.
We are separated from God, yet we all notice the absences. We try to fill the void with other things with the hope that we can feel as if we are complete. We fill that void with work, hoping that if only we became successful, we would be made whole. We might seek out relationships with the hopes of finding our lives’ fulfillment. Maybe we try to numb the feeling of inadequacy under the illusion of entertainment and chemical recreation, only to find that the things we used to distract our minds from our lack of fulfillment have now enslaved our bodies to addiction.
We strive forward. We seek that place we anticipate as being our promised land and what do we find? We find the exact same thing we have always known; we are there. Still unable to speak, still afraid, and still left in a state of incompleteness.
I know that is dark. I know that these are not exactly words of encouragement. We are Americans we are supposed to live by a code of hard work and success will make us wealthy and satisfied. We do live in a wonderful nation. I would not want to live anywhere else in the world, but we are not perfect. We have problems, we have issues that we try to hide, and we have corruption that we would like others to overlook. We want to be seen as the shining city on the hill, but we often do not know where the hill even is to build the city.
The priesthood of Israel was established to tell a story. A story of the human condition. In today’s passage we are given a glimpse of the work performed by those God appointed to stand for humanity. We are told about the blood of goats, calves, and bulls. We are shown ashes of a heifer being sprinkled on the people for purification. These practices are interesting and odd.
When many scholars read this section of Hebrews, they often liken it to the ceremony that is performed on the Day of Atonement. This celebration is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, which closes out the ten Days of Awe which began on Rosh Hashanah. This celebration is in honor of the creation of the world, and the fall of humankind. They remember, they remember the fall of our first parents, they remember the failings of Abraham and Sarah, they remember their own failings and they confess those failings so that they will be found on the side of God when the sacrifices begin.
Yom Kippur, the last day of the Days of Awe, which we usually call the Day of Atonement is the only day that the high priest could enter the inner sanctum of the temple. According to Leviticus 16, the high priest would sacrifice a bull to atone for his sins. And then two goats would be brought to the priest. One of these goats would be allotted to God, and the other would go to Azazel. It is not exactly clear what this goat for Azazel is, because Azazel could be the name of a spiritual being, a geographical location like a cliff, or it could simply mean the goat that goes away. Traditionally we know this goat as the scapegoat. The goat allotted to God is offered for the sins of the people. The priest would then take the blood of these sacrifices, the bull for himself and the goat for the people, into the mercy seat, which is the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. The blood was then taken to the great altar where it would be symbolically cleansed of the sins of the people. The priest would then emerge from the holiest areas of the Temple and go to the second goat. He would lay his hands on the head of this goat and confess the sins of people, symbolically transferring the sins of the people onto the head of this goat. The goat for Azazel is driven from the community into the wilderness by a man, carrying the wickedness of the people away from the community to be left in the desolate places outside the community. The priest cleanses himself again, offers additional sacrifices for himself, and the man that takes the goat outside the camp also ritually bathes and washes his clothing so he can reenter the camp.
The truth of the sacrifices is that the sin remains. The blood purifies the scared space, and the goat symbolically carries transgressions away, but the sin remains. That goat could return which would indicate that the wickedness of the people could corrupt the people again.
These sacrifices on Yom Kippur account for the goats, calves, and bulls within today’s passage, but there is one reference that is not included in the rituals. This is the reference to the heifer. The sacrifice of the heifer, or the red heifer, is one that is different from most sacrifices. It is not sacrificed in the holy places, but outside the camp. The high priest goes out with an anonymous member of the priesthood, and this anonymous priest ritually kills the animal, then the blood is taken by the high priest and sprinkled on the outside of the tent. The high priest returns and the anonymous priest then burns the heifer with cedar wood, hyssop, and a scarlet thread. Then an additional priest comes out to collect the ashes, and water is mixed with these ashes. This mixture is then used to cleanse people and objects from the pollution caused by death, yet each of the three priests are considered unclean for a day and must ritually bathe and launder their clothing before they can reenter the camp after this period is over.
The mixture of the red heifer ashes is the only sacrifice directly applied to people, and is believed to be the sacrifice first used to cleanse the objects and spaces used for sacred worship within the tabernacle and the temple. Which is why many people that believe that a third temple will be built before the return of Christ are actively seeking to breed the perfect red heifer for this sacrifice.
But why are those that participate in this ritual considered unclean? Why is the sacrifice done outside the camp? Why is it a heifer or a female cow instead of a bull? I want you to consider those for a moment.
All have been corrupted by the stains of sin and death and our redemption comes through the actions of a virgin female, whose offspring was sacrificed on our behalf outside of the holy city.
The writer of Hebrews says, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things, then through the greater and more perfect tent.”[1]. Christ in this sense is not directly speaking of Jesus, but the office of the Messiah, which Jesus fills. Messiah will come as a high priest of the good things. This is an interesting statement. Some manuscripts say, of the good things to come, but what this is alluding to is the better or greater things. When the Law was given to Moses, the children of Israel were preparing themselves to enter the land of promise. This was a good thing, but not the good things, or better things, to come. Messiah’s high priesthood will usher in something greater than the promised land.
If you were to log into YouTube and listen to the teachings of rabbis you will hear similar things as they teach. They will say things like when Messiah comes creation will return to the state prior to the fall of our first parents. We will be restored to our rightful place where humanity will work with God to make the world into Eden once again. This is what the writer of Hebrews is wanting to point out. These teachings were already present among the second temple era of Jewish history. The writer continues, “then through the greater and more perfect tent.” This again is drawing our attention to the past when human hands constructed the tabernacle of the Lord. Human hands made the place where God was going to dwell, but Messiah will come through divine means. God will bring it about. We might ask why the tent and not the temple? I think this refers to the beginning of their collective worship. Israel began their formalized worship of God when the tent was constructed. The writer of Hebrews is taking us back to the beginning, the to hope that was going to be fulfilled in the promised land. That hope is now even greater through Christ.
The writer of Hebrews speaks about this office of Messiah, but he speaks of it not in a future event yet to come, but one that has already happened, “But when Christ appeared as a high priest.” These things that you are looking forward to, have already happened. Jesus is like the heifer sacrificed outside camp that provides the cleansing power over death. He is the one that sanctifies the true place of worship. He is the goat that was taken outside to the wilderness carrying the sins of the people to Azazel. He provides the blood that cleanses the altar. And He is the priest that can stand in our place before the Mercy Seat of God.
We cannot do this in our weakness. The celebration of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur drives our attention to this weakness. When we are left to ourselves, we will continue to dwell in that place of weakness. Unable to bridge the divide that separates us from God. Even the most holy one, the high priest appoint from the tribes of men cannot enter on his own. We will continually try whatever we can to fill that void, to bridge the gap, but will continue to come up short. Continually striving to overcome our weaknesses with dead works. We like the goat for Azazel will continue to run off the cliff into the abyss, until we recognize and accept that the bridge has already been built for us by the one that has passed through the heavens, and was born of Mary becoming the son of man. The first Adam was deceived by the serpent and the second Adam tempted like us in every way stood firm to the end. Taking our sin and our shame to the cross, on that hill outside of Jerusalem. He was buried and sealed inside a tomb within the earth, and on the third day conquered the wages of sin by raising from the dead.
It is only in Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed high priest, and king of Israel, that the greater things to come can become realized. And that greater thing is that God never has and never will give up on you. He loved the world so much that he gave his only unique not to condemn the world but to save it. And all that believe in him will not be condemned but will have life. It is through Jesus that we can approach God and be restored back to our rightful place, the place where each of us were created to be. And it is in Christ that we will find fulfillment we seek. Do we believe?
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Heb 9:11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
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