October 8, 2006

A New Take on the Day of Atonement
 

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Leviticus 23:26-32; Hebrews 9:1-14

Opening Illustration

Few Christians understand importance of Yom Kippur for Christians. Few even know what it is.

Author of Hebrews describes the work of Christ through the event of Yom Kippur. I’ll explain the advantages of that later.

Want to Acknowledge Amy Kramer at Everything Jewish.com for this information. Most holy religious rite celebrated on the 10th of Tishri – October 2nd this year. Day of Atonement for sins against God, not others.

(Slide) High priest spends entire week prior to Yom Kippur living in the temple. Spends time learning and memorizing passages from Torah.

Final night he is up all night. If he falls asleep, younger priests wake him up by reciting Psalms.

In morning of Yom Kippur he dresses in priestly clothes, offers daily sacrifices, then washes hands and feet.

Changes into white robe. Walks over to Bull designated as sacrifice for his sins and sins of his family. Recites confessional prayers including name of God (only time of the year he’s aloud to say that name).

Those who are gathered at the temple fall to the floor and say, “Blessed be the Name, the glory of His kingdom forever and ever,” another phrase only spoken on Yom Kippur.

The High Priest then walked over to two identical goats. Through a lottery, one goat was chosen as a sacrifice to God, and the other, a scapegoat, with red wool tied around its horns, was sent out into the wilderness, a symbol of the collective sins of the people. The young bullock was then slaughtered and its blood collected in a basin for later use.

Then came the most important part of the ceremony. The High Priest walked up a special ramp (so priests could ascend with modesty in tact) to the altar, filled a gold pan with coals and a golden ladle with incense.

Then, with everyone watching, he walked into the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary where G-d's spirit dwelled and where no one but the High Priest entered except on Yom Kippur. Once inside, he lit the incense, and if all went well, emerged unscathed from the inner chamber.

The ritual continued with the High Priest sprinkling blood on the curtain of the Holy of Holies as an act of purification. Next, the remaining goat was slaughtered and additional blood sprinkled on the curtain and around the base of the altar.

The scapegoat was then led through the gate to a waiting priest whose job it was to take it to predetermined spot about ten to twelve miles away. Along the way, there were ten stations with food or drink in case the tired priest needed to break his fast.

When the priest came to the final station, he pushed the goat off a cliff. Using a system of signal flags, the priest leading the animal would message back to the temple that the sins of the people were forgiven as the red wool around the goat's horns turned miraculously white.

Although the special Yom Kippur service was concluded, the regular afternoon tabernacle service still had to be completed. The High Priest again washed and changed his clothes, lit the menorah and burned the incense.

When he finally went home, he was accompanied by well wishers, who after praying and fasting all day, wanted to thank the High Priest for a successful Yom Kippur. At home, however, he could still not relax. As High Priest, it was his duty to invite fellow priests and dignitaries to a feast. Today, when families return home from the long day of fasting and praying, they also come home to break-the-fast meal, usually dairy, joined by family and friends.

Now why does this matter to us? We Christians aren’t required to follow Jewish religious rites like this, are we? The answer depends on who you ask. If you were to ask Matthew, you would probably come to the conclusion that Yom Kippur should be observed by Christians. Let me show you what he says:” (Slide)

Now when you look at that, it seems fairly clear that Matthew expects the people in his Christian community to follow the law, which certainly included Yom Kippur.

But when you come to the book of Hebrews, the perspective is different. This author wants to convince his readers that the Torah must not be followed anymore. But his reason for saying that is unique in the New Testament.

He says that Christianity is a further evolution of Judaism; it is an eternal version of Judaism. It represents a new covenant between God and God’s people. And God’s people are no longer just the Jews anymore.

He will say that the announcement of a new covenant was made back in the book Jeremiah chapter 31. (slide) And the covenant was ratified or formalized in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

What you need to understand is that this author is applying a Greek way of understanding the world to Judaism and to his understanding of what Jesus did for us.

When many Greek philosophers looked at the world around them, they noted that everything is temporary. People and animals get sick and die, the earth changes by means of fires and earthquakes and volcanoes and floods, etc. And they came to believe that what we have on the earth is not the ultimate reality.

They believed that what we have on earth, including our own bodies, is an imperfect representation of a perfect reality that exists elsewhere, namely in heaven, among the gods they believed in. So when they would make a statue or a picture of one of their gods, they looked like a perfect specimen, instead of looking like us with all of our imperfections. (Slide)

Now when you apply that same kind of thinking to the death of resurrection of Jesus, here’s what happens, at least in the mind of this author. He tells his readers that the Israelite temple, although he keeps using the word tabernacle, is like us: it’s an imperfect representation of a heavenly reality.

(Slide) In fact, he would say, the whole universe itself is the heavenly temple. And just as the tabernacle in Jerusalem had an outer court and a Holy of Holies, which the priest only entered on Yom Kippur, so the universe has an outer court and a Holy of Holies.

In his view, the earth itself is the outer court, where everyone can enter. And the Holy of Holies is heaven which only the high priest can enter. He has already demonstrated to us in chapter 7 that Jesus is a heavenly high priest.

So when he tries to explain to us the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection he says Jesus performed and eternal version of Yom Kippur which does not need to be repeated every year. Instead of offering a bull or a goat for sin, he offered himself as a sacrifice.

Instead of just going into the Holy of Holies and coming back out, Jesus entered the heavenly temple and opened the curtain permanently so that we could enter it also. Instead of just cleansing us from the sins we committed in the past year, Jesus offered a sacrifice for all the sins people have ever committed, and all they would ever commit in the future.

Now you might say, “Well gee that’s nice, but what does it mean to the average person who’s just trying to live right and get through the week and be faithful to God?” Well, here’s the advantage:

It really answers that nagging question many of us struggle with when we try to understand how God deals with our sin. I went through a time in my life when I thought God was willing to forgive my sin as long as I was doing what I thought I was supposed to do to be a good Christian.

But what about those times when I wasn’t so faithful? What about the times when I hurt someone? What about the fact that the impure thoughts I had never completely stopped? What about the times I was disrespectful? What about the times I hung around with the wrong crowd and did the wrong things? Did the sacrifice still apply to my sin?

I think the answer we have in Hebrews, which is unique in the New Testament, is that the sacrifice of Jesus’ own body cleansed my sin once and for all. And in doing so, it allowed me to have a clean conscience because I’m not worried about whether or not Jesus’ sacrifice applies to me from one day to the next.

This passage allows me to live my life from day to day without worrying about where I stand with God. I know where I stand with God. Because of Jesus’ eternal sacrifice, my conscience is clean.

And even when I do the very things I’ve told myself I’m not going to do, even when I look at things that seem unfair in life and wonder about God’s goodness, still I know I’m forgiven, I know my slate is clean, not because of what I’ve done, not because of the church I attend, not because I donate to charity, not because I’m a pastor, but because I have a high priest who offered himself for me and for everyone once and for all. End of story.

That’s why this passage in Hebrews is so important to us. While we love our Jewish friends and support them as they strive to be faithful to Moses’ laws, we also believe that sin has been dealt with once and for all. So there’s no reason for us to try and keep doing things to deal with our guilt before God. Either you believe Jesus took care of sin or you don’t.

I juts know that for me, life was much harder and scarier when I thought I had to keep on doing things to make up for what I had done wrong. When I came to realize that Jesus had taken care of it, my conscience was cleaned and my mind was freed up to go out and do the things God called me to do.

This passage teaches us that whatever we do in God’s name does not have to be done out of fear. We’re not trying to stack up good works so that hopefully at the end of our lives the stack of good works will be larger than the stack of sins.

We stack up good works because we love God and love our neighbor. The question is, would you rather do them with a clean conscience or a guilty conscience? This passage tells us there’s no longer any reason to live life with a guilty conscience.

Approach the throne of God with confidence. Ask for the help you need in tough times. The curtain has been opened. The way has been cleared. The obstacles have been removed. The throne room has an open door policy. Our high priest is waving his hand, welcoming us in, regardless of what we’ve done.