Daily Liturgy and Scripture

We've come a long way in Hebrews, this book that puts Christianity in the Jewish context. Now we are at one of their most important places: the Holy City. Jerusalem has been rocked before, even destroyed. It has been torn down and rebuilt. Not so with the Kingdom Jesus brings. It will never be destroyed, and our citizenship there is assured.

It’s very popular to think only of God handing out blessings like candy, or to think of him as horrible when bad things happen to us. If we belong to God, then we must be willing to submit to his discipline. Just as our parents discipline us for our best (and we hate it at the time!), so also does God, but his wisdom is infallible.

Faith has always been a critical part of the life of God’s people, even those early in our history. Showing faith is our part of the deal, because the rest is truly up to God. Abraham, Jacob, David, and all the rest of the list in today’s passage had to show faith the same as we do today, and none of them are more privileged than we are. The story is truly God’s, and we are part of it.

Since we know that Jesus is our high priest and seated at the right hand of the father, we can see what he does with that power: he redeems us. We are purified him to do his good work, even though sometimes it is very difficult to be faithful. This is a very different way of living than what comes easy, but God’s way is always for his Kingdom and for our good.

The sacrificial system before Jesus, the pattern of the Old Testament, was never meant to be permanent. It was a preview of what was to come, it helped God's chosen people understand how things worked in God's world. But then God came in the flesh to complete that picture, and the whole picture became more complete. God knew that timing better than we did, and now we have Jesus in the seat of authority to set us right with God.

The Hebrew temple was the heart of worship, the place where Heaven and earth intersected. With Jesus, those two things have come together. He is the high priest and the sacrifice, but he entered into Heaven itself, and took away the stain of sin for all time.

The Old Testament is still part of our story, and this verse from Hebrews lays out some of that. What was part of Jewish worship before Jesus was a preview of coming attractions, but was made whole in Jesus. The plan God completed with Christ started long before him, but it was still God's plan. We have a high priest in Jesus who was part of all of it.

Having just celebrated Easter, we are primed for this verse from Hebrews. The coming of Jesus, his death and resurrection, have created a new covenant between God and man. No longer does a priest need to offer the blood of animals, because Jesus is our high priest, sitting at the right hand of the Father, who himself became the sacrifice. The space between God and man has been bridged by the initiative of God, because there was no way for us to do it ourselves.

The full day in which Jesus is dead occurs on the Sabbath, which is on a Saturday in Jewish tradition. It was a day of rest for the devout, and it follows the finished work of our Savior as well. The day is important, because it means Jesus really, truly, did die. His death and what comes next are what make the Christian faith unique.