Most children
in America look forward to one day a year more than any other. They look forward to it, they count down the
days, they bounce with excitement starting a month or so in advance of this one
special day.
Do you know what day I’m
talking about? Obviously the first day
of school!
Seriously
though, there are days that we anticipate and look forward to more than
others. Some look forward to the
weekend, some to finishing school.
Other’s to a wedding day or a vacation.
Some look
forward to football season, hunting season or there are some strange people
that mark their calendar for when they go to the dentist.
Imagine if you
were able to do something only once a year.
Imagine you could have chocolate only one day a year. Would you look forward to it?
Take a shower
or bath one day a year? Everybody else
would look forward to it.
What if there
was one room in your house that you could not go in except one day a year or
you were killed?
What about
seeing your wife, your husband, your children only one day a year.
Would you
miss that appointment? I doubt it.
What if there
was only one day a year in which this nation could be right in the eyes of
God? Would you hope that your leaders
take that moment seriously?
Would you be
relieved to know it was finished and accomplished? That your sins and the sins of the whole
nation had been removed?
That’s what
the Day of Atonement meant to the people of Israel. It was the one day a year that the High
Priest could go behind the veil, into the Holy of Holies with the blood of the
sacrifice and sprinkle it on the altar or mercy seat to make atonement for the
sins of the nation.
If he didn’t do it, would the nation survive?
The
Day of Atonement is the end of the 10 Days of Awe, days of repentance that
started with the Day of Trumpets when the Book of Life were understood to be
opened. But Atonement, Yom Kippur is
when the book of life is closed and that makes it was the most solemn of all
the feast days. We talked about that
last week.
The
Day of Atonement was the day that the two goats were presented at the temple to
bring about the cleansing of all sin for the priesthood, the sanctuary, and
Israel as a nation.
Leviticus 16:29-34— “This is to be a
permanent statute for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month
you are to practice self-denial and do no work, both the native and the
foreigner who resides among you. 30 Atonement will be made for you on this
day to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the Lord.”
But strangely, it is not a day that God required everyone to be there to
participate. It wasn’t like
Passover, Pentecost (Shavuot) or Tabernacles.
They could be at home on the Day of Atonement, but they would await word
that everything went well.
They didn’t have to be present
themselves, because they had a High Priest to serve
as their Mediator—he was the one who went behind the veil and stood before God
on behalf of the people and sprinkled the blood on the Mercy Seat.
But he had to do it again and again,
every year it had to be done again.
Every year, he had to atone for his own sins, he had to atone for the
temple and the altar in case there was any sin or defilement on them. He had to enter with the blood of bulls and
goats which could cover but not take away sins.
Much of the book of Hebrews is built around
this point—the Ministry of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.
If you don’t understand what the High
Priest is doing and what it means on the Day of Atonement, you won’t understand the significance of the book of Hebrews
and the point of how Jesus is better.
Because so much of Hebrews is a
contrast between the regular High Priest and Jesus the High Priest.
Hebrews
9:6--“With
these things set up this way, the priests enter the first room repeatedly,
performing their ministry. 7 But the high priest alone enters the second room,
and he does that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for
himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy
Spirit was making it clear that the way into the most holy place had not yet
been disclosed while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 This is a
symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that
cannot perfect the worshiper’s conscience.”
That’s why Jesus
is a better Mediator,
1
Timothy 2:5—“For
there is one God
and
one
mediator
between God and
humanity,
Christ
Jesus,
Himself human,
6 who gave
Himself
—a ransom
for
all,
a
testimony
at the proper
time.”
Hebrews
9:15
Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called
might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance,”
Jesus is also a better High Priest. Jesus didn’t have to atone for His own sins,
He was sinless.
Hebrews 7:26—“For this is
the kind of high priest we need: holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from
sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He doesn’t need to offer
sacrifices every day, as high priests do—first for their own sins, then for
those of the people. He did this once for all when He offered Himself. 28 For
the law appoints as high priests men who are weak, but the promise of the oath,
which came after the law, appoints a Son, who has been perfected forever.”
He didn’t enter a temple or holy place
that also needed cleansing, the Messiah entered into the real, heavenly
tabernacle.
9:11-15a—“But the Messiah has
appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and
more perfect tabernacle not made with hands ( that is, not of this creation),
9:23—“Therefore it was
necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these
sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better
sacrifices than these. 24 For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands
(only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now
appear in the presence of God for us.”
He didn’t enter with the blood of bulls
and goats, but His own blood, willingly shed on the cross to take away the sins
of the world.
9:12 He entered the
most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His
own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and
bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify
for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of the
Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?”
Jesus didn’t have to sacrifice His life
every year over and over again to address the sins of the people.
9:25 He did not do
this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary
yearly with the blood of another. 26 Otherwise, He would have had to suffer
many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time,
at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Hebrews
10:11-
“Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices
time after time, which can never take away sins. 12 But this man, after
offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13
He is now waiting until His enemies are made His footstool. 14 For by one
offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified.”
Hebrews
10:4—
“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Hebrews
6:19—
“We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. It enters the
inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as
a forerunner, because He has become a high priest forever in the order of
Melchizedek.”
The High Priest could only go behind
the veil, the curtain in the temple one day a year—Day of Atonement—more and
more I’m told that the rope around the leg story you may have heard is a
legend, but no matter what, I’m sure he was nervous when he went in there.
Once the high priest was done with the
ceremony, he had to leave, access was revoked.
And certainly no one else could go in there.
But Jesus our High Priest never loses
access, never has to leave, never has access denied.
Hebrews
10:19—
“Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the
blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way He has opened for us through
the curtain ( that is, His flesh), 21 and since we have a great high priest
over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed in pure water. 23 Let us hold on to the confession of our
hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
When Hebrews is talking about that
stuff, he’s talking about His ministry on the Day of Atonement. Everything about this day was really pointing
forward to what the Messiah was going to do.
And when Jesus did it—there is no need to repeat it. He did it once for all time because His
sacrifice was accepted and powerful.
There is power in the blood of Jesus.
That’s why He is a better High Priest
and the Mediator of a Better Covenant.
The Curse of the Law has been born by our Savior and now we are truly
free to enjoy the Blessings.
Even as the day and the ministry of the
Day of Atonement was pointing forward to something more long lasting and
eternal—the ministry of the Messiah—and foreshadowed both His first and second
coming,
Something else happened on this day
that made it special and connected Jesus to the Day of Atonement. This is the day that the Year of Jubilee was
announced to the people. Only on the Day of Atonement could the Year of Jubilee
be made official.
How many of you have heard of the Year
of Jubilee? How many of you know what it
is?
The year of Jubilee occurs every 50
years—so after 49 years, 7 7 year Shmeta
cycles. The 50th year was
special—though they rarely if ever really practiced it.
Leviticus
25:8—
“You are to count seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the
time period of the seven sabbatical years amounts to 49. 9 Then you are to
sound a trumpet loudly in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; you
will sound it throughout your land on the Day of Atonement . 10 You are to
consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom in the land for all its
inhabitants. It will be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his
property and each of you to his clan. 11 The fiftieth year will be your
Jubilee”
It was a year that slaves were
released, a year that debts were forgiven, a year that land that had been sold
reverted back to its original owner. It
was supposed to be a special year of God’s favor and blessing; when miracles
were supposed to happen.
Isaiah
61:1—
“The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord
has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent
Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim
the year of the Lord ’s favor,
If you recognize that passage, you’ll
know that Jesus said it when He was teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth in Luke 4
Luke
4:16—
“He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the
prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place
where it was written:”
This is a powerful moment. There Jesus was on the Sabbath, small town
boy, all grown up and making a name for Himself, but not too big for His
britches that He forgets where He comes from.
As is the custom in almost every synagogue to this day, they had already
read from and heard a message from the Torah reading for that week—the local
Rabbi would have spoken already. Now
they were going to hear from the haftorah, the Prophets.
Since Jesus was in attendance and was
getting known as a Rabbi or Teacher, He was asked to share His thoughts on the
reading. He was handed the scroll of Isaiah
and He read this passage from Isaiah 61—a passage about the Messianic Promise
found in the Year of Jubilee.
Then Jesus said something, He
pronounced something that only the High Priest on the Day of Atonement could
say.
4:20— “He then rolled up
the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of
everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 He began by saying to
them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” 22 They
were all speaking well of Him and were amazed by the gracious words that came
from His mouth.”
Today this Scripture is fulfilled in
your hearing. He is pronouncing the Year
of Jubilee and if He is pronouncing it, what day is it?
Day of Atonement.
He is pronouncing the Year of Jubilee
but who has the authority to say that?
Only the High Priest. And who is
Jesus—the Great High Priest.
He is pronouncing the fulfilment of the
Year of Jubilee which could only be brought about by the coming of the Messiah!
Jesus is announcing the Blessing of
fulfilment, but to any person who knew the Scriptures, they would know that Jesus
didn’t finish the sentence because that passage in Isaiah goes on to say…
Isaiah
61:2
– “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day
of our God’s vengeance;
In this one verse is the first and
second coming of Jesus. The Messiah has
two jobs to do—the first was to redeem His people as the Suffering Servant—to
pay the debt for sin.
The second purpose
of the Messiah is to come in Power as the heir to the throne of David, to judge
the nations and right all the wrongs in the world caused by sin.
That’s what Isaiah goes on to say—61:2c—“to comfort all
who mourn, 3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion ; to give
them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of
mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called
righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him.”
That is the
future promise—all that we see and know that is wrong in this world—all of the
pain and suffering that is going on all around us—it will not be this way
forever.
That is the
power of the Gospel story—It reminds me of a quote by GK Chesterton in talking
about the power of story and even in fairy tales and the need to read them to
children. - Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children
already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be
killed.
In the same
way, the world knows that the dragon exists, knows evil exists, knows how
dangerous it really is out there. What
the world needs to know is that the Dragon can be defeated, and not just
defeated but ultimately killed.
That is the
Good News, that is what Messiah will do.
And that is what the Day of Atonement Yom Kippur is proclaiming.
But there’s
another connection between Jesus at Nazareth and the Yom Kippur. It has to do with the Azazel, the Scapegoat.
Two goats
were used in the temple service, one was sacrificed and the second, the
scapegoat was led out into the wilderness—symbolic of the sins of the people
being taken away, never to return.
Tradition
says that they were so concerned that this goat could find its way back home
and wander back to the city that the man who lead the goat away would push it
over a cliff.
Now read what
happened to Jesus in Luke
4:28 --“When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was enraged.
29 They got up, drove Him out of town, and brought Him to the edge of the
hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl Him over the cliff. 30 But
He passed right through the crowd and went on His way.”
So just as
the ceremony threw the goat that carried away the sins over the cliff, the same
was tried to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But it was not the time. The Spring Feasts had not yet been fulfilled,
the Messiah son of Joseph had not yet come, the Suffering Servant had not yet
paid the ransom for our sins.
So Jesus, on
the Day of Atonement, Proclaimed the Good News of the Year of the Lord’s
Favor—because He was there to take away sins, not just for a year but for
eternity.
He wanted people’s names to be written in the Book of Life not for a year, but for eternity.
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