Apostles Anglican Church
Fr. John Roop

Hebrews 9-10: Jesus, the Superior Yom Kippur Sacrifice

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Let us pray.

Almighty God, you gave your only Son to be for us both a sacrifice for sin and an example of godly living: Give us grace thankfully to receive his inestimable benefits, and daily to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (BCP 2019, p. 612).

Introduction

As you might guess, I drink a fair amount of coffee each day, not as much as when I worked for the government or for the school system, but a fair amount still. It has been said that a preacher is a machine for turning coffee into sermons; the same is true with teachers and lessons, at least in my case. I do not wash my cup after each refill; a coffee cup is like a cast iron skillet: too much cleaning kills the flavor. So, I generally do just a quick rinse every day or so. But, from time to time I notice that a more serious coffee stain has built up on the white inside of the cup; I know then that it is time for a deep cleansing to restore the cup to its pristine condition: soap and water and some scrubbing.

This same pattern can obtain with human relationships. Have you ever found yourself in a serious, heated argument with…well, it’s usually with a spouse over something that is really trivial, an argument whose intensity cannot in any way be justified by the triggering event? What is going on there? What has really made this relational landmine lethal is the accumulation of unresolved past hurts and slights and disagreements. They have built up; they have stained the relationship and only a deep emotional cleaning, only deep repentance and mutual forgiveness, will restore the relationship to its proper condition.

This pattern of accumulated stain or residue is fairly obvious in the physical and emotional realms of life, but what about in the spiritual realm? The disciplines and practices of the Church suggest that it is a spiritual phenomenon also. Each day in the Daily Office we confess our sin to God and read words of pardon. And yet, the weight of unresolved guilt and shame can — and for many does — accumulate until something more, a deeper cleansing, is required. And the Church provides for that in the Rite of Reconciliation of Penitents (Confession), in which one is encouraged to make a thorough self-examination and self-revelation so that the stain can be cleansed deeply; absolution the Church calls it. Or, on a more communal level, the Church offers the entire penitential season of Lent, a time for repentance, for setting aside harmful spiritual habits that have accumulated over the past year, for doing a thorough spiritual Spring Cleaning in preparation for Easter.

This understanding of the accumulating residue of sin and the practice of a deep cleansing of it — an atonement for it — were at the heart of the Jewish sacrificial system. Failure to account for the reality of the accumulated weight of sin, failure to deal with stain and residue of it, ultimately led to the exile first of Israel and then of Judah (see Lev 18:24-30, Num 35:30-34, Is 24:1-13, 2 Kings 17:1-23).

Here is the theological paradigm of sacrifice in simplified form.

It was, from the beginning, God’s intent to have a people for himself — all people ultimately — among whom he would dwell. That is the meaning of God’s rest on the seventh day of creation; God entered into his resting place, his habitation/abode in the midst of Eden with the proto-humans Adam and Eve. But, his presence with them — or their ability to remain in his presence — was contingent upon their obedience, their holiness. When they were disobedient, they were exiled outside the Garden, away from the immediate presence of God, not least for their own protection, lest they experience what some call “death by holiness,” the destruction of sinful man by the presence of a holy God.

Still, God’s intent to dwell among a people did not change. He created a people — through Abraham and his offspring — to be his own and among whom he might dwell. But, these people, too, bore the weight of sin. Those through whom God determined to resolve the sin problem were themselves part of the sin problem; the physicians were themselves infected with the terminal disease, so to speak.

So, God gave them a system for managing sin — not eliminating it, but managing it — so that he might dwell among them and they might live safely in his presence; God gave Israel the sacrificial system of the Law. There was a daily and seasonal round of sacrifices that, if I may use this language, “rinsed” the sins of the people much as I rinse my coffee cup. But, all that sin left a residue which accumulated over the course of a year until a deeper cleaning was required. This residue accumulated on the people, on the priests, on the tabernacle with its altar and other furnishings, on the mercy seat, on the land. And that had to be dealt with. Let’s try this analogy: think of the daily and seasonal round of sacrifices like a Dyson vacuum cleaner sucking up dirt and debris each week. Of course, all that “gunk” accumulates until finally the canister is full and must be emptied. How was the canister of Israel’s sin emptied each year? What act deep cleaned the residue of each year’s sin so that God and Israel might dwell together for another year? Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement.

The ritual actions for this holiest day of the year are found in Leviticus 16; it is worth reading the entire chapter as the background for Hebrews. Since time won’t allow for that now, I will summarize.

Yom Kippur was the only day each year that anyone might enter the Holy of Holies and enter into the presence of God enthroned above the mercy seat. Only the high priest could do so and only with carefully prescribed sacrifices. He first offered a bull as a sin offering for his own sin and the sin of his house. He took the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. Then he offered a goat for the sins of the people and sprinkled its blood on the mercy seat in similar fashion. The high priest then moved outward from the Holy of Holies sprinkling blood and making atonement as he went:

Leviticus 16:16–19 (ESV): 16 Thus he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleannesses of the people of Israel and because of their transgressions, all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting, which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. 17 No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the Holy Place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. 18 Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it, and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around. 19 And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleannesses of the people of Israel.

There are other rites and rituals performed on the Day of Atonement, but they are all directed toward the same purpose: a deep cleansing from the residual stain of sin so that God might dwell with his people. Yom Kippur is as essential to the story of Israel as is the Passover. The Passover managed death; the Day of Atonement managed sin.

We are conditioned by the Gospels and by our liturgy to think of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb. One of the earliest testimonies to Jesus, given by John the Baptist, was the proclamation: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29b)! And, at the Last Supper, Jesus enfolded the meaning of his death in the symbolic context of the Passover meal. In our own liturgy, at the fraction — the breaking of the bread — we say, “Alleluia! Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed once for all upon the cross.” So, yes, Jesus is the reality that the signpost of the Passover lamb had been pointing toward throughout all those generations.

But, it is equally true — though rarely noted explicitly — that Jesus is also the fulfillment of the Yom Kippur bull and goat whose blood served to cleanse the Tabernacle, the people, and the land. And, in the overabundance of meaning characteristic of all things related to Jesus, he is not just the bull and goat, but also the great and final High Priest who offers the blood of the bull and goat as the atoning sacrifice. The author of Hebrews leaves the Passover symbolism to the rest of Scripture; his interest is in the Day of Atonement.

Hebrews 9: Christ as the Fulfillment of Yom Kippur

All this is the background for Hebrews 9 in which the author presents Christ as the fulfillment of the Day of Atonement and thus of the entire sacrificial system.

Hebrews 9:1–10 (ESV): 9 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

Let’s draw just a couple of major points from this passage. First, as long as the tabernacle stands with its veil of separation between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, as long as the Yom Kippur ritual is restricted to the human high priest on just one day each year, as long as the blood of bulls and goats is the only sacrifice offered, it all stands as witness of the impossibility of God dwelling fully among his people and of the people’s ready access to God. Further, the annual repetition of the sacrifice means that sin has only been managed temporarily and not dealt with once for all. The blood of bulls and goats can temporarily cleanse the worshippers, but it cannot solve the deeper sin issue; it cannot perfect the conscience. But, after all, these sacrifices were never intended to deal fully and finally with sin. They pointed toward the final Yom Kippur sacrifice in Christ. And it is to that reality that the author turns his attention.

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.

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 high priest enters into a replica — a copy — of the holy places year after year with the blood of bulls and goats to offer a temporary sacrifice for the cleansing of the people’s sin. But that sacrifice has no power to defeat sin or to change the heart of the people; rather it manages sin and reminds people of it. But Christ, the Great High Priest, enters into the reality of which the earthly tabernacle was but a shadow. And he enters both as priest and sacrifice, the High Priest bringing with him his own blood to make eternal redemption, to deal with the problem of sin once for all, and to purify the conscience — to transform the inner person — of all people whom he represents before the living God. That means that Christ’s priesthood is superior to the Levitical priesthood, as the author has already argued, and that his sacrifice is superior to those prescribed by the Law. The author summarizes that argument in Heb 10:1-18, which I commend to your reading.

I’ve noted that we most generally identify Jesus’s sacrifice as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But, I’ve also argued, along with the author of Hebrews, that Jesus must also be seen as the Yom Kippur bull and goat. I would argue further that these two great festivals come crashing together in the Passion-Resurrection-Ascension narrative, that they are fulfilled there.

There is an interesting exchange between Jesus and Mary Magdalene on the morning of the resurrection:

John 20:16–18 (ESV): 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.

It seems from this passage that Jesus’s work of atonement is not yet complete and will not be until he ascends to his Father. We often think of the Ascension of Jesus in terms of his enthronement at the right hand of God; N. T. Wright even argues that Christ the King Sunday is superfluous — and even misleading — because we already celebrated his enthronement earlier in the liturgical year on the feast of the Ascension. But that is not all that the Ascension is. Before it is the enthronement of the King, it is the entry of the Great High Priest into the Holy Places in heaven where he presents his own blood for the atonement of the whole world. And that makes possible God’s dwelling among his people in the Person of the Holy Spirit: hence Pentecost immediately following the Ascension.

Now, all of this has great implications for us. The Yom Kippur sacrifices still left a barrier between God and man. The high priest could not enter the Most Holy Place for another year and the people could not enter either of the holy places. But, with the fulfillment of Yom Kippur in Jesus, the barrier was removed.

Hebrews 10:19–22 (ESV): 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.

The purpose of the Yom Kippur sacrifices was never to bring the people directly into the presence of God, but that is precisely the purpose and the effect of Jesus’s sacrifice. Our access to God is always mediated through Jesus, but it is direct access nonetheless; we can come confidently before God. This is precisely what we say in the Eucharistic liturgy each week:

As our great high priest, he ascended to your right hand in glory, that we might come with confidence before the throne of grace (BCP 2019, p.133).

So, to those Jewish Christians who might be contemplating a return to Judaism, the author reminds them of just what they are giving up: access to the holy places, direct communion with God the Father through the great High Priest Jesus Christ. We are to draw near to God (1) with a true heart, (2) in full assurance of faith, (3) with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and (4) with our bodies washed with pure water. Let’s think of these requirements from the standpoint of the original audience of the epistle:

True heart: not a heart divided between the Law and the Gospel, between Judaism and Christianity

Full assurance of faith: not wavering between works and faith but trusting entirely in the completed work of Christ

Hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience: with the inner transforming power of Christ’s sacrifice, with God’s law now written on our hearts

Bodies washed with pure water: with the cleansing that comes not from outer washings of the Law but from baptism into Christ

And now the author encourages those who might be wavering to hang on, not just in faith, but also in practice.

Hebrews 10:23–25 (ESV): 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.

Apparently, some of the audience of the epistle was beginning to absent itself from the Sunday Eucharist, neglecting to meet together on the appointed day. The author emphasizes that when life is hard, when we are suffering or facing persecution or wavering in our faith — as was the case with the audience of this epistle — we particularly need one another and the encouragement that comes from being part of a body. So we meet together, we stir up a spirit of love and good works in one another. Whether the “Day” to which the author refers is Sunday, the day of meeting, or the coming day of the Lord when Jesus returns is not clear; perhaps it’s both. But the message is the same either way: hang on, meet together, encourage one another. This is certainly a message for the Western Church today when attendance is plummeting and is seen as optional, at best. So dies the faith and so dies the Church.

What follows next is very sobering and cautionary. What of those who, having been Christ followers, have now abandoned the faith and returned to Judaism?

Hebrews 10:26–31 (ESV): 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Suppose a Christ follower returns to Judaism. He will find in the Law no effective sacrifice for sins — as the author has been arguing — and so he will go on deliberately sinning. That way leads to judgment and punishment, not least because it is a repudiation of Christ, a proclamation that his blood his worthless. It is an outrage to and thus a sin against the Holy Spirit. And, as Jesus himself made clear, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is not a sin that will be forgiven. This pulling back from the Church, this distancing of oneself from Christ is a life-and-death matter, not a viable option.

The author ends this section with a reminder of his audience’s former devotion and an encouragement to return to that same commitment.

Hebrews 10:32–36 (ESV): 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

The author speaks of former days after their enlightenment. “Enlightenment” is baptismal language; the early Church spoke of baptism and chrismation (the anointing with oil for the gift of the Holy Spirit) as enlightenment. So, he is calling them to remember the time of their initiation into Christ, the early days of first and fervent devotion. He reminds them of how difficult it was: hard struggle, suffering, reproach, affliction, imprisonment, loss of property. But they happily endured those things because of the superiority of Christ and because of the great reward promised them in Christ. So, why do they seem on the verge of throwing away their confidence now? Nothing in Christ has changed. He will come. They will receive what he has promised if they endure.

Hebrews 10:37–38 (ESV): 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”

The author immediately follows this cautionary word with an encouraging and hopeful one. It may be more prayer than actual observation.

Hebrews 10:39 (ESV): 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

That expresses the reason for which this letter is written: an encouragement not to shrink back — to return to Judaism — but rather to press on in the faith.

Discussion

All this may seem like an interesting bit of cultural theology; at least, I hope it was interesting. But what does it mean for us in a far different culture?

How many of you were raised in church? What was the prevailing attitude toward God in the church of your youth? How would you describe your church’s understanding of the relationship between you and God: “warm and fuzzy” — cozy, distant, abstract, loving, fearful?

What did you call the main worship area of your church, what we call the nave here? In the Christian Church of my youth, we called it the “sanctuary.” I honestly never thought much about the connotations of that word when I was younger: did you? What does it connote to you now? Sanctuary comes from the Latin “sanctus” which means “holy.” The sanctuary, literally, is the holy place. But what else does sanctuary connote? If you’ve seen Disney’s version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, you know. Sanctuary connotes a refuge, a safe place. I would suggest that this double connotation is true, but that it is only true because of Jesus. The holy place — the place where God dwells — can also be the safe place for us only because of Jesus and his great act of atonement for us in the last, great Yom Kippur.

Can you imagine being part of the Exodus generation. The tabernacle, with its sanctuary — its holy place — was set in the center of the people with the tribes camped round about. It was the place where God dwelt among his people. It was holy, certainly. But, was it safe? Was God safe? The whole edifice of the Law, the whole structure of the tabernacle suggested that God was not safe, or rather that because of sin it was not safe for man to enter into God’s presence. The sanctuary was a holy place, but not a safe place — not until Jesus. Jesus’s atoning sacrifice — this final Yom Kippur — both purified us and brought down the barriers between God and man so that the heavenly sanctuary — the heavenly holy place — might also be the heavenly refuge and place of safety for all those in Christ Jesus, for all those to whom his purifying blood has been applied. That is as true for us now as it was for Israel then. That’s what the author of Hebrews is defending. That is, in part, how it applies to us.