Holy Week (4)

The Christ of the Cross

Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
Just as many were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.
Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.

Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isaiah 52:13 - 53:3)

“Marred more than any man...He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”

Good Friday, or I think perhaps “Holy Friday”, is not about advertising or marketing, it is not about making Christianity attractive or appealing, it is not about us becoming happy, or wealthy, or smart, or attractive through Christianity - it is about a Person who has no attraction, no makeup on before He goes on stage, no entourage dedicated to making His life stress free and catering to His every whim. Jesus’ hair isn’t even carefully coiffured nor are His nails manicured.

Jesus has become “like one from whom men hide their face.” Crucifixion is an execution designed not only to be tortuous, but also to be publically shameful. To embrace Jesus Christ is to embrace His reproach, His shame. And so the author of Hebrews writes, “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” The Cross was a reproach in the first century, and it is a reproach today, a stumbling block, it gets in the way of people and true Christianity - or at least it should. It should get in the way in the sense that we cannot come to Christ without going to and through the Cross. We cannot know the Christ of Easter without knowing the Christ of Holy Friday.

And so Paul writes (1 Cor. 2:1-5), And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

How do we know if a message or teaching is true? We ask, “Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ in this teaching, in this message, in this song?” A Christianity without the Cross is a Christianity without Christ. A church without the Cross at its center is a church without Christ at its center. A person without the Cross is a person without Christ.

On the Cross Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, becomes sin for us, as Paul writes (2 Cor. 5:20 - 21); Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Jesus Christ bears our sins, He takes our rebellion and transgressions upon Himself, He take us upon Himself, our very persons - and He becomes sin on our behalf - and in so doing He cries, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” Jesus becomes the object of God’s righteous anger and wrath, He becomes a perfect offering, a holocaust - and as His offering is perfected, and as it is completed, He cries, “It is finished.”

Where is the Cross in our lives? Where is the suffering Messiah? Will we follow Him? Will we be identified with Him? Will we cry with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”?

Do we hide our faces from Him during the week and only look at Him on Sundays and Good Fridays?

Or can we say with Paul (Galatians 6:14); “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”?

Holy Week (3)

The Fellowship of the Cross

Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip *came and *told Andrew; Andrew and Philip *came and *told Jesus. And Jesus *answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

“Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.”  John 12:20 - 28a.

In the Gospel of John, unlike the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), we see little of what transpired between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. Instead John chooses to focus his attention on Maundy Thursday - the night that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, and His long talk with them in the Upper Room and during their walk to Gethsemane; these events are contained in John 13:1 - 18:11, a significant portion of John’s 21 chapters. What John does tell us about Jesus between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday is contained in John 12:20 - 50 and it begins with the passage quoted above.

Our text does not tell us whether Jesus actually met with the Greeks, but it does tell us what Jesus said in response to Andrew and Philip’s message from the Greeks.

“The hour has come…” The theme of “hour” is prominent in John’s Gospel; from 2:4, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come,” to 17:1, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify you…” The trajectory of the life of Jesus Christ is time sensitive, with each orbit of the earth around the Sun His hour draws closer, and yet closer, and yet closer...until we come to Holy Week. During His recorded ministry He goes to Jerusalem at Passover, again, yet again, and then comes the Great Passover of the cosmos, the Passover when the Hour of the Lamb has come - the Passover of God’s Great Sacrifice.

Now if these Greeks were indeed Greeks and not simply Greek-speaking Jews, then the added significance is that the peoples of the earth are seeking the True and Living God and the hour has come for all peoples to be gathered into one in Christ. But that cannot happen until Jesus dies (Ephesians 2:11 - 22), that cannot happen in its fullness until the Grain of Wheat falls into the ground and dies.

Jesus must die so that He will not remain alone, and as Jesus says in John 10:14 - 16, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”

But Jesus is not only telling us about His calling and impending sacrificial death, He is also calling those who desire to serve Him to follow Him into death as a way of life, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow me; and where I am, there My servant will be also…” This following, as He makes clear, is bound up in His words, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal” (see also Mark 8:34 - 38).

This suffering - resurrection motif fills up the New Testament and the Bible can’t be accurately taught without this being a major theme; it is a theme which is not isolated in the life of Jesus Christ, it is a theme that He calls His people to live, it is a way of life. We die with Christ so that we may live with Christ. We learn to be grains of wheat falling into the ground that others may live, while we are certainly not The Grain of Wheat, we are nevertheless grains of wheat that are the fruit of The Grain of Wheat and our union with Christ is such that His life becomes our life and our life is melded into His life - we are one with Christ in the Trinity (see John Chapter 17).

Are we learning what it is to know Christ in His sufferings? (Philippians 3:8 - 14; Romans 8:18 - 39). Are we embracing the fellowship of the Cross of Christ? Are we laying down our lives for others (1 John 3:16)? Is the Cross imprinted on us (Galatians 6:11 - 18)? Is the work of the Cross apparent in our lives? In the lives of our churches?

Strange as it may seem, we are delivered from the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14 - 18) so that we might die for others. So that our lives might be lived for others and not for ourselves.

When we follow the Way of Jesus in the fellowship of the Cross we are with Jesus - “Where I am, there my servant will be also.” Today we can be where Jesus is as we find our fellowship with Him in the Father, as we embrace His Cross, as His Cross works within us and through us. This is a holy place, a place in the Son of God, a place where His Presence envelops us and leads us and guides us and comforts us...as we comfort and live for others.

Holy Week (2)

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He *said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”

And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus *said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.  Matthew 21:12 - 17.

I wonder what Jesus would say to Big Business Christianity? Jesus told a story about a rich man who was into building bigger and bigger storehouses for his agricultural wealth (Luke 12:13 - 21), the man said to himself, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” Jesus said that God called the man a “fool”. That seems harsh, for after all, what’s wrong with bulging bank accounts and investments?  What’s wrong with church organizations amassing funds just in case God stops providing? What’s wrong with the church making poster children of the rich and famous? What’s wrong in making certain that before we embark on a “ministry” venture that there will be a return on our investment?

Jesus displaces the people making a profit in the Temple with the blind and the lame, with those who are the invisible people, with those who have no material or practical worth to society or the the temple system. Oh, and yes, He has invited the children into the Temple too - what will He do next?

The idea of God’s House being a house of prayer is a bit impractical isn’t it? What gets accomplished through prayer? Where’s the excitement in prayer? Where is the entertainment value in prayer? Where is the profit? If we want to turn the church into a house of prayer who will come? Everyone knows that prayer is b-o-r-i-n-g.

You must admit that letting in the lame and blind and children is making things a bit untidy Jesus. And speaking of untidy, did you really have to turn over all those tables? What a mess you’ve made. Is this what happens when you come to church Jesus? Didn’t your parents teach you anything?

The lame and blind who have been excluded come to Jesus, the children who are invisible people come to Jesus; the have-nots come to Jesus and Jesus loves them. Jesus messes up the Temple system, the religious system, the social caste system. He disrupts religious profitability - if only for a day - and to think that He does it as Passover approaches, one of the most profitable festivals of the year; couldn’t He do His thing during the off-season?

Well, what do we think this Holy Week? Do we really want Jesus to show up at our place of worship? Are we prepared for what He might do? Who He might bring? What conventions He might overturn? Is our church a house of prayer?

Am I a house of prayer? Do I allow those who are different from me into my life? Are children invisible to me? Am I willing to have tables in my heart overturned? Am I willing to allow the Holy Spirit to reveal things within me, His temple, that ought not to be? Will I ask God to bring to light actions and attitudes in my life that are self-centered? Do I try to use God for my own profit? Is there a room in my soul, in my heart, that is my own den of thieves?

What about you?

Holy Week (1)

This is Holy Week for the Western Church, next week is Holy Week for the Eastern Orthodox Church; whenever it is observed, whether this week or next week in 2018, our focus should be on Jesus and not differences within the Church. Perhaps we could make the best of things by observing Holy Weeks? Hopefully those of us in the Western Tradition will pray for our Eastern brethren next week, and hopefully this week they’ll be praying for us. Won’t it be nice when we are all on the same page at Christ’s Coming?

While Paul does indeed teach that we no longer observe “days and months and seasons and years” (Galatians 4:10) as a means of self-righteousness or attempting to please God by our “works”; and while he also teaches that we are not to allow others to judge us (be worried about what they think?) regarding “a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day” (Colossians 2:16); Paul also writes (Romans 14:5 - 9):

“One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

So I think we have the liberty to live in an awareness of the calendar, of the cycles of life, and to pay particular attention to particular facets of life during particular times and seasons, after all, God said that one of the roles of the heavens above is to be, “...for signs and for seasons and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). Let us employ our liberty in Christ Jesus in glorifying Him and being a witness to the world.

Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday (the day Jesus entered Jerusalem to the acclamation of the crowd) and concludes on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter) - this is the standard timeframe. I confess that I visualize Holy Week as an eight-day week, beginning on Palm Sunday and culminating on Easter - on the eighth day a new creation came out of the Tomb, a Second Man (1 Corinthians 15:47; John 12:24). As St. Augustine understood it, the experience of the Head of the Body is also the experience of the Body, the Head and the Body (the Church) cannot be separated. From Good Friday through Resurrection morning there is a particular continuum in Christ that we participate in, and this continuum, this organic identification in Him and with Him, is critical to the Gospel and to our life in Christ. Living rooted in Christ’s death and resurrection allows us to consider ourselves dead to sin but alive unto God (Romans 6:11).

“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:5 - 11).

This is the way Christians are to think, and speak, and teach. And based on this we read:

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:12 - 14).

There is a sense in which Holy Week is a celebration of a New Creation, all things were created by and through Christ in Genesis (the first time), and all New things are created by Christ via His incarnation, resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost (the second time).  To be sure this second creation in Christ is being visibly worked out in Christ through His Body, the Church - that which is already is not yet, but the “not yet” is being eclipsed by the “already”.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” (Ephesians 1:7 - 10).

The fact that we have “redemption through His blood” enables us to participate in God’s orchestration of chronos and kairos in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ.

We may ask ourselves what it would have been like to witness God’s creation of the world in Genesis Chapter One, and many Psalms and other Bible passages give voice to the wonder of God’s creation, and it is indeed something to contemplate and meditate upon - for God speaks to us through creation.

But let us also ask what it would have been like to have been present at the Second Creation, to have walked this earth in Palestine during Holy Week; to have been present on Palm Sunday, to have been in the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday, to have stood on Golgotha on Good Friday, and to have been with the women on Easter morning and with the men that evening.

Beyond this, let us ask ourselves on which side of the Tomb we are living today. Are we living in the First Man (Adam) or the Second Man (Christ)? (Romans 5:12 - 21; 2 Corinthians 5:14 - 21; Galatians 2:20). The portal to the Tomb is the Cross, and we will not know what it is to see the stone rolled away if we do not know what it is to know Jesus Christ on the Cross. We enter the Tomb via the Cross, and then having been raised from the dead we live by the Cross in the power of His resurrection. We die daily as we live to Him - this is more than chronology, this is more than a series of events, this is a Way of Life in Jesus Christ, this is life in the Trinity.

This is the Big Bang that really matters, the Life of God in Christ exploding into the lives of men and women and forming a New Creation, His People, His Church, His Body - “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22 - 23; 2:19 - 22; 4:11 - 16).

The Veil (3)

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.” (Hebrews 10:1).

In Hebrews 9:9 we see that the Law cannot “make the worshipper perfect in conscience.” In 10:1 we see that the Law cannot make the worshipper perfect, holistically perfect, healthy and mature.

The imperfect work of the Law is contrasted with the perfect work of Christ (Hebrews 10:8 - 17):

“After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

“Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying,

“This is the covenant that I will make with them
After those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws upon their heart,
And on their mind I will write them,”

“He then says,

“And their sins and their lawless deeds
I will remember no more.””

This is a glorious message, the message of Christ’s perfect and complete work on the Cross, the rending of the veil, conscience cleansed, sins and lawless deeds forgiven and remembered no more. While we may not understand all of this, the Trinity calls us to live in its reality, to live in Christ and to know that Christ lives in His people.

Can we not see the stark contrast presented by the Holy Spirit through the author of Hebrews? Can we see this same contrast in Paul, for example in 2 Corinthians Chapter 3, where the Law of Moses is termed “the ministry of condemnation”, where we are told that the letter of the Law “kills, but the Spirit gives life”?

If we see the perfection of Christ and His perfect work, then why do we so often insist on reintroducing a consciousness of sin into our congregations and thinking? Why do we often insist that we focus on who we were rather than who we are in Jesus Christ? Why must we sew up the veil that Christ has rent in two? Why can we not confess Christ as He is portrayed in Scripture and confess how His work is portrayed, and trust the Holy Spirit to convict us and mature us as God transforms us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29)?

If we can confess the perfect work of Christ, while not seeing the perfection of that work fully manifested; why can we not confess His perfect work within us - while not having seen the full expression of that perfection? Why live outside the veil when we are called to live within the veil - with the veil being removed from our vision - for it is gone. Why have some of us allowed ourselves to be imprisoned in thoughts and language that are less than Biblical? Can we not trust the Word of God as it is written?

If I preach to people under the Law then I will employ the language of the Law, if I preach to people under grace then I will use the language of grace. But since I live under grace I shall preach grace, and when I encounter those still living under the Law I will also preach grace; I will proclaim Christ and Christ alone and will tell them of Christ’s cosmic Emancipation Proclamation - “It is finished”. That which is perfect has come, the Law with its continual reminder of sin and imperfection has been replaced by Christ, and the veil has been torn by Christ from top to bottom and the Way is open for us into the very Presence of God.

We are to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free” (Galatians 5:1), we “have been called to freedom” (Galatians 5:13) - how can we seek to rebuild those things which we destroyed (Galatians 2:18)? Again I ask, how can we sew up the veil?

This quote is from Bonhoeffer’s Discipleship, it’s from the chapter titled Saints, “Their [Christians] breach with the past is an accomplished fact. Their “former” manner of life has come to an end (Eph. 4:22). “You were darkness, but now are light in the Lord” (Eph. 5:8). Whereas they had once performed shameful and “unfruitful works of the flesh,” the Spirit now produces in them the fruit of sanctification [holiness].

“This is why Christians are no longer to be called sinners, in the sense of men who are still living under the dominion of sin...On the contrary, they were once sinners, ungodly, enemies (Rom. 5:8, 19; Gal. 2:15, 17), but now through Christ they are holy. As saints they are reminded and exhorted to be what they are. But this is not an impossible ideal, it is not sinners who are required to become holy, or that would mean a return to justification by works and would be blasphemy against Christ. No, it is saints who are required to be holy, saints who have been sanctified in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.”

Are we living within the veil, in the Presence of God? Are we preaching and teaching this? Do we really believe the Gospel in all of God’s glory in Jesus Christ?

The Veil (2)

The New Testament book of Hebrews draws back the curtain on the meaning of many Old Testament types and shadows, interpreting images and history in and through Christ. One can only wonder what the author might have written had his recipients been mature believers (Hebrews 5:11 - 14). As it is, much of what the author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has to tell us are things that we functionally reject out-of-hand; we may pay lip-service to the Gospel in Hebrews, but we generally aren’t about to take it seriously. The veil is a case in point - even though the veil has been rent from top to bottom by Jesus Christ, Christians generally live as if God is far away and inaccessible, they generally live as if the veil has been repaired, and they generally live as if they need any number of mediators to stand between them and God - functionally we often think, “Let someone else go beyond the veil, let it be someone else’s job, I’ll live outside the Holy of Holies and be just fine.”

This is understandable if we continue to reject our identity as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 2:9 - 18), it is understandable if we fail to confess the completeness of Christ’s work on the Cross (Hebrews 9:13 - 15; 10:10 - 14). It is understandable if we continue to insist on introducing guilt and the law again and again into consciences that Christ has cleansed; one of the imperfections of the Levitical system was that it could not “make the worshiper perfect in conscience” (Hebrews 9:9), and one of the results of the perfect work of Christ is that our hearts have been “sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22). But for some reason we don’t want to accept this, we think there is some merit is dredging up sin, dredging up the past, and convincing ourselves that we are destined to spend our lives in bondage to sin, the Law, and the flesh/natural man. Even in the face of liberating passages such as Romans 5:12 - 8:39 we tend to say, “Yeah but…” Even in the face of Jesus’ words in John chapters 13 - 17 we say, “Yeah but…” We qualify God’s Word, we qualify the Cross, we qualify the work of the Holy Spirit, we justify our shackels. This is, with all charity, anything but Christocentric, it is not focused on the glorious work of Christ but rather on our own failings; when we look at ourselves we will always come short of the glory of God - even in the guise of self-abasement and self-imposed humility. Humility is not saying, “I fall short of the glory of God,” humility is proclaiming that Christ is my righteousness, my sanctification, and my redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30 - 31).

The Trinity desires intimate relationship with us, and that occurs in the Holy of Holies,  it occurs as we learn to live life in His Presence and with His Presence in us. To remain simply on the other side of the Red Sea, having escaped from Egypt, is to preach and teach and live in less than the Gospel. To wander in the Wilderness for a lifetime is to experience less than the Gospel. To fear the giants in the promised land is to know and teach and experience less than the Gospel. To remain in the Outer Court of the Temple, to remain in the Holy Place (that section between the Outer Court and the Holy of Holies) is to experience less than the full Gospel - for Jesus Christ rent the veil thereby  making the way into the Presence of God open to us all in Him.

Consider this from Hebrews, describing conditions before the Cross of Christ:

“Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.” (Hebrews 9:6 - 10).

Now consider this from Hebrews, describing the work of Christ on the Cross and what that means for those in relationship with Him:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19 - 22).

In the lead up to Chapter 10 the author of Hebrews paints a picture of Jesus our High Priest in the Holy of Holies:

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14 - 16).

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:19 - 20).

This thread of the storyline in Hebrews first portrays Jesus beyond the veil (Hebrews 4:14-16; 6:19 - 20), and then shows us that when the body of Jesus was rent that the veil was rent, and then shows us that we now have access to the Holy of Holies, the very place where Christ is, in the Presence of God, calling us into the fellowship, communion, koinonia, of the Trinity. Our consciences have been cleansed and we can believe and functionally live in the reality of God’s promise that He will write His laws on our hearts and minds and that our “sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:16 - 17). Belief that is not functional, that is not expressed, that is not relied upon, that is not confessed, that is not preached and taught - what kind of belief is that? Biblical belief is more than mere intellectual assent - it is living in the light of our belief, it is encouraging others in that belief - it is trusting in the Word of God in a marriage and unity of thought, word, and action in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is all sufficient for us and His sacrifice is perfect - do we really believe that?

I’ll close this post with some words from Martin Luther from his commentary on Galatians:

“Christ and the law can by no means agree and reign together in the conscience.”

We can only have one master, either the Law or grace; either Moses or Christ. He also writes, in commenting on Galatians 5:1,  that the issue of whether we live under the Law or grace is one of “everlasting liberty or everlasting bondage.” Luther counsels that we are not to trust our feelings but to trust God’s Word and His character.

“Therefore, if Christ appear in the likeness of an angry judge or lawgiver that requires an account of our life past [Luther is writing to Christians, to those in a relationship with Christ], then let us assure ourselves that it is not Christ, but a raging fiend [Satan is the one who accuses us, Rev. 12:10 - 11]. For the Scripture paints out Christ to be our reconciler, our advocate and our comforter. Such a one He is and ever shall be; he cannot be unlike Himself.”

The Veil (1)

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…”(Matthew 27:50 - 51a)

“And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” ”

(Mark 15:37 - 39)

“It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour, because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” ” (Luke 23:44 - 46)

It will soon be Holy Week, and the Friday of Holy Week is, of course, Good Friday - a Friday which appeared to be anything but good to the observer on the hill called Golgotha some 2,000 years ago. What good can be said about the excruciating and shameful tortuous death by crucifixion? What good can be said by the observer about a Man who is not only the object and focus of the anger and hatred of mankind, but Who is also the object of God’s wrath as He takes our sins, and our sinful selves, upon Himself? It is only with the advantage of Easter that we can call this particular Friday Good. Let there be no misunderstanding, you and I both forged the nails that were driven into the body of Jesus Christ - and yet, inexplicably, with each strike of the hammer driving the nails into His flesh, God in Jesus Christ was saying to us, “I love you.” And so the Apostle John, a witness to the crucifixion, later writes, “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son…”

In the crucifixion accounts of three of the four Gospel writers it is recorded that the veil of the Temple was torn in two, with Matthew and Mark noting that it was torn from top to bottom. Why is  the rending of the veil significant? What does it mean in our lives? Does it matter? Does it make a difference to us?

(As I pondered why John did not record the rending of the veil in his Gospel, it occurred to me that he showed, demonstrated, and explained the results of the tearing of the veil in chapters 13 - 17 of his Gospel, chapters in which Jesus leads us from the Outer Court of washing into the Holy of Holies, into deep union with the Trinity).

May I ask, what are the images or ideas of God that you’ve had throughout your life? What was it as a child? Through adulthood? What is it now? If it has changed, why has it changed?

As you have thought of God (or imagined Him) over the years, have you thought of Him as Someone near to you or far off? What kind of images have you had of His nearness or His distance?  

My own image of God has changed over the years, from someone akin to Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial - someone BIG and distant, sitting on a BIG throne and looking down at little me; to a Person who was a distant Judge and who demanded that I measure up - it was a contingent relationship, if it can be called a relationship. The idea that God has given me the Spirit of Sonship (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6) was foreign to me, the thought and sense that He is accessible, more than accessible, that He is with me and in me...and the joy and security that brings...well that was simply not in my thinking or experience. So those are some of my images, what are yours?

Back to the veil being torn in two from top to bottom; what is this communicating?

The Temple in Jerusalem in the time of Jesus Christ was different in many ways from the Temple that Solomon built, and different in even more ways from the Tabernacle that Moses constructed; but in one significant way it was the same, it’s most inner recess was called the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy Place, and it had a veil (curtain) that separated it from the rest of the Tabernacle/Temple. The Holy of Holies represented that Place where the Presence of the Holy God dwelt, and into that Place, into that Presence, only the High Priest could go once a year, on the Day of Atonement, what we also call Yom Kippur. To get an idea of the solemnity and holy ritual surrounding the Day of Atonement we can read Leviticus Chapter 16. To learn about the Tabernacle of Moses we can read Exodus chapters 25 - 40. To learn about the Temple of Solomon we can read 2 Chronicles chapters 2 - 7.

I think it is fair to say that for the average ancient Israelite that God was relatively inaccessible; in fact, for the average priest He was likely perceived as inaccessible - after all, the veil was a barrier to His Presence.

In Exodus 26:31 we read concerning the veil, ““You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman.” Cherubim are prominent in the Tabernacle, not only do they appear on the veil at the Holy of Holies, they appear in other curtains (Exodus 26:1) and they appear on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10 - 22) which is within the Holy of Holies. To enter the Holy of Holies the High Priest on the Day of Atonement must pass through the veil with its cherubim, the priest must go through the cherubim.

Why cherubim?

In Genesis 3:22 - 24 we read, “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

As long as the cherubim remained, the way to the Tree of Life was guarded. As long as the cherubim remained on the veil, the way into the Holy of Holies, into the intimate Presence of God, was barred.

What is our image of God? Where are we living? Within or without the veil?

To be continued...