Word of Salvation – Vol. 36 No. 34 – September 1991

 

The Debt

 

Sermon by Rev. M. C. DeGraaf on Hebrews 10:1-10

Reading: James 3:13-4:12; Lev. 16:1-18, 18-34

Singing:  BoW 135, 51, 252, 253, 240

 

Brothers and Sisters,

If you have been listening to your radio or reading the newspaper, you may have noticed that lately there has been quite a lot of debate about compensation for those who have been hurt in car accidents.  The government has decided that the relatively new TransCover scheme which had only been introduced a year ago is now going to be scrapped and a new system is going to be introduced in its place.  In this system there will be bigger payments both for those who have accidents and by all of those who pay Third-party insurance.

That there is a debate about this is really quite understandable.  The whole issue of insurance and compensation is very difficult.  How can you put monetary values on many of these things?  It is easy enough to pay for medical expenses and necessary house modifications or whatever.

But how can you truly compensate the loss of a limb or a lifestyle?  How can you equate a human being with dollars and cents?  What payment is ever enough?  A lot of this came out when they were arguing about that chemical accident in Bophal.  Union Carbide offered millions of dollars and that still wasn’t considered enough compensation.  They’re still arguing about that in the courts…  Most people involved believe that no payment will ever be enough to truly get rid of the guilt.  And obviously no payment will ever be enough to get rid of the consequences of that guilt!!

For the Jews who lived in Old Testament times, a lot of this would have been easy to understand.  Their whole life was centred on, and structured around, a need to somehow pay for both their individual and their national guilt.  Reading through these books of the Exodus, you notice that many laws (not all, but many) have the function of making sure that those who commit an offence pay the appropriate penalties.  If you hit a slave and he loses an eye or a tooth, then you must set him free (and that is the loss of quite an asset).  If your bull has a bad temper (and you know it and don’t do anything about it) and because of your irresponsibility it goes and kills someone, then you too will be executed.  If you steal someone’s cattle and you are caught, you have to pay back five times as much as you took.  It goes on and on.  There are rules for protecting vineyards, and homes, and even marriage relationships.  Each sin against another person carries with it a payment that must be made.  Guilt must be dealt with.  We see a similar thing, of course, in the relationship with God.

At least three of the five different sacrifices that God’s people had been called to bring were given so that payment could be made for the guilt that they had created through their sinning against God’s Law.

Every time someone unintentionally committed a sin, he had to go to the tabernacle, or later the temple, and he would have to have a goat or bull killed.  Again some sort of payment would need to be exacted to cover the sin that the person had committed.  As a result thousands of animals were killed every year.  Like an abattoir, it was a constant process…  each man, woman, and child being shown his or her failure before God in a graphic way as the animal was slaughtered in front of their eyes!!!

And of course, once a year, on the tenth day of the seventh month, a special day (the Day of Atonement) was set aside so that sacrifice could be made for those sins which had somehow been overlooked.

We saw a description of that day in Leviticus 16.  First the high priest had to make sure that he was acceptable before God, so he needed to be washed and a bull was to be sacrificed on his behalf.

Then the tabernacle itself needed to be cleansed and filled with incense.  After that (rather complicated process) the two goats needed to be dealt with.  One had to be killed and its blood, like the blood of the bull, was to be sprinkled about in the tabernacle.  The second goat needed to be sent out into the wilderness after everyone had touched it and symbolically transferred their sins onto it!

If you have the time it would be good to read this chapter a few times and see just how complex and detailed the processes connected with this day really were.  The dress of the priest is carefully specified (it had to be plain and simple).  He needed to sprinkle the cover of the ark seven times; the remains of the sacrifices needed to be carefully disposed of.  During that day the people were not to work and shouldn’t eat.  It was very much a day of fasting, and, to an extent, also grief!

Though some of these things may seem trivial and unnecessary to us now, each of them served to reinforce the importance of that Day.  Even the high priest, the most holy man in Israel, couldn’t stand before God without some kind of recognition of how deeply he had failed in the eyes of God.  When Aaron’s two sons tried to present the sacrifice to God in Lev.10, they were killed instantly.

A chapter like this reinforces just how holy our God is and just how impossible it is for us to come before Him on our own.  Every time we waver from His perfect path even in a slight way we make the need for this type of reconciliation even greater!

And because of that, a chapter like this also reinforces just how incredible the wonder of Christmas really is.  Is that jump to Christmas a little too big for you?  Well just have a look at Hebrews 9 or 10 and you will see clearly the connection with Christmas.

Sure, to an extent, they speak of Easter more than Christmas.  There is a heavy emphasis on the blood that needs to be spilled but on the other hand the whole of Jesus’ life is part of that sacrifice.

Right at the beginning of his ministry John already called Him the Lamb of God.  God gave up His glory and came as a baby.  And through Him, at last, a peace can come to the world.  In Hebrews 10 the author points out that the Law in itself was only a shadow of what (or who) was coming.  And it never did the job very well.  Those sacrifices were repeated endlessly, year after year, and no one was ever truly cleansed.  The guilt still stuck; the estrangement with God and with our fellow man was still there.  All those goats and bulls were only a stopgap.  Or better still, a reminder that something better was needed.

As the Catechism points out, no creature could ever truly die in our place.  That was only possible for someone who was true man and true God.

Only He could bring about true reconciliation.

Only He could take away the guilt from our shoulders.

Only through Him could we approach the throne of grace with confidence.

Looking at the life of Jesus and comparing it with Leviticus 16 you will see many similarities but you will also see some fundamental differences.

– Like the first goat in Lev.16, Jesus was killed for the sake of His people.

– Like the second goat, He was rejected by men.  He suffered outside the camp in utter loneliness.

– But Christ’s death is not an event that is repeated.  He died ONCE FOR ALL.  His death is unique.

– Jesus does not need to cleanse the Holy of Holies; He is the holiness of God Himself.

– After He had finished His work on the cross, the curtain of the temple could be ripped in two.

– Aaron had to approach the holy of holies with fear and trepidation (his sacrifice was always inadequate; he needed first to kill a bull for his own sins).  Jesus could ascend into heaven with great confidence and be seated at the right hand of God!!!

The joy of Christmas is not based on the trees, decorations, puddings or even carols.  The joy grows from the wonder of Jesus the Saviour.  The baby, that Mary held, has changed our lives once and for all.

It’s sad, of course, that such joy is not experienced by everyone.  The Jews still celebrate Yom Kippur every year.  Some still see the Mass in similar terms.  Many do not see Jesus for who He is.  They still try to deal with their guilt in other, much less adequate, ways.

They hide behind religious ritual (even Protestant religious ritual).

They try to cover their guilt with a hunger for wealth, or alcohol or whatever.

Even if these things work for a time (and for many they don’t), when the day of judgement comes and they stand before the Holy of holies, like Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, there will be nothing to protect them from the wrath of God.

But in Christ, it is different, as Hebrews 10:19-25 indicates.  [Read Heb.10:19-25]

AMEN