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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today on the Christian calendar, obviously, is Good Friday, and tomorrow on the Jewish calendar is Passover. The close occurrence of these two religious days is no mere coincidence of 20-18 but goes back to Jesus’s fulfilling the Jewish festival of Passover that pointed forward to Him, like all the Jewish festivals, including Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, about which we heard a few moments ago in the reading of Leviticus chapter 16, the book of Leviticus’s central chapter. The Day of Atonement does not occur on the calendar anytime close to Good Friday, but, its narrative provides us this year’s last “Snapshot of Repentance”, namely that of the High Priest. Like all the “snapshots of repentance” before his, the High Priest’s “snapshot” is not only an example of repentance that instructs us about our repentance over our own sin but also an example of forgiveness of sins that comforts us as we receive God’s forgiveness for our own sin.
The deaths of the High Priest Aaron’s priestly sons Nadab and Abihu for offering “unauthorized fire”, referred to at the beginning of Leviticus 16, and narrated earlier in the book (Leviticus 10:1-20), are connected with God’s making clear both that the High Priest himself should be the only one to come into the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle or Temple, and that even the High Priest should come in there only once each year. At that time, following the detailed instructions we heard, the High Priest would make atonement both for himself and for the people, in the process ritually cleanse the Tabernacle or Temple, and thereby make it possible for God and His people to continue to dwell together.
The chapters of Leviticus that come between the narration of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu and the narration of the first Day of Atonement (Leviticus 11-15) deal with the people’s ritual purity: regarding infected houses, clean and unclean meat, skin disease, sexual discharges, and childbirth. Yet, even people who were so ritually-clean were not of themselves free from sin, and no sinful person could (or can) stand before the consuming fire that is the Holy God. As you heard, because of the High Priest’s and the people’s uncleanness and their transgressions, all their sins, the High Priest had to make atonement—or what might also be called ransom, reconciliation, or redemption. And, because of our uncleanness and our transgressions, all our sins, we also need such atonement—ransom, reconciliation, or redemption—or else we would be unable to stand in the presence of God, both now and for eternity.
As part of the Day of Atonement, the High Priest laid both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confessed over it—and so transferred to it—all the iniquities of the people, all their transgressions, all their sins. The repentance of the people was evident by their denying themselves ordinary enjoyments of life, such things as food and drink, bathing and anointing, and intimate relations, and perhaps also wearing sackcloth and ashes, in the only regular “fast” the Old Testament required, and that on pain of death (Leviticus 23:26-32; Numbers 29:7). And, while the High Priest’s “general corporate confession” notably was not followed by “general corporate absolution”, the people could have seen a priest privately, and certainly they saw publicly and understood the goat bearing all their iniquities on itself to a remote area (Wenham, ad loc Leviticus 16:1-34, p.237), some think to Azazel, a prince (or the prince) of demons (for example, Keil-Delitzsch, ad loc Leviticus 16:20-22, pp.404-405). We may or may not likewise give such outward evidence of our repentance, but, enabled by God, we do so repent, and we see a similar kind of “atonement”.
Jesus is our Great High Priest and our substitutionary sacrifice! As we heard in tonight’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 52:13-53:12), all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all; He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Transferred to Jesus were all of our iniquities, and all our transgressions, all our sins. He Who bore our sins was sent into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, who had plunged humanity into sin (Kleinig, ad loc Leviticus 16:1-34, pp.347-348 n.35). And, as we heard in tonight’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 4:14‑16; 5:7-9), He was tempted in every respect as we are tempted and yet He remained without sin. He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth. Unlike Aaron and every other High Priest, Jesus did not need to sacrifice for His own sin (Hebrews 5:3; 7:26-28), but He sacrificed Himself for our sin: He atones for our sin with His own blood! And, unlike the atonement that Aaron and every other High Priest had to repeat annually, Jesus sacrificed Himself once and for all (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12, 25-28; 10:10-14). He was willing to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of sinful men to suffer death upon the cross for you and for me. There, He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. The Day of Atonement offered the highest and most comprehensive atonement possible in the Old Testament (Keil-Delitzsch, ad loc Leviticus 16, p.395), but Jesus’s atonement surpassed it. Jesus “finished” the work of atoning for our sin. As we repent—as we mourn as people doomed to die and appeal to God for cleansing and forgiveness (Kleinig, as loc Leviticus 16:1-34, 345)—and as we receive His atonement by faith (Romans 3:25), Jesus makes many to be accounted righteous.
Since we have a Great High Priest Who sympathizes with our weakness, the Epistle Reading calls us with confidence to draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Elsewhere the same inspired author calls us to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our bodies washed with pure water, as in Holy Baptism, and with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, as in the Sacrament of the Altar—the same Body and Blood once sacrificed on the cross for us but now resurrected and giving us all we need to stand in God’s presence now and for eternity. We hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful. We consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together in the Divine Service, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the Last Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:22-25.) For, the same inspired author says still elsewhere, if the blood of bulls and goats worked as it did in the Old Testament, how much more will the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God the Father, purify our consciences from dead works in order to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:13-14)?
Good Friday is the definitive “Day of Atonement”, even as Jesus sacrificed Himself once and for all as the Passover Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29, 36). There is no more need for sacrifices of atonement, but, as all of our “Snapshots of Repentance” have shown us, as long as we live in this life, we continue to repent of our sin—in some cases with outward signs of repentance, and in other cases without them—and so we continue to receive the forgiveness of sins, not because but when we repent, for the sake of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +