Eastertide #19

Christ came as High Priest…

entering the greater sanctuary.

(Hebrews 9:11-12)

Now that we know who Melchizedek is, we can speak of Jesus as our eternal High Priest who enters the greater “tabernacle not made with hands” (Hb 9-10). The book of Hebrews will now retell the complex rituals of the Day of Atonement (Lev 16) in the light of Christ. After Easter we interpret everything in the light of Calvary.  

This morning, at the fire pit, I dared to read Moses’ instructions for the annual Day of Atonement—Yum Kippur. What a complicated maze of details. Even our writer to the Hebrews acknowledges she “cannot speak of these things in detail” (Hb 9:5). Who can? With the ongoing covid-19 contamination and our hopes for decontamination on my mind, I read the complex instructions with different eyes. Instructions for the annual Day of Atonement concern how the priests decontaminate themselves, and then the sanctuary, and then the people from the contaminates of sin that accumulate throughout the year. It’s dangerous work. The priest must put on PPE and bathe often.

The very word “atone” means “to purge” or “to purify” and has the since of “wiping clean” or “decontaminating” the residue of sin that builds up during the year. Sin leaves social contaminates not only among the people, but also within the sanctuary itself—that place where God chooses to meet with His people. It reminded me of my father and his generation who seemed to know such things. I’m guessing that’s why he would meet in the sanctuary before Sunday worship with a handful of church leaders, and there pray for God’s presences as the people gathered to sing their praises and to hear again the Gospel Story about how their sins had been wiped clean.