Scripture: Hebrews 10:11-25
11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” 13 and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds,”
17 and he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
19 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary 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 approach 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. 23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 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 approaching.
Questions
- What does it mean that ordinary priests are described as standing to offer sacrifices and Jesus is described as sitting?
- How does Christ waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool relate to the new covenant mentioned in verse 16?
- How does gathering together with other believers (verse 25) relate to Jesus’ work as the high priest (verse 12)?
Background
Related Scriptures: Psalm 110; Jeremiah 31:31-37; 1 John 2
The fact that the priests stand to offer sacrifices places them in the role of courtiers in God’s throne room providing information but clearly in an inferior position. Jesus’ position sitting shows that he has divine authority because it is the people who sit who have power.
The purpose of the blood of a sacrifice was to purify not the person but the space in which sin was committed.
The metaphors of this passage are meant to convey the complete and unceasing access to God now open to humanity through Jesus.
In verse 23 we hold to the confession of who Jesus is because it is faithful and a firm foundation for us to cling to in shaky times.
Reflection
Like so much of Hebrews, this passage is full of metaphors and these metaphors comparing Jesus to Israel’s liturgical worship revolve around the quotation of Jeremiah 31:31 in verse 16. Hebrews wants us to compare Jesus to the priests that 1st century Jews and Christians would have been accustomed to in their world. Even the minor details of this passage are meant to highlight how radical this new covenant under Jesus is. It can be easy to miss that traditional priests stand in God’s presence, while Jesus sits. Each of these individuals represents humanity walking into God’s presence the priests come into God’s presence in brief daily observances and so they stand. Jesus, though, is a permanent resident in God’s presence with authority to speak for God, and this is demonstrated by sitting. Hebrews wants us to recognize that the covenant Jesus brings is one that is not voided with every sin, failure, or fault.
The Old Testament covenant between God and Israel was one that was dependent on Israel maintaining the instructions that God had give through Moses. Because of this every time a person failed to live up to these instructions, they would bring a sacrifice to the priest who offered it to God to cleanse the guilt of the offense. The blood of these sacrifices was meant to purify the land, to cleanse the earth of the guilt incurred by the infraction. This is also why the priests offered daily sacrifices, the kind that Hebrews is envisioning in verse 11, these were meant to keep the earth (at least the earth in Israel) and worthy of God. Jesus though offers a new covenant, a new reality with God, Jesus’ sacrifice constantly cleanses the world of sin. Now, on the one hand this is a reality that we live in right now, but on another it is a reality that is not fully realized. Jesus has opened to us a complete uninterrupted relationship with God, one that even our sins, guilt, and immorality cannot disturb. This does not mean that our sin has no impact in the world, rather it means that so long as we continue to look for God and try to follow Jesus’ lead, our sin is not a hindrance to finding God. As we endeavor to find the love of Jesus in our lives and share that love with others then we are assured a place with God and the Holy Spirit in our heart working with us to find God in new and deeper ways.
Just as the blood of the lamb purified the land from the sins of the people, so Jesus’ blood purifies the whole earth at all times. This means that we can find God anywhere, even as we wait for the day when “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” We wait for a day when the purity of Jesus completely cleanses the world, but until then we acknowledge that our hearts are cleansed and that we are God’s sacred space. We are the first fruits of Jesus’ cleansing of the entire world. It is this reality that we model for the world in our lives, a reality of God’s instructions written on our hearts, a reality of lives motivated by the Holy Spirit, a reality of sins forgiven.
It is this lifestyle that motivates the author to end this section with a call to us to remember the gathering of believers. It is when we come together as a body dedicated to living lives in God’s new covenant that we bring more of Jesus’ presence not the world. Our commitment to our brothers and sisters demonstrates that we are living into this new world that Jesus has made, it our way of saying our sins are forgiven and we are living in God’s love. Coming together as believers is our way of bringing the Holy Spirit into this world even more fully and showing one another that we have all been forgiven and that we are God’s people. Coming together as God’s people is how we celebrate the new reality and rejoice with God. It is only right that we take advantage of the free and open access to God’s throne room that we have been given and we do that together with all of those who also celebrate God’s love and abiding presence. When the priests offered sacrifice for the people the people felt free and close to God, it is important for us to recognize and celebrate that Jesus has done this same thing for us in an even better way. We now have unrestricted access to God and we should sing praises because of that fact.
Squinting in the Light 
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