"Yom Kippur and Christ"
Mark 8:27-35
10/1/06
It just so happens that today is Yom Kippur in the Jewish
Calendar - the Day of Atonement, a holiday which God commanded the
Israelites to observe once a year under the O.T. It was on this
day that the high priest made atonement for his own sins as well as the
sins of the people with the blood of a bull and a goat. The
regulations that God laid down went like this: First the high
priest was to clothe himself in holy garments of white linen.
Then he was to offer a bull upon the altar as a sin offering for
himself. After this he was to enter into the Holy of Holies with
a censer full of live coals from the altar before the LORD with which
he was to burn a specially prepared incense before the ark of the
covenant. Then he was to take some of the bull's blood and
sprinkle it upon the top or lid of the ark of the covenant (called "the
place of atonement" or the "mercy seat"), and then he was also to
sprinkle some of the blood in front of the ark. He then was to
take two goats - one to be a scapegoat, the other to be offered as a
sin offering for the people. The blood of the goat of the sin
offering was then to be sprinkled upon and in front of the ark just as
the blood of the bull had been. And then the blood of both was to
be sprinkled upon the altar upon which they had been sacrificed.
Finally, the high priest was to take the scapegoat, lay his hands on
its head, and confess over it all the sins of the people of
Israel. Then they were to release that goat into the wilderness
where it wandered away never to be seen again, taking the iniquity of
the Israelites with it.
All of this was done once a year on Yom Kippur, in order
to atone for the sins of God's people. The word "atone" means to
purge, to cover up, to not charge sin against someone for the sake of
the sacrifice of a substitute. The people's sins were atoned for
by the shedding of the blood of a substitute, sprinkled upon and in
front of the ark of the covenant where God had located Himself for His
people. For the sake of that sacrifice, God forgave His people
their sins.
And yet, the author of the book of Hebrews writes that it
wasn't on account of the blood of these animals that God forgave His
people their sins. "It is impossible," he writes, "for the blood
of bulls and goats to take away sins." "For since the Law," he
says, "has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very
image of things, it can never make those who draw near perfect by the
same sacrifices which they offer continually year after year.
Otherwise, wouldn't they have ceased to be offered, because the
worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer be conscious of
sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year
after year." In other words, if these animals sacrifices really
took away sins once for all, why did the people have to keep offering
them year after year? Once should have been enough. But
these animal sacrifices, as Hebrews makes clear, were only foreshadows
of the realities that were to come in Jesus Christ.
In today's Gospel text Jesus told His disciples that He
must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief
priests, and the scribes, be killed, and after three days rise
again. He said He must do these things. We don't very often
talk about God having to do anything. But God in the flesh here,
Jesus Christ, puts a "must do" upon Himself, and the things He must do
is suffer, die, and rise again. Why must He do these
things? Because He must fulfill the Scriptures; they all point to
Jesus foretelling what He would do for us. And one of the things
that pointed to Him was this Day of Atonement. Jesus had to
fulfill Yom Kippur with His perfect, once for all sacrifice on the
cross to atone for the sins of the world, because all those animal
sacrifices in the O.T. couldn't do it. Instead, they pointed to
Jesus, and it's for His sake alone that God forgave His people their
sins.
What was repeated year after year by the high priest in
the O.T. was achieved once for all by Jesus, our High Priest. And
He achieved it not in a temple made with human hands and not with the
blood of any animals, but with His own blood shed on the cross.
And with this blood He has entered into heaven itself to appear in the
presence of God for us, as the author of Hebrews explains. Nor
does He need to be sacrificed year after year, "but now once at the
consummation of the ages," as Hebrews says, "He has been manifested to
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." And "having offered
one sacrifice for sins for all time, He sat down at the right hand of
God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a
footstool for His feet."
Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole
world, for your sins, for my sins. His blood shed on the cross,
sprinkled upon you at Baptism and before the Father in heaven, does
atone for your sins - all your sins. It cleanses you from all
unrighteousness. It covers your sins, it purges you of your sins,
and it pleads you righteous before the Father, so that your sins are
not counted against you. And now, because of this once for all
sacrifice of Jesus for you, you can come into God's presence and stand
before Him without fear, clothed with Christ.
In the O.T., only the high priest was allowed to enter
into the Holy of Holies once a year on Yom Kippur to atone for the sins
of God's people with blood. Anyone else who dared stand in God's
presence there would be killed. Even the high priest could not
enter into the Holy of Holies but this one day of the year. But
what happened on the day that Jesus died? The veil of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom. This veil separated the Holy
of Holies from the rest of the temple. This action by God
illustrated that through Jesus the way into God's presence is open and
available at any time to anyone who has been sprinkled with His blood
through Holy Baptism. Now, you can enter God's presence with all
boldness and confidence, bringing your prayers before His throne of
grace with the promise that you will receive mercy and find the grace
to help you in your times of need. As the author of Hebrews
writes, "Since therefore, brothers, 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."
Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for your sins. Not
only was He represented by the bulls and the goats that were sacrificed
in the O.T., but He was also represented by the scapegoat over which
the sins of Israel were spoken and which was then released into the
wilderness. Jesus is your scapegoat. Your sins were laid
upon Him at His Baptism when the Father spoke from heaven saying to
Jesus, "You are My Beloved Son; in You I am well-pleased." With
these words the Father laid upon Jesus the office of the Suffering
Servant spoken of by Isaiah. It was this Servant upon whom the
Father would put His Spirit and who would bring justice to the
nations. It was this Servant who would be a light to lighten the
Gentiles and the glory of Israel. It was this Servant who would
bear our griefs, carry our sorrows, and be crushed for our
iniquities. Upon Him the LORD has laid the iniquity of us all,
and by His stripes we are healed.
Having taken away your sins on the cross and washed you
clean with His blood in Baptism, Jesus has removed your sins from you
as far as the east is from the west, never to be found again. You
may still feel your sins; you may still remember them and your
conscience may be bothered by them, but God does not remember
them. He does not see them. They were placed on Christ,
atoned for with His blood, and buried in the earth with Him, never to
be raised again. When Jesus rose again from the dead, your sins
didn't come with Him. Just so, now in your Baptism you have died
with Christ and your sins have been buried with Him, so that you might
rise with Him and walk in newness of life. Here in the Gospel
text for today Jesus talks about this newness of life as a life of
cross-bearing. Daily we take up our crosses and follow
Jesus. With the cross He daily crucifies your flesh, disciplining
you, purging you from sin and unbelief, causing you to look to Him for
your help and find in Him all that you need for your bodies and
souls. Through the crosses of this life Jesus continues to reveal
Himself to you as your crucified and risen Savior, drawing you to
Himself through His Word and Sacraments for the grace and mercy you
need in your times of trouble. The crosses He gives you are not
for tearing you down, but for building you up in the faith.
Remember, "Those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, and He scourges
every son whom He receives." And cross-bearing won't last
forever. It's only for this life. "After you have suffered
for a little while," writes the Apostle Peter, "the God of all grace,
who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect,
confirm, strengthen, and establish you." And the Apostle Paul
writes, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us."
The glory of heaven is coming. In the meantime we
live under the cross in this world with the help of the One who bore
His cross for us. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and
through Him we have bold access to the Father, who on the basis of His
Word we can be sure loves and cares for us even in the midst of our
cross-bearing. Suffering is not a sign that God is angry with you
nor that He has abandoned you. He will continue to give you your
daily bread, absolve you of your sins, deliver you from evil, and grant
you the ability to do all things through Him who strengthens you.
So, happy Yom Kippur! Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the
atoning sacrifice for your sins, and not only for yours but for those
of the whole world. What He had to do He had to do for you -
suffering, dying, and rising again for you. This is what the
Christ was to do, this is what He has done. It is done. It
is finished. Amen.