When I first moved out of home I was broke. I did the best I could with my limited resources to stock my kitchen with the essentials—a couple of plates, a mug, some thrifted silverware, and a frying pan. I knew that a good quality frying pan should last me almost forever, and that it would be a one-time investment, but I didn’t have that option available to me on my student budget. Instead, what I could afford was a flimsy frying pan from ALDI. It did the job, but it was not long before I needed a new one! It was an effective imitation of the real thing, but not for long.
Our passage today begins with a lot of talk about copies. It says that the earthly things are copies of the heavenly things. The tabernacle was the place of worship for God’s people in ancient Israel. It was a beautiful tent, decorated to be an imitation of heaven, a place that represented the wonder of humans being able to meet with God. The problem is—people are broken! They needed a way to be cleansed from their imperfection to be able to be in the presence of a perfect God. The blood of a sacrificed animal was able to do this, but only for a time. Animals are not able to fully cover this kind of task forever, so the people had to sacrifice over and over to be able to meet safely with God. In simple terms, just as I had to replace my sadly inadequate frying pan over and over, the people had to make new sacrifices, over and over. Something better was needed.
When Jesus was killed, His blood acted as the perfect sacrifice that cleansed God’s people from their sin. His blood is the better sacrifice because He is better than a goat! Not only this, Jesus didn’t carry this cleansing blood just into the tabernacle, the earthly copy of heaven, but He is now in heaven, the real deal, with God Himself. His sacrifice was the perfect offering, because He died once for all—He is now in heaven, advocating for our ability to meet with God. We can now meet with God with confidence, because the blood of Jesus cleanses us, once for all sin, for all time, and He is in heaven with God Himself. So we wait and pray joyfully for His return to unite us in God’s presence in heaven.
For reflection:
- Would you say there were other things you’ve tried in your lifetime to try and handle the debt of sin? If so, what has been different since you’ve accepted the once and forever forgiveness that Jesus’ perfect sacrifice provides?
by Joanna Jotterand
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