Holy Week
Monday, April 10, 2017
So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that
have come. He has entered that greater,
more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not
part of this created world. With his own
blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for
all time and secured our redemption forever.
Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a
heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ
will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the
living God. For by the power of the
eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our
sins. That is why he is the one who
mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can
receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the
penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant. Hebrews 9:11-15(NLT)
There have been a number of times I’ve been glued to the TV or
radio. In the Fall of 1955 I couldn’t walk
home from school – I had to run because the World Series
between the Yankees and Dodgers was being broadcast, and my team, those
Brooklyn Bums, had a chance to win.
In 1961 we waited without breathing as Alan Shepherd became the first
American in space. Two years later we
mourned with a shocked nation as they carried the body of President Kennedy to
Arlington Cemetery. Several years later
my bride and I stayed up late, eyes glazed as we watched live coverage of the first
moon landing. In 1981 I should have been
studying my Greek lessons in seminary, but we were awed with the pomp and grandeur
of Prince Charles and the lovely Princess Di getting hitched in London.
Everyone has those high-drama moments that will live in memory for a
lifetime.
Here, on the first day of Holy Week, we’ve been trudging through six
weeks of Lenten expectation in preparation for the event that stands immeasurably
above any World Series, space launch, President’s funeral or state wedding; we
are about to celebrate the Good News of the redemption of humankind by the
blood of the Lamb.
The title picture of this devotion is the artist’s depiction of that
moment when Christ, resurrected, returns to the Father in Heaven, and, by the
power of the eternal Spirit, presents himself as the Lamb, crucified, buried,
resurrected, and now glorified.
And He does it for our redeeming.
He claims victory over sin and death before the host of Heaven, angels,
humans and the Great throne. There has
never been a greater moment in time for all humanity. It’s not an American victory, racial triumph,
gender-level or any other kind of culmination to human struggle; it is simply (and
magnificently) God’s love covering all
of what went wrong with us fallen human beings.
Christ is now our High Priest, and the mediator of a new covenant with
God; God is now approachable through Jesus, because Christ’s blood cleanses our
sinful hearts. And, in the bargain, the
cleansing of soul is also the cleansing of conscience. There is no regret, only the memory of a once-for-all
sacrifice and forgiveness to set-at-right that which was so wrong.
This is our inheritance as children of God, followers of Jesus Christ –
freedom from the penalty and power of sin, able to worship
our God in the beauty of holiness, and in spirit and truth; we even have the
contemplation of one day, in the New Heaven, freedom from the presence
of sin when the Father creates all things new!
For You Today
As we get closer to celebrating the cross this Holy Thursday, Good
Friday, and the resurrection victory of Easter Sunday, keep the cost of your
eternal redemption in mind: His pain then, is our joy now.
NOTES
I Title
image: By
Wilhelm Hauschild (1827-1887) (www.pittstate.edu/engl/nichols/neuschcastle.jpg)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia
Commons
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