(Audio version; Music: "Jesus Tore The Veil" by: Emily Lynch and "All Of Creation" by: MercyMe)
Introduction
A
couple of weeks ago, Christians around the world celebrated the climactic event
of our faith—the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death of Jesus
served to satisfy God’s demand for justice for the offense of our sins against
Him. And Jesus’ resurrection signaled the end of death as the end and paved the
way for humanity to be reconciled back to God. As part of my Easter message, we
walked through the Stations of the Cross
together. Easter is filled with so many images—the crowds on Palm Sunday
praising Jesus by shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” And very likely
many from that same crowd shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” just a few days
later. Between those extremes are the images of betrayal by a friend, prayers
of anguish by the Son to His Father, brutal beatings, the horror of the cross,
the seeming death of so many hopes and dreams, sorrow so deep that even
creation trembled, and finally, the possibility of new hope at the discovery of
the empty tomb. But there was something else that happened at the moment of
Jesus’ death that I would like to focus on for this week’s lesson.
After
God liberated the Israelites from their Egyptian bondage, He gave them detailed
instructions for how they were to relate to Him and one another that began with
the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. And thereafter, God
gave Moses more and more instructions for how the people were expected to live
as a new community of God’s people and how He expected His people to worship
Him. Included in those instructions were the details for constructing the worship
Temple. The original Temple was completely mobile so that it could move with the
Israelites during their wandering in the wilderness before they reached the
Promised Land. Within the Temple was an isolated room that housed the Ark of
the Covenant which contained the tablets upon which God wrote the Ten
Commandments that were given to Moses. God promised that He would always be
with His people in the form of His holy presence between the two golden
cherubim that formed part of the cover of the Ark. It would be know as God’s
“Mercy Seat.” The isolated room within the Temple that housed the Ark and the
Mercy Seat where God’s presence would dwell was known as the Holy of Holies and
was separated from the rest of the Temple by a thick curtain or veil. It was
not permitted for anyone other than an authorized priest to enter the Holy of
Holies and be in the presence of God. In practice, the priest would enter into
the presence of God in the Holy of Holies and represent the people to God and
the priest would then exit the Holy of Holies and communicate God’s Word and will
to the people.
Twenty-four
hundred years after the temporary Temple was first constructed during Israel’s
wilderness wandering, King Solomon completed the construction of the permanent
Temple in Jerusalem. Although far more elaborate than the mobile Temple
constructed during the 15th century B. C., it functioned in much the
same way and also contained an isolated room known as the Holy of Holies that
was similarly separated by a massive curtain or veil. Roughly speaking, the
veil was sixty feet high, thirty feet wide, and four inches thick. In short, it
was massive! And like the Holy of Holies in the mobile Temple, only priests
were permitted to enter the Holy of Holies in the permanent Temple. Only
priests were allowed to be in the presence of God. The curtain or veil separated
the presence of God from His people.
It
is precisely the image of the Temple veil that I want to focus on from the
events surrounding the death of Jesus Christ. If you recall, the moment that
Jesus died on the cross, the sky became dark, the earth shook, and veil of the
Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. A sixty-foot high, four-inch thick
curtain was ripped in two at the death of Jesus! We tend to breeze right over
this because it is somewhat meaningless to us because the Temple was destroyed in
70 A. D. and the Ark has long since been lost. So the torn veil seems somewhat
irrelevant now. But is the priesthood also irrelevant or abandoned to
antiquity? I think you’ll soon agree with me that the priesthood is still
relevant but has been transformed in the person of Jesus Christ. I want you to
focus not so much on the physical aspect of the torn veil but what the torn
veil represents spiritually. We have to look beyond the torn curtain in order
to understand what exactly happened when Jesus died. Standing in the place of
the torn curtain you will see Jesus
Christ—Our Great High Priest.
Subject Text
Hebrews 4:12-16
12For
the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it
penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the
thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13Nothing in all creation is
hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes
of him to whom we must give account. 14Therefore, since we have a
great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us
hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high
priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has
been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16Let
us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive
mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Context
The
Book of Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians generally but appears to be
written to a group of Hebrew Christians who may have been considering a return
to Judaism perhaps because their spiritual immaturity couldn’t reconcile the
seeming disconnect between the revelation of God in the Old Testament and the
revelation of God in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Additionally, they may
have been laboring under fierce persecution from both Jews and Romans so their
faith may have been wavering. The Book of Hebrews serves as a reminder to the
Jews and by extension to all of us that we no longer have to hide behind and
rely on religious systems and rituals to lead us into the very presence of God
because we now have Jesus Christ—Our
Great High Priest.
Text Analysis
12For
the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates
even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and
attitudes of the heart.
A
number of years ago I was working on a construction project when a piece of
sheet metal fell loose and the edge landed right across the bridge of my nose.
I knew it was bad because the blood started running down my face immediately. I
was afraid to look in the mirror because I didn’t want to see how bad it really
was. Eventually I had to look in the mirror so I could see what needed to be done
to stop the bleeding and get on with my work. Crazy right? I wonder, though,
how many people do the exact same thing when it comes to the sin in their
lives.
Unbelievers
scream as loud as they can that God doesn’t exist because they either don’t
want to be reminded about the sin in their lives or don’t want to relinquish
the sin in their lives. However, have you ever wondered why the Bible remains
the most purchased yet least read book of all time among Christians? Because of
v. 12! In other words, believers
neglect familiarizing themselves with what God’s Word says for pretty much the
same reason unbelievers refuse to believe God exists in spite of all evidence
to the contrary—because they either don’t want to be reminded about the sin in
their lives or don’t want to relinquish the sin in their lives. You see, God’s
word functions in the life of a believer much the same was as a surgeon’s
scalpel functions to excise damage and disease from the human body. However,
unless we submit ourselves to the surgeon’s care, the damage and disease will
remain in our bodies and will likely spread and may eventually kill us.
God’s
Word does the exact same thing—it cuts through and excises all the damage and
disease caused by sin in our lives. However, we have to be willing to submit to
the Heavenly Surgeon’s care or the damage and disease of sin will likely kill
us spiritually. V. 12 makes God’s
Word sound so dire. It almost frightens us away from embracing it even though
God gives it for our benefit because He loves us. So maybe we should begin to
consider God’s word differently. Yes, it does all the things outlined in v. 12 but because God loves us not
because He’s angry with us. What if God’s Word to us isn’t comprised of
sixty-six books designed to beat us into submission. What if God’s Word is
actually sixty-six love letters inspired by God to invite us into relationship
with Him. Would you open and read sixty-six love letters addressed to you
personally even if they contain painful truths about you? What would you do
with what you read in those love letters? Words that come from someone who
loves you don’t condemn you. Words that come from someone who loves you can serve
to transform you—if you will let them.
“The word of God
is living, life-changing, and dynamic as it works in us. The demands of the
word of God requires decisions. We not only listen to it, we let it shape our
lives. Because the word of God is living, it applied to these first-century
Jewish Christians, and it applies as well to Christians today. Most books may
appear to be dusty artifacts just sitting on a shelf, but the word of God
collected in Scripture reverberates with life.
The
word of God penetrates through our outer façade and reveals what lies deep
inside. The metaphor of the sharpest knife pictures the word of God cutting
deep into our innermost thoughts and desires, revealing what we really are on
the inside.”[1]
13Nothing in all
creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare
before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
When
my girls were little (many years ago), I was always able to tell when they were
lying to me or had done something wrong. In part I had that ability because
they weren’t very good liars but mainly because I knew them intimately. Now if
I, in my limited capacity, can know my children that intimately, imagine how
God, in his unlimited capacity can know us. V. 13 states what we intuitively know to be true—God is omniscient;
He is all-knowing. He is also omnipresent; everywhere simultaneously. He is
omnipotent; all-powerful. And finally, He is eternal; there was never a time
nor will there ever be a time when God doesn’t exists. That means nothing,
absolutely nothing, escapes His notice either because of time or space. You and
I can never know everything, but God can. This can be very difficult to wrap
your mind around but God does not experience time and space in the same way we
do. For us, time is linear. We are able to see the timeline for a distance
behind us but we can only experience time up to the current moment. Space is
even more constrained for us. We can only be in one place at any time and only
in the present moment. We may be able to see the timeline behind us but we
cannot travel there. We can only exist at this present moment in this space.
But that’s not the way it is with God. God experiences the past, present, and
future all at the same time. He also exists everywhere at the same time. You
can go ahead and try and digest that if you can. The point I’m trying to make
is, that’s why v. 13 can say that
nothing is hidden from God’s sight—because He has seen it before it has
occurred. In other words, there are no sins that are secret from God. Not only
does He know what sins you’ve committed, He knows the sins you are yet to commit.
“The
word of God is able to reach into the deepest recesses of the human
personality. The discrimination of the hearth’s thoughts and intentions entails
a sifting process that exhibits the penetrating and unmasking potency of the
word.
An
impression of total exposure and utter defenselessness in the presence of God
is sharpened in v. 13. That nothing
in creation is hidden from God’s sight was a Jewish commonplace. The
surveillance predicated of God is exhaustive; nothing escapes his scrutiny. The
images of nakedness and helpless exposure express vividly the plight of anyone
who believes he can deceive his creator and judge. In context the force of v. 13 is to assert that exposure to the
word of Scripture entails exposure to God himself.”[2]
14Therefore,
since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son
of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not
have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have
one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
It
is important to remember that the Book of Hebrews was written primarily to Jewish
Christians who understood the Temple priesthood and the purpose of that
priesthood in relation to God and His people. But the reference to a great high
priest according to vv. 14-15 was
probably a foreign concept to them. This is why the image of the torn veil is
so important in this lesson. The tearing of the veil represents an important
transition in the understanding of the priesthood.
“Christ
is indeed a real apostolic high priest, both from God and of humankind; the
designation is not metaphorical…Christ is the apostle of God, the one who
utters the Word of God. Christ is also the high priest, who responds to this
Word and to God on behalf of the people…
The
priests of Israel ministered at the boundary between God and the community,
between the Word of God and the human response, bringing God to the people and
the people to God…Christ’s priesthood in its wider sense means (1) the Word of
God addressing us in the incarnate flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, and (2) the
human work of Jesus Christ, wholly God, in response in his dealing with the
Father on our behalf, as our representative before God.
Unlike
the priests of Israel, Jesus does not stand at the boundary between God and
humankind, at a tangential point of connection, for he is wholly of God and
wholly of humankind, interpenetrating both the realm of God and realm of
created nature. Chris is not a mathematical point of connection between God and
humankind, but a mediator between them as one in being with both God and
humankind.”[3]
16Let us then approach
God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need.
The
importance of the torn veil of the Temple is essential to understanding why we
can now confidently approach God’s throne of grace according to v. 16. In an odd way, Israel’s priests
recognized that they were losing their control over the people because of
Jesus. Jesus was bringing their religious monopoly to an end. Until Jesus
arrived, the people needed the priests in order to intercede for them with God.
They needed the priests to offer sacrifices to God on their behalf for the
forgiveness of their sins. When God, in the person of Jesus Christ, arrived and
began to forgive sins without the need for animal sacrifices, the priests
sensed that their days were numbered; they sensed that their religious monopoly
was coming to an end; they sensed that they were losing control over the
people. Why do you think they were constantly looking for ways to get rid of
Jesus and were ultimately successful in doing so? Do you really think it was
because they were trying to uphold some kind of religious ideal? No! They were
losing control of the people and they needed to put a stop to Jesus’ growing
influence.
The
torn temple veil is the realization of the priests’ fears. The priests were no
longer necessary to bring the people to God and God to the people because all
people had direct access to God in the person of Jesus.
“As
the incarnate Son of the Father Jesus Christ has been sent to fulfill all
righteousness both as priest and as victim, who through his one self-offering in
atonement for sin has mediated a new covenant of universal range in which he
presents us to his Father as those whom he has redeemed, sanctified and
perfected forever in himself. In other words, Jesus Christ constitutes in his
own self-consecrated humanity the fulfillment of the vicarious way of human
response to God promised under the old covenant, but now on the ground of his
atoning self-sacrifice once for all offered this as a vicarious way of response
which is available for all mankind.”[4]
Application
If
you know me or have followed my lessons then you know I grew up in a Roman
Catholic home. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Roman Catholicism, they
employ an elaborate priesthood. The ecclesial structure was an invention of the
Roman Catholic church and is without specific biblical support. And never a
denomination to shy away from being unbiblical, the Roman Catholic priest is
referred to as “Father” in direct contradiction to Jesus’ own words when He
specifically instructed His followers to never
refer to anyone as “Father” because they only had one spiritual Father and that
is God the Father (Mt 23:9).
Not
surprisingly, prior to the Reformation in the early 16th century,
Roman Catholic priests had a religious death grip on people just like the Old
Testament priests did during their day. They dangled salvation in front of the
people not only to gain their allegiance and compliance but in many cases to
take their money! They convinced the people that they were a necessary
instrument to bring the people into a salvation relationship with Jesus Christ.
The priests were the only ones qualified to baptize, offer communion, and hold
Mass which they insisted were necessary elements for salvation (also grossly
unbiblical). They insisted that the Scriptures remain in Latin so that only the
priests could communicate God’s Word to the people (once again unbiblical).
However, William Tyndale, in defiance of the church, translated the Bible into
English in the 16th century and began to question various established
doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. He was eventually arrested as a heretic
and burned at the stake. Do you recognize a pattern emerging? When the
reformers threatened the power and authority of the Catholic priesthood, they
became targets that the Roman Catholic church had to eliminate. Since the
Reformation, the pattern of religious control has often repeated itself across
many other denominational lines.
Anytime
a religious leader, regardless of denomination, sets himself or herself up as
being necessary to intercede for others before God, he or she is simply
reconstructing the Temple veil that separates the people from God that was torn
at the death of Jesus. Our Subject Text
is very clear that you do not need any kind of religious leader to intercede for
you before God. The primary role of any true religious leader is his or her
ability to communicate God’s Word to you as handed down to us in the Scriptures
and to get out of the way and show you how you yourself can confidently enter
the presence of God in Jesus Christ who offers us salvation simply because He
is gracious. Our salvation is not dependent on the actions of any priest or
pastor or any other religious leader. Our salvation depends only on our faith
in Jesus Christ—Our Great High Priest.
[1]
Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman,
Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 1022.
[2]
William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8—Word
Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991), p. 103.
[3]
Andrew Purves, Reconstructing Pastoral
Theology—A Christological Foundation, (Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2004), pp. 47; 49-50.
[4]
Thomas F. Torrance, The Mediation of
Christ, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1983), p. 86.
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