Pleasant Valley Church Of Christ - 9

"A Church With Open Arms" - 5/20/2012 am - Patrick Mead
"Unity of Spirit; Bond of Peace" - 5/20/2012 class - Patrick Mead
"A Path to Unity" - 5/20/2012 pm - Patrick Mead

(Sermons Online page)

9 - Hebrews 8:1-9:10

All of the material in this middle part of the Hebrews argument deals with the transition between the Levitical code and the covenant initiated by Jesus. In chapter seven, the author approached that transition primarily through a discussion of the priesthood, arguing that Jesus is a legitimate high priest and a superior one in comparison to that provided for in the Levitical code. In chapter 8 and the first part of chapter 9, the focus shifts slightly to the covenants themselves, and the covenants' contexts for sacrifice and worship.

Understanding the Text

Hebrews is like a soup. It is not a static piece of scripture, the pieces of which can all be read independently of each other with benefit to the reader. The rhetorical nature of the book means that in order to read and interpret the book as a whole, you have to get into the process of the book. You have to see each piece in light of the whole. The process is kind of like watching somebody make a soup. They begin with some stock, and stir in an ingredient, let it simmer, then add a bit more, and then after that simmers they add a few more flavors until the final product is more than all of the individual ingredients themselves. Hebrews starts off with a little Christology, then adds some flavor with ideas about God's enduring word. He adds in some language about Jesus as a priest, and adds some discussion about the temple as well.

One of the things that makes this text difficult to study is that we are structured to study the text at smaller intervals. It's a bit like extracting a small piece of bacon or a chive from a pot of potato soup, and then upon tasting them trying t conjecture what the sop as a whole will taste like. That may be quite random, but as we study this section, I want to greatly encourage you to do so in the context of the larger “soup”. This section adds something to the greater argument, but cannot be understood independent of it. The important thing is that we are adding to the soup, and it is becoming a more and more delicious reminder of the supremacy of Christ over all things, and our own needs are inconsequential when compared to his power. Christ is the only thing worthy of our faithfulness.

This particular text begins with a checkpoint, 8:1-2, that serves to summarize all that has come before. It says that the main point has been that Jesus is a high priest who is enthroned at the right hand of God in heaven and who serves in a sanctuary not made by human hands. the immediately following text illuminates this somewhat. The writer has been arguing that Jesus is a high priest, interceding for us before God. It is important to note that Jesus is a high priest, not was a high priest. It is easy to imagine that the priestly role Hebrews imagines is confined to the sacrificial atonement that Jesus provided through the cross. In reality though, that just set the stage for Jesus to be able to take the role of priest, which he fulfills actively in the present. And if that is true, than it is clear that Jesus is not acting as a priest in any human built place, but in precisely the place where he is: heaven. Jesus did not ascend to merely wait passively for the judgement day, but is rather actively involved in interceding with God on our behalf. This is not Jesus' former ministry, or one which entirely waits for the future, but his current one.

Heaven, what we think of as God's dwelling place, is not just a throne room as we sometimes imagine it, but here Hebrews informs us that it is in fact a sanctuary. It is a sort of temple, the one after which the tabernacle pointed towards in a shadowy sort of way. 9:1-5 gives a description of some of the elements of that tabernacle, and it is followed by a picture of tabernacle worship, where once a year the priest brings a sacrifice for himself and the people into the inner room to interceded for the people and make atonement. Hebrews, in an argument that is going to be more fully described later, claims that those practices were incomplete, and that Jesus, the exalted high priest who makes a sacrifice out of his own blood though he be blameless himself, is able to make full atonement for our sins for all time. What took place in an incomplete way took place in a place that was an incomplete reflection of God's sanctuary. This is not indicative of the physical layout of the place as much as it seems to reflect the need for holiness for entry. Only the perfectly holy may enter the inner sanctuary. Only by the actions of Jesus may we become perfectly holy.

Framed within this discussion of the sanctuary we find a discussion of the covenants which make these relationships between Holy God and becoming-holy humanity possible. Hebrews cites a section of Jeremiah 31 to show how God had made known his intention to initiate a new covenant. This is because “[their ancestors] did not remain faithful to my covenant”, and the next covenant differs in type. the passage from Jeremiah seems to indicate the role of the Holy Spirit in the coming covenant, which will make knowledge about God directly accessible to everyone. Also, it involves a promise of forgiveness, so that knowledge of the people's sins is wiped from God's memory. All of this at this point in the text is simply for the purpose of demonstrating that a new covenant has been planned. The prior regulations served as a forward-pointing measure, but now that the new covenant has been established, this old one has become obsolete.

What do we take away?

This text contains a few items to bolster and enrich our faith. First is the encouraging concept of Jesus being continually in a place of intercession for us, and that he does so from a place of enthronement and power. We tend to think of the atonement as something accomplished completely in the past, at Calvary, but in fact Jesus is continually at work cleansing us from our sins. The means has been established in a once and for all sort of way, but Jesus carries on the activity of atonement even now as our high priest in heaven.

Secondly, there is much reflection to be done and encouragement to be gained regarding the enactment of the new covenant. When Hebrews employs the text in Jeremiah, he is saying, “We are living in the time for which our ancestors longed!” We now experience a new, liberating and perfect covenant with God! Although the part selected here in Hebrews offers much in terms of encouragement, the real gospel here is that we are living in the days which the prophets foretold God would definitively act in a way to relate to his people. So we might ask and discuss, what does it mean for us to live within such a new covenant? We know what is new on God's part. What is new on our part? How does the text in Jeremiah strike us as gospel?