Proper 26
Notes
Transcript
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in human beings, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
He is the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
he remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
Hebrews 9:11–14 (NIV)
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Sermon
Sermon
In our text from last week, the writer to the Hebrews focused on who he was talking about. He used six adjectives to describe Jesus Christ. And that didn’t include the fact that He had died, been buried, and rose again from the dead. But in talking about the character of Christ the writer to the Hebrews said He was, and is holy. Although this was what the priests were supposed to be when they entered the Holy of Holies to make sacrifices for the people, they were not always. But Christ was, and is. This characteristic connects Him with God who has called His people to “Be Holy as I am Holy.”
Christ was blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens, and the perfect sacrifice for sin. If the author were trying to convince a committee that Jesus was the perfect candidate, Jesus would have the job. And in a way, that’s exactly what the author was trying to do.
Trying to remind the Hebrews that despite what they were facing in the testing of their faith and the trials of life, Christ was the answer.
But the writer to the Hebrews doesn’t talk only about the “who” but also about the “what”. Last week’s text, the writer talked about the character of Christ but in today’s text, we hear about what Christ did.
Again, the author connects the reader with what they are familiar with, the Old Testament sacrificial system. This was the system in which sins were atoned for by the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer.
But Christ changes all of that because He, Himself, became the sacrificial lamb. The writer says, “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by [H]is own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” And later, “How much more . . . will the blood of Christ . . . cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death. . . “
You see, you and I aren’t saved simply because Christ was all the things we talked about last week. I mean, He is. But Christ could have been all those things and lived a long life as a carpenter and died with a wife and kids. But that would not have saved us. That would not have redeemed us from our sin.
It was necessary for Christ to die on the cross, to offer Himself up as the sacrifice for our sins, that we might live. It wasn’t only about who He was but what He did. His offering of Himself on the cross, in our place, allows us to receive life and live serving the living God.
