The writer of Hebrews devotes much of chapter 10 to contrasting the repeating sacrifices the priests had to make year after year with the perfect single sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus’ sacrifice was done once for all the world so we can live as forgiven believers. We will also look at how believers should respond to the forgiveness found through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice.
If you’ve ever worked in a meat processing plant (live animals go in and finished product comes out) you may have some idea of what it must have been like to work in the Jerusalem temple.
One man remembers paying his way through college one year (back in the 70’s) by working at a turkey farm in Ohio. This large facility kept 80,000 live turkeys in various stages of development in pole barns. Early Tuesday morning each week began “slaughter day,” where about 6,000 turkeys were gathered, stunned, killed, de-feathered, butchered, and prepared for distribution or storage. A large conveyor system carried the birds from one step to another and workers each performed one step in the process. He recalls losing his taste for turkey for a long time.
While that man’s experiences were messy, consider what it must have been like in Bible times.
Sacrifices in the Old Testament era
Many churches have altar guilds, committees that change the necessary paraments according to the liturgical year calendar, prepare the elements for Holy Communion and the like. Can you imagine being part of that “committee” in biblical times?
Leviticus chapters 1-7 go into detail regarding the various sacrifices and the laws pertaining to them. After the bull has been slaughtered at the entrance of the tent of meeting, the priest then brings some of the bull’s blood into the tent. Then, “The priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of the blood seven times before the LORD in front of the curtain of the sanctuary. The priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is in the tent of meeting before the LORD, and the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the entrance of the tent of meeting.”1
All these detailed instructions throughout Leviticus (and other places) were to be carried out at the appointed times by the priests year after year.
That point is stated again in our text today. “And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sin.”
But Christ ...
There’s so much more here than first meets the eye. The writer of Hebrews first began discussing this topic at the end of chapter 4, when he introduced the great high priest. “Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. ... Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”2
“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God,’ and since then has been waiting ‘until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ ... For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.’”
That’s it! It’s done: a single sacrifice for sins!
One writer said, “Throughout Hebrews the author says that the self-offering of Jesus is complete, not partial. It is the gift through which God claims people wholly for a renewed relationship. Good Friday worship does not repeat Christ’s action. Rather, it brings us back to that singular, pivotal, definitive gift with startling clarity.”3
Thank you, Jesus!
Responding to Christ’s perfect sacrifice
How do we respond to this perfect sacrifice, this perfect gift of forgiveness that Christ offers to us all? The short answer is that we receive it. Adding anything that we must do or that we must accomplish takes us out of the realm of grace. “Where there is forgiveness of these [sins and lawless deeds], there is no longer any offering for sins.”4
We receive this grace with grateful hearts, knowing our sins are forgiven and that sin no longer has us in its death grip. We quoted Hebrews 4:16 a moment ago, but it’s worth hearing again. “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Approach with boldness, receive mercy, find grace. Every time.
Does that sound too good to be true? One of the classic definitions of grace says that “grace is the undeserved (or unmerited) favor of God.” Or, to see it another way, grace allows us to receive the blessings of God that we have not earned and that we do not deserve, rather than the punishment for sin that we do deserve.
So, we humbly receive God’s grace and forgiveness.
The perfect sacrifice produces changed people
Jesus gave us a great preview of grace in his parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. There are things to note about the lost son being restored to his father’s home... The son did nothing to deserve the father’s grace. He could not repay what he had taken. Nor did he deserve the restoration and the love the father freely offered him. Of course, Jesus had not yet gone to the Cross, but in that parable, he gave a picture of the grace and love of God that would be made perfect through Jesus’ perfect single sacrifice on the Cross.
The writer of Hebrews follows our text for today immediately with a three-fold call for believers to persevere in their faith because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ.5
First, “Let us approach [the sanctuary] with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ....”6
Second, “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”7
Third, “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together...”8
These calls are made possible through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice.
Grace in an imperfect world
It’s wonderful to know that Jesus’ sacrifice, made once, is available to everyone. Receiving grace and forgiveness from God is of ultimate and eternal importance. We can bask in the warmth of that reality, knowing our sins have been forgiven,
But we live in a world where people do awful things. Giving grace and forgiveness, from one person to another person, is another matter, isn’t it? People do unspeakable, terrible things to other people. We don’t have to look long or far to see examples of this. Some of us have specific examples that come immediately to mind. The snub from a neighbor, the cheater at work, the unfaithful spouse, the thief, the lies being spread about you, the relative who took away the innocence of a child, the murderer ... We can all add to this terrible list.
Grace in action
October 6, 2006, is a day that is seared into the memory of hundreds of people in and around Lancaster Pennsylvania. That morning, Charles Carl Roberts, a milk truck driver, drove to an Amish school in the hamlet of Nickel Mines, in Bart Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol as well as several knives, a stun gun, a can of black powder and 600 rounds of ammunition, he went into the school. He barricaded the doors and windows and tied up the hostages. He released 15 male students and three adults with infants but kept 10 female students and a teacher in the building.
Without ever speaking to the authorities who were trying to establish lines of communication, he ended up killing five of the girls before killing himself.9
Out of this awful, terrible event, one unbelievable truth became evident. Amid the horror and death, the Amish community, while dealing with their own loss and tragedy, reached out in several ways to the family of the shooter to offer assistance and forgiveness. It was reported that the grandfather of one of the murdered girls said, “We must not think evil of this man.” The Amish community also reached out to the shooter’s wife to offer financial assistance.10
Is there any doubt that God’s grace was present even during this horrible event? The sacrifice of Christ changes people in remarkable ways.
Living this side of the perfect single sacrifice of Christ
Earlier, I mentioned the altar guilds in many churches today. If we were still under the old system of repeated animal sacrifices all throughout the year, we could not fill these committees. But we live under the superior system brought about by the perfect, single sacrifice of God’s Son on the cross. Once, for all people and all time. Praise God for our Savior, who lived and died and rose again so we can live as God’s people for all eternity. Thanks be to God.
1 Leviticus 4:6-7.
2 Hebrews 4:14-16. Here the writer of Hebrews introduces Jesus the great high priest. Over the next several chapters he builds on what it means for Jesus to be the great high priest.
3 Craig R. Koester, “Commentary on Hebrews 10:16-25”, March 30, 2018, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/good-friday/commentary-on-hebrews-1016-25-11.
4 Hebrews 11:18.
5 Hebrews 10:19-25.
6 Hebrews 10:22.
7 Hebrews 10:23.
8 Hebrews 10:24.
10 ibid.
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