In today’s first reading from the Book of Leviticus Moses instructs the Israelites about the various holy days or “festivals of the Lord.” So, we hear about the Jewish feast of Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread that follows right after Passover. The most solemn or holy day is the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. On this day the people confess their personal sins and the sins of the community and experience great mercy and forgiveness from God. Yom Kippur is the only day that the Jewish high priest is permitted to enter into the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covent is. The cover over the ark is called the “propitiatory” or “mercy seat.” The high priest sprinkles blood over the mercy seat. For the Jews in Jesus’ day blood was viewed as a kind of “ritual detergent.” This sprinkling of the blood would cleanse the inner Temple and remove the harmful effects of sin.
NT theologians used this understanding of blood to explain how Jesus’ blood could bring about forgiveness. Jesus was now not only the mercy seat or place of atonement but also the means of atonement of forgiveness. Jesus’ blood was a “ritual detergent” that expiated or removed the harmful effect or sin. The sinner was now purified. The author of the Hebrews uses this image of Yom Kippur to interpret Jesus’ saving death.
“…the high priest alone goes into the inner one once a year, not without blood that he offers for himself and for the sins of the people… But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands…he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.” (Hebrews 9:7, 11-14).
We join with our Jewish brothers and sisters as we recognize and celebrate the great mercy and love and God. Let us turn today to Jesus who is the place where we can experience the great mercy and love of God.
Image: “Gottlieb – Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur” by Trodel is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.