Let’s take a trip back to the time of Jesus, imagine yourself standing over one of your sheep. You’ve been waiting for it to give birth for a while now and the moment has finally come. A young lamb is born before you and over the next few weeks you watch it struggle to walk and grow. It is beautiful and wonderful display of God’s creation and life; the best of your livestock. One day you get up and lead your little lamb down to the temple. You must hand this young beauty over to the hands of the priest. Before your eyes the life is taken from this world, slaughtered upon the alter, its blood taken for your sin and impurity. You watch the death of this little lamb you’ve raised knowing that your sin is the cause of it. A vicious cycle that never ends: a life for your sin.
Read Hebrews 7:18-28
The priests were responsible for interceding between God and His people. One day a year the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies, the place in the temple where God’s presence dwelled. A rope would be tied around their ankle, if they were found impure before God they would die and have to be dragged out. Priests were still human and subject to the law of death and sin. (Look at verses 23 and 27-28 again). In their weakness they served God but it was never enough for they were humans bound in their impurity and unable to save the people. All they could do was offer sacrifice, perform rituals, and pray on the people’s behalf.
Hebrews 7 reminds us that the priests could not ultimately save people, but because our God is merciful he provided a priest that was free from the law of death and sin. In Jesus we find no weakness that He should be unable to save us. Read verse 24-25 again. He stands before God interceding for us now at this very moment! But perhaps the key verse is verse 27: No more daily sacrifices but one death removes all sin past, present, and future! We no longer bring a lamb to be slaughtered because Jesus was slaughtered on the cross. Read Jn 1:29, 36; Mark 14:22-24. Take a few moments to reflect on these verses.
Although we no longer offer sacrifices and God does not require them (because they don’t save us, only Jesus) we must remember that which is said in Heb 12:28-13:17, Romans 6:12-15 and Ps 51:16-17. Many of you may know that Lent started last week (if you don’t know it Google it), a season of fasting. Fasting is an important spiritual discipline, not to give something up as a sacrifice to God, but instead to keep our focus on Him and our hearts broken and contrite. This is the time when we join our brothers and sisters in preparing our hearts for Easter, for remembering what Jesus’ death really was. Fasting is not just for the few weeks before Easter but anytime when you want to humble yourself and refocus on God by removing something in your life (not just food!) that is distracting or more important to you than God. I encourage you to look at verses related to fasting and let God teach you more about fasting from his Word. (http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=fasting&version1=31&searchtype=all)
Dear God, I humble myself before you knowing you are a wonderful merciful God who first humbled yourself on the cross and became my High Priest, forever interceding on my behalf. Help me now to have a broken and contrite heart before you and bring to my mind anything that I desire more than you. Help me set those aside and if necessary enter a time of fasting to refocus on you. Amen.
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