The 26^th Sunday after Pentecost | November 17, 2024 | A Sermon on Hebrews 10:11-25 | text by Pastor Evan McClanahan |

NRSV

^{11And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” 13and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” 14For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, 16“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,” 17he also adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.}

^{19Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.} 

^{You Will Never Have to Be Sisyphus}

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

You are probably familiar with the story of Sisyphus, if not by name then by the details. Sisyphus was a Greek “god” of the area that is now called Corinth. He was a particularly mean and crafty god so he was eventually punished by the other Greek gods with the tortuous task of rolling a boulder up a hill only to watch it fall down for all of eternity, never accomplishing anything.

We may have tasks in our own lives that resemble that kind of futility. I have planted sod in my front yard on more occasions than I care to count. I bought the soil – the good stuff, too, the stinky stuff – and spread it around. I bought the sod and tenderly put it in place. I watered it daily until it took root. I fertilized it. And yet, I still have dirt patches.

One of the reasons that conservative-minded people oppose the over-bureaucratization of government is the kinds of Catch-22s that bureaucracy engenders. For example, my aunt donated a car to me. To do a title transfer from Georgia to Texas, I needed to provide an inspection. To get an inspection done, I needed proof of insurance. To get insurance, I needed the title to be in my name. Do you see the problem? Eventually, the insurance company insured the company on the promise that I would get that title transferred “on the double!” But that kind of bureaucratic nightmare is the Sisyphean trap we see all the time.

It is also exactly what we see described in the first verse of our reading from Hebrews this morning: “And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.” Now, there is a lot to unpack in that sentence. For starters, the sentence is in the present tense, which means the Temple is still standing and the priests are still working. That means this letter (or sermon) was written before 70AD, the year Rome destroyed the Second Temple.

That may not sound like a big deal, but dating the Gospels and epistles as late as possible has allowed there to be distrust sewn in the culture. It is “common knowledge” – we are told – among academics that because the New Testament was written so far from the life of Jesus that the details can’t be trusted and that most of the New Testament is probably made up. Well, a sentence like this puts at least some of the New Testament within a generation of Jesus‘ death.

But more to the point, the sentence highlights exactly what the death of Jesus accomplished: the finished work of salvation. The priests have become Sisyphus, toiling away but accomplishing nothing. Why? Because the economy of God changed with the death of Jesus. The forgiveness of sins is no longer available by the sacrifices of the priests. The entire point of Hebrews is to demonstrate that Jesus is the priest; Jesus is the sacrifice; and Jesus is the Temple.

And that is really good news. That is the good news! The work is complete. Priests are no longer needed in the temple or a church. There are no more sacrifices to make. You do not face a lifetime – much less an eternity – of fruitless toil. You are free to live the life that God has ordained for you.

Imagine the relief this would have been for Jesus’ followers. Going to the Temple and making sacrifices was constantly on their mind. It was required three times a year, but if traveling to Jerusalem was too difficult, then equivalent sacrifices had to be made wherever they lived.

But at least before Christ, the Hebrew people did have the promise of God that the sacrifices made would forgive sins. The problem was that after the death and resurrection of Jesus, the priests sacrifices meant nothing to God. God’s ears were closed to their rituals. The path to peace was through Jesus himself, not the Temple priests. The terms of the covenant had changed.

And, of course, the effects of this would filter down to every area of life, not just the sacrifices made for the forgiveness of sins. An entire range of God’s commands had to be reconsidered. What they could eat; when they could work; how debts were created and forgiven, and many more. This was a kind of freedom that had not been known for centuries. It was so much freedom there were many Jews distrustful of it. They considered the Christians haters of God’s Law, which is why Paul is often at pains to defend God’s Law.

So Hebrews is really the summary, almost like a closing statement made in a trial, of how Jesus is God in human flesh and how He Himself fulfills all of the mandates of God’s Law. But, in a sense, it can be summed up in this image, almost comic, but definitely tragic: that of the priest offering his sacrifices day in and day out that can accomplish nothing. Jesus is the once-for-all sacrifice whose work is so done, that he sits at the right of the father and uses his enemies as his footstool. In other words, Jesus is relaxing because the work has been done.

So what does this mean for us? Well, first it means that we should be careful never to place ourselves under any religious scheme that makes demands of us that go above and beyond what Christ has accomplished. So if a version of Christianity still has priests – not pastors, not elders – ask yourself why. Why do they use that word? That word, and that very concept, per Hebrews, has been relegated to the Old Testament forever.

Now, “the Holy Spirit also testifies to us: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” There is not an external skeleton of law that we obey. Now we have an interior life of obedience. We know the Law because the Holy Spirit convicts us. This makes our relationship far more intimate and personal with God than it was in the Old Covenant. But this is how you can have a society built on voluntary love and service. This is how you have a nation ruled by law and not by men. This is how a piece of paper can govern the passions of men. It is because individual Christians with the Holy Spirit deeply know and follow and love the Law, and that creates a whole society marked by peace, love, joy, and hope.

There is not an institution on earth that, in the absence of that kind of intimate obedience, can coral the sins of mankind. And there is not an institution on earth that, given the abundance of that kind of intimate obedience, can stand in God’s way. This is the change in relating to God that truly changed the world.

The single greatest concern I have for our immediate context as it exists today is that this freedom for sin is seen as unnecessary. Sinning against a holy God is not the existential problem for modern man as it was for, say, Martin Luther. So if man has no sins that need to be forgiven, they don’t need Christ and they don’t need the Church.

 But of course, modern man still does need his sins forgiven. He still sins! We continue to make messes of our lives and our hearts and our cities and our states by our sin. I know you know that. That is why you are here.

 Perhaps your problem isn’t that you are aware of your sin, it is that you don’t believe you deserve forgiveness. Well, that much is true. You don’t. You don’t receive forgiveness because you deserve it. You receive it because God is gracious and merciful. Because he has forgotten our sins. Because he has paid the price on our behalf.

 There is not a sin – no matter how embarrassing, no matter how horrible, no matter how grievous – that cannot be forgiven by the shed blood of Jesus. There is no number and no kind of sin that God Himself will not forgive if we simply go to God with the open hand of faith. You are free from your sins when you ask God to forgive them in the name of Christ.

 So, you are free to go to God. Know that you will be forgiven…and freed. Because there is not a Temple, anymore. There are no more sacrifices. There are no more clergy interceding for you. The work is finished, once, and for all. Thanks be to God. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 —

©Evan McClanahan

   pastor@flhouston.org

   First Lutheran Church

   Houston, Texas, USA