Monday 19 March, 2018

15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. 16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Jesus has brokered a new deal for all people. Whatever the Old Testament may say, Jesus has reshaped and renegotiated the ultimate terms of salvation in the world. In many ways, same as it ever was (eg. it requires serious stuff like blood shedding and sacrifice), but is changed now that Jesus’ sacrifice was a perfect human sacrifice – the most extreme kind of sacrifice crossed with an innocent sacrifice.

The layers of metaphor are numerous and the descriptions complex – but I am encouraged not to be put off by this density. I capture in my imagination the key images, ‘ransom’, ‘sacrifice’, ‘inheritance’, ‘covenant’ and ‘forgiveness’ and let them dance in my mind. Perhaps instead of logic, our natural capacity for poetry is better suited to absorb the significance of this passage in it’s first reading? The fuller, systematic, importance of this passage can come to me later, but for now Jesus is reshaping the very structure of forgiveness in my imagination just as it is eternally shaped in my heart.

Jesus forever!

My Jesus. Thank you for turning the universe upside down with the most wonderful and at the same time strangest of happenings with Jesus as the sacrifice to end all sacrificing. I am free of debt too because of you Jesus. Debt free forever!

Written by Sam Stewart