Do you ever wonder
if all your sins are really forgiven? Are you afraid that God will hold some
of your worst sins over your head for when you die and Jesus comes to take you
home? Good Friday is the most somber day of the church year, the day that the
weight and destructiveness of our sin is put right before us so that we cannot
deny its horror or cost. The crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, the beating at his
trial, the nails used to hang him from the cross, the mocking of the crowds,
the abandonment of his disciples, being forsaken by his Father, the inner anguish
of carrying our sin is all stuck in our faces to get us to finally acknowledge
the pain, brokenness, and suffering sin brings. It forces us to confess that
there’s no such thing as a small sin; all sin separates us from God and adds to
the burden Jesus carries to the cross, adding to the brokenness in the world.
Good Friday visually reveals the destructiveness of our sins in Jesus’ hanging
on the cross.
Tim Keller gives
us a glimpse of what brings us to Good Friday in an imagined conversation
between God the Father and Jesus, “You can see God saying to Jesus, in
effect, “Son, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone and I will
never say it again. Throughout all eternity I’ve always said and always will
say, ‘If you obey me, I’ll come near to you.’ But to you I say, ‘If you obey me
now, I will abandon you.’ I will let you go, so I don’t have to let them go. I
will pour all the wrath and punishment humanity’s sins deserve onto you. And
even though you are the eternal Son of God, that pain and the power of that
justice will be so great, your body and soul will be ripped apart—so theirs
don’t have to be. Are you willing to do this?” Jesus said, “Yes.”
The Day of
Atonement visually shows the people the seriousness of their sin. Sin must not
merely be kept in check. It must be removed entirely. That’s what the Day of
Atonement points to. This is the only day of the year that the high priest
enters the Holy of Holies, dressed in only a simple white garment. Before going
into the Holy of Holies, the high priest offers a bull calf as a personal
sin-offering, then cleansed from sin, he fills his bowl with live coals from
the altar, he enters the Holy place, places incense on the coals, sending smoke
over the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant. He then takes blood from the
bull calf sacrifice and spreads it on the mercy seat and on the ground before
the altar. He then sacrifices a male goat as a sin-offering for the people,
taking some of the blood of the goat into the Holy place and spreading it on
the mercy seat.
After the
sacrifices, the mercy seat and altar are purified and the high
priest then lays his hands on a second goat and confesses the sins of Israel
over it. This goat, called the scape goat, is then led out into the wilderness,
carrying the sins of the people on it outside of the camp. The carcasses of the
bull calf and first goat are then taken outside the camp and burned. This is
also a day where no-one is allowed to work, a day of rest; they’re not to work
on this day, a sign that their work’s unable to save them, that it’s only
through God’s grace and love that forgiveness is found. This is a day of
humility and denying themselves to focus on their sins and the forgiveness
given to them by God.
God calls this the
Day of Atonement.
Atonement, in the faith sense, is about reconciliation and repairing the
relationship between God and humanity through sacrifice. In the Old Testament,
the sacrifice is a perfect male goat and the casting out of a second male goat,
the scape goat, who carries the sin away. In the New Testament, atonement is
achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through Jesus’ sacrifice,
we’re made right with God. Like the scape goat, Jesus is taken outside the city
where he washes away our sin through his blood. Jesus carries our sin away as
far as the east is from the west.
What compels God
to allow his son Jesus to go the route of sacrifice, to allow Jesus
to become the scape-goat? The Old Testament uses a word, “hesed” that shows us why. Hesed love is often
translated as unfailing love in English. This is God’s promised love, his
covenantal love, the love he declares under oath, binding himself to us in
love, his never ending, unbreakable love that never bends even when ours does.
This love shows up in Hebrews 10:19–22, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since
we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since
we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a
sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts
sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed
with pure water.” As our Holy Week
devotion reminded us in the Day 5 devotion, “Redemption is not earned; it is
offered. This reminds us that God’s love is not a reaction to our goodness, but
a reflection of his character.” Humble yourselves today and see your need
for a saviour, that you may then take hold of the One who gave his life for us.
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