9 Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and an earthly sanctuary. ² For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lamp stand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place. ³ After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, ⁴ having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; ⁵ and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can’t speak now in detail. ⁶ Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, ⁷ but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people. ⁸ The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing. ⁹ This is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect, ¹⁰ being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.

Commentary

Once a year on the greatest and most holy day of the year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest stepped into the Holy of Holies before the face of the Lord “to pray for himself and his household and the whole congregation of Israel.” He sprinkled the throne of grace with the blood of a young bull and a goat, which he had previously to slaughter, and in this way absolved himself and his house “of the impurities of the sons of Israel and of their transgressions and of all their sins.” No person was to be in the tent (i.e., in the holy place that lay in front of the Holy of Holies) when the high priest stepped into God’s presence in this awesomely sacred place, this place where no one but he entered and he himself only at this hour. And even now he had to burn incense “so that a cloud of smoke...would veil the judgment throne...and he not die.” This solitary dialogue took place in deepest mystery.

The Day of Atonement is the Old Testament antecedent of Good Friday. The ram that is slaughtered for the sins of the people represents the spotless Lamb of God (so did, no doubt, that other chosen by lot and burdened with the sins of the people that was driven into the wilderness). And the high priest descended from Aaron foreshadows the eternal high priest. Just as Christ anticipated his sacrificial death during the last supper, so he also anticipated the high priestly prayer. He did not have to bring for himself an offering for sin because he was without sin. He did not have to await the hour prescribed by the Law and nor to seek out the Holy of Holies in the temple. He stands, always and everywhere, before the face of God; his own soul is the Holy of Holies. It is not only God’s dwelling, but is also essentially and indissolubly united to God. He does not have to conceal himself from God by a protective cloud of incense. He gazes upon the uncovered face of the Eternal One and has nothing to fear. Looking at the Father will not kill him. And he unlocks the mystery of the high priest’s realm. All who belong to him may hear how, in the Holy of Holies of his heart, he speaks to his Father; they are to experience what is going on and are to learn to speak to the Father in their own hearts. (Edith Stein/Benedicta of the Cross)

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Collect

Monday of the Third Week of Lent (Hebrews 9:11-22)

¹¹ But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, ¹² nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without defect to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? ¹⁵ For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. ¹⁶ For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it. ¹⁷ For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives. ¹⁸ Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood. ¹⁹ For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, ²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”

²¹ Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in the same way with the blood. ²² According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.

Commentary

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