Continuing with the BCP lessons for Holy Week, today’s Epistle is Hebrews 9:15-28. Yesterday I gave the lesson in a modern translation; if you’d prefer one, here’s a link to ESVUK. But today, I give you the richness of the Prayer Book’s lessons:
WHEREFORE Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of an eternal inheritance. For where a covenant or testament is, there must also, of necessity, be the death of the testator; for a testament is of force after men are dead; it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. And therefore the first testament also was dedicated with blood; for when Moses had spoken every commandment to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant or testament, which God hath commanded you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary therefore that these symbols of heavenly things should be purified thus; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices; for Christ hath not entered into holy places made with hands, which are only figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor need he offer himself many times like the high priest who entereth into the holy place every year with blood that is not his own: for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now, once for all, at the end of time, he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time apart from sin unto salvation.
There is so much richness in this passage, where would I even begin? I think it is especially worth thinking on this year because the calculations for western Easter mean that Passover is today-tomorrow, so pretty close to when it would have been in relation to Christ’s death and resurrection. Now, Passover, of course, is not the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) mentioned here. Nonetheless, Christ dies at Passover as a sacrifice, a ransom for many. To quote the Prayer Book’s Order for Holy Communion:
by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world
This week we are entering into the very heart of the Christian Gospel. Keeping things Anglican, I recently read Richard Hooker’s A Learned Discourse on Justification. He says many worthy things there, asserting again and again, ” Salvation therefore by Christ is the foundation of Christianity.” All the other things which may be necessary or helpful for a healthy spiritual life — prayer, fasting, almsgiving, Scripture, the Holy Communion, etc., etc. — are of nothing worth compared with the sacrifice made by Christ to save us.
Whatever we do this Holy Week and Easter, let us throw ourselves at the foot of the Cross, where the blood spilled by God Himself may cleanse us and save us.
Classically Christian 