Thoughts on Hebrews 9:11-15

      There are many ways of thinking about the meaning of the death of Jesus: Peter’s eschatological “dawning of new age,” Paul’s legal musings on “justification,” Athananasius’ notions of  “deification,” Anselm’s “vicarious payment,” Calvin’s “vicarious punishment,” Aulen’s “vicarious victor”—all different from each other.      

    Our epistle reading for today is a portion of one such reflection.  The writer of the book we call “Hebrews” finds the meaning of Christ’s death by exploring temple ritual as an extended metaphor or model.

The gospels record that Jesus and his disciples traveled on more than one occasion to Jerusalem during pilgrimage time.  And, following Jesus’ ascension, the first Christians, who were of course all Jews, continued to participate in the fasts, prayers, and sacrifices of the Temple in Jerusalem.  

But, as time went by some began to question whether it was proper for a follower of Jesus to participate in Jewish ritual practices.  And, eventually, the view that Christians ought not participate prevailed.  Thus, Christians would become one of the few groups in the Roman world, who did not offer sacrifices.  And, the book of Hebrews is a defense of this rather eccentric behavior. 

Now, the writer of the book of Hebrews has no lack of sympathy with Judaism.  In fact, the author is Jewish and is well informed about Temple practices and rituals.  The writer reveres the holy scriptures and worships the God of Abraham and Moses (following the practice of Jesus).

Further, like the temple priests, and everyone else the writer knew, the writer believed forgiveness and the shedding of sacrificial blood were connected.  The writer is explicit:  “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (chapter 9, verse 22).  The writer had, all his life, been immersed in temple rituals.  Everyone the writer knows believes blood cleanses.  This belief was unquestioned, taken for granted.  Nevertheless, the writer rejects the practice of making sacrifices at the temple.  His reasoning:  Jesus’s death displaced the practice.

We, however, find the notion (“without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins”) difficult and alien.  It is hard for us to wrap our minds around this metaphor.  It makes no sense to us.  For this reason, contemporary theologians who want to explore this metaphor spend most of their time explaining how the shedding of blood is necessary for the forgiveness of sin. The notion is not obvious to us.

But, to understand our epistle lesson for today, you only need to understand that the writer of the book of Hebrews, unquestionably believes “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

For the writer, Jesus’ death was like a temple sacrifice.  Paul chooses a different extended metaphor, a different model, to explore.  For Paul, God is like a judge and our relationship with God is a legal one.  For Peter the extended metaphor or model was “a new age.”  The dawning of a new day had been ushered in by the death of Jesus.  Peter and his listeners took for granted that in the new age God would grant forgiveness to all, everyone.  So, it did not seem strange to think of Jesus’ death as an eschatological event, an event of cosmic importance.  Forgiveness and dawning of a new age were (to their minds) self-evidently linked.  The metaphor made perfect sense.

For Paul, Peter, and the writer of the book of Hebrews these three metaphors or models arose, quite naturally (and with all their presuppositions intact) out of a shared culture, a shared, common life.

We are far removed from that culture, that life—both in space and in time.  We tend to feel that sacrifices are repulsive and superstitious; we regard a desire for justification has quixotic or neurotic; and we regard the anticipation of a new age as escapist. 
I am not suggesting that these metaphors or models or analogies are untrue, quite the contrary; I believe they express profound truths about the meaning of the death of Jesus.  But, they do so in terms of the culture and life common to first century Jews living in Palestine—a culture and life we do not naturally share.  Twenty-first century people living in Ocean Springs, Mississippi need metaphors, analogies, or models that can speak to us profound truths as these metaphors or models spoke to first century Jews living in Palestine.  Providing working metaphors is the task of theologians.  So, we get Athananasius’ notions of  “deification,” Anselm’s “vicarious payment,” Calvin’s “vicarious punishment,” Aulen’s “vicarious victor” (to name but a few).

No one model or metaphor can carry all the meaning of the cross.  Peter’s model did not exhaust the meaning of Jesus’ death.  Paul’s model did not exhaust the meaning of Jesus’ death.  Likewise, Calvin’s or Anselm’s musings on the meaning of Christ’s death did not exhaust all the meaning of the cross of Christ.  There is always a surplus of meaning.  All models or metaphors or analogies have their limitations—stretch them or bend them too far and they break.

Which brings us back to our second reading today.  After the death of Jesus, the first Christians began to question whether it was proper for a follower of Jesus to participate in Jewish ritual practices.  (Famously, Paul would say no to the practice of circumcision.)  Eventually, the view that Christians ought not participate would prevail.  Christians would, thus, become one of the few groups in the Roman world who did not offer sacrifices.  And, the book of Hebrews is a defense of this odd behavior.  The question asked:  “Why don’t Christians make ritual sacrifice like everyone else?”  And, the writer of the book of Hebrews answers (and I paraphrase):

When Jesus came as the high priest of the new Temple, he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 

For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God! 

For this reason Jesus is the High Priest of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.