3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. 7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.
Everything in the Old Testament tabernacle had a spiritual significance. God was specific about everything in it, from the materials to the dimensions and even to the way it was taken down, carried around, and set up again in a new place. But our author tells us: The reason God was so specific about the duties and the function of the Old Testament priests in their tabernacle was because they were only in image, a picture or type, of the Priest to come. He didn’t come like them with any of their sacrifices, because if he had, he would merely be one of them. But he brought a better sacrifice (his own holy, precious blood) to a once-for-all altar, the cross. His work does not go on and on, needed to be done over and over, because his work is finished, which means that the result of his work is what goes on forever.
When a priest in the Old Testament made a sacrifice to atone for someone’s sins, they (either the priest or the celebrant) might well have sinned in their hearts or minds right there at the altar while the sacrifice was being made, nullifying the slaughter of the bull or the goat or the sheep. But Christ is sinless, and his sacrifice atoned for all of our sins—even the sins we commit in our hearts when we hear about that very forgiveness.
We turn to him in repentance, and we are assured of the most beautiful truth ever: Our sins are forgiven. We are at peace with God.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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