Saturday
"For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those that 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!" (v.13-14)
Background
Talk of goats' and bulls' blood may well put a lot of people offthis passage. We do not 'do' animal sacrifice these days inBritain, although we need to be aware that many African Christianshave integrated traditional sacrificial rituals into their practiseof Christianity, and we would do well not to condemn that out ofhand and without hearing the other's points of view.
But this passage on sacrifice is only part of a bigger picture -the provisionality of so much that we do in our life offaith.
When John and Charles Wesley (the founders of Methodism) startedtheir movement in the 18th century it was to be a reforming andenlivening influence within the Church of England of their day. Fortheir base of operation they took over a disused and dilapidatedgovernment cannon foundry - there they had a school, clinic andalmshouse as well as a place for worship and adult classes. Thiswas a society whose members went to their parish church and then tothe Methodist meetings for something 'extra'. But, as so oftenhappens, the temporary expedient of the foundry becameinstitutionalised with the building of the new chapel in City Road,London, and the trustees made sure that it was built that forpermanence.
God has a plan for the salvation of humankind - the big plan. Thereare temporary or provisional arrangements along the way forachieving it, but people like to make the temporary, permanent. So,according to the writer of Hebrews, the blood sacrifices were partof God's temporary arrangements and now, with the coming of JesusChrist, those things can be put aside.
Jesus, by his voluntary, sacrificial death on the Cross has madethe blood sacrifices of old unnecessary - God's master plan iscoming to fruition.
To Ponder
So much of Church history in Britain and acrossthe world shows how unwilling the people of God are to work toGod's master plan. Think about some equivalents to the 'bloodsacrifices' in our own Church history.
In the life of your own church, house group orworshipping group can you identify 'dead works' which need to beput aside for the worship of the living God to become central?