Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 19, 2023 - Thursday in the 2nd Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 7:25—8:6 and Mark 3:7-12]Jesus is always able to save those who approach God through him, since he lives forever to make intercession for them.....It then he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are those who offer gifts according to the law. They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary.....Now he has obtained so much more excellent ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises... [Hebrews]
The Letter to the Hebrews has as its aim to show that Jesus, by his death and resurrection, has replaced the temple in Jerusalem and its Mosaic observances with a better "temple" of heavenly worship. He has done this in fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and to David. The Mosaic temple worship was in the charge of the tribe of Levi, which had been set apart for this purpose. Jesus was descended from David, of the tribe of Judah! He could not have been a priest of the temple, as was Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. By virtue of Jesus' own sacrifice of himself, he entered into a new temple not made by human hands. It is an eternal temple which is not subject to destruction as was the temple in Jerusalem.
In 1988, I had the privilege of visiting the Holy Land and one of our group stops was at what is known as "the Wailing Wall", a remnant of the foundation of the Jerusalem temple. This is a very holy site for Jews, but it is doubtful that Judaism would want to restore the kind of animal and vegetable sacrificial worship that existed in Jesus' time! After the destruction of the temple in 70 AD by the Romans, Judaism was reshaped into the synagogue form of worship that is followed now. The Levitical priesthood no longer exists. But Jesus' sacrifice created a new and eternal type of priesthood in a new temple of heavenly origin and a new way of worship in fulfillment of the promises made to David. The Letter to the Hebrews asks the reader to focus on the constant "intercession" of Jesus and not to lose faith or grow sluggish in following Jesus. That still remains our challenge today. AMEN