Hebrews 9:15-22 (HCSB)
Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in force while the one who made it is living. That is why even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you. In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood. According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
The writer of Hebrews starts this section with “therefore” which points us back to the end of the previous paragraph. The Old Covenant with Israel was a mere shadow of the ultimate covenant that God would make with the people of the whole world. The Old Covenant, as impressive as its words, and symbols and rituals were, could not change a person’s heart or character. It could only cleanse the outside. Something more was needed to complete God’s plan.
It was for that reason, that Jesus came as the founder and mediator of the New Covenant. His death not only paid the ransom for the sins of the whole world, it actually opened the way into the Most Holy Place in the heavenly tabernacle, God’s very presence, for everyone who will submit to it.
In this section the writer underscores the necessity of death and blood in the purification of both things and people. These days, nearly 2000 years after the sacrifices in the temple were abolished when it was destroyed by the Roman army, many Christians are uncomfortable with the imagery of blood and death that appears throughout the Bible. It feels in some ways like a throwback to a less civilized time. This has led to a “sanitized” version of the gospel, where a clean and largely unmarked Jesus looks serenely up to heaven from the cross. No blood, no death, no horror.
But, as is made clear not just in the Old Testament, but in the New as well, without real death, the penalty for sins remains unpaid. Without blood, nothing can be purified. And without the real pain and suffering that Jesus endured on the cross, we must suffer all those things ourselves.
Just as the tabernacle, the Torah, and even the people were cleansed and purified by being sprinkled with the blood of the sin offering under the Old Covenant, so all the people of the New Covenant must be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, the perfect, sinless Lamb of God, in order to be cleansed from our sins and given a new life and a fresh start. Those who reject the blood of Jesus and turn away from it are still in their sins because, as the writer so clearly points out, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Father, it is tempting to turn away from the suffering and blood of Jesus, because if we really allow ourselves to see it, to feel it, and to experience it, it becomes almost overwhelmingly painful. But Jesus really did suffer the excruciating death that I myself deserve. He really did bleed out on the cross, and all along the way to Golgotha, so that His cleansing blood can be applied to my dark, sinful heart, washing it clean and making it whole. And he really did die a real death, so that my separation from You can be erased. Father, help me to never turn away from what Jesus did, ALL of it, so that I will always remember how precious in your sight I am, so precious that He was willing to pay such a high price for me and my salvation. Amen.