November 10, 2024 — Proper 27 in Ordinary Time

Anthony: All right, let’s transition to our next pericope of the month. It’s Hebrews 9:24-28. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 27 in Ordinary Time, which is November 10. Jon, would you read it for us, please?

Jon: Yes. All right.

For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. ²⁵ Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy place year after year with blood that is not his own, ²⁶ for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷ And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once and after that the judgment, ²⁸ so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Anthony: So, it seems to me, this passage shines the light on the reality that on our behalf, the anointed One, intercessor, this high priest that you just spoke about is in the presence of God, the Father. And when we think about that, his ascension and his presence with the Father, we may think he’s away from us.

What impact does that have on my life today, on Wednesday? Is there an impact that it should have in our daily following of Christ?

Jon: Yeah. This kind of gets back to the participatory stuff I’ve been talking about which I love to talk about, as you can probably tell.

Anthony: And we love to hear about it.

Jon: Yeah. It should take a lot of pressure off us to get things completely right all the time because we know that there is a high priest who intercedes for us. He’s doing something on our behalf that we can’t do ourselves. It pulls us out of this way of thinking about behaving that we’ve been handed contextually (especially as Western modern people) that we need to do everything and get it right all the time.

We should be able to — this should allow us to relax into the fact that Christ has done all of this wonderful, amazing work for us, and we get to participate in that here and now by responding to it and living our lives in a way that conforms to him and his priestly status as little priests ourselves, right?

So, I would hope, because there are so many anxious Christians, I think, running around thinking that we have to get things right all the time. Am I having enough faith? Am I doing enough good, right? This plagues so many people, I think.

Anthony: Especially as you think back to the conversation we were having on your book to the first three chapters of Romans, that can be anxiety producing. Oh, yikes!

“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” How many times have we had that quoted to us? And it’s true, but we need to know the rest of the story, right? Is that what you’re speaking of?

Jon: Totally. That’s totally right. And I hope that this gives — and liberation is something that I’m really keen on as well, not just participation, but being liberated to make mistakes. We’re going to screw things up sometimes and that’s okay. God isn’t going to retract himself from us. God isn’t going to abandon us.

Anthony: You know my backstory, huh? We all have the backstory of that, of messing it up.

Jon: Yeah, but you’re right. Reading certain passages in a certain way, especially something in Romans 1 to 3, is going to push us toward anxiety. The text kind of encourages that on its face, right?

We’ve sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We’ve made mistakes. We’re under the judgment of God. God’s wrath is on us, right? Of course, we’re going to feel guilty and horrible about that.

But what I think this account of Jesus’ high priestly status does for us is to say, you’re okay. You’re okay. You’re going to mess up. There is going to be accountability when we screw things up, right? But that’s a very different thing than thinking that, for example if you’re a child, your parent is going to abandon you. If you disobey them, your parent is just going to kick you out of the house forever.

With this account of the priestly status of Jesus as the one doing the stuff on our behalf is to say you’re in this close, intimate relationship with this person that’s been established from before all ages for you. That should give us the freedom, the liberty, right? The safety to be people who can mess up sometimes and go back to God with repentance and know for sure that God is not going to give up on you.

Anthony: Yeah. Ah, that’s well said. And it reminds me when I go to my Father and confess my sins, I’m not seeking a new forgiveness, but reconnecting to the forgiveness I’ve always had in Christ. It’s a returning and a remembering into the life, the divine life of the Trinity.

That’s so powerful because — you again mentioned the Torrances. JB would always talk about. We can’t throw people back on themselves. And that’s what a contractual style of relationship with God does because, oh what have you done for me lately and how have you messed things up today. And just knowing that we will not be abandoned.

I really appreciated what you said. Your parents don’t throw you out and they’re not better parents than God, the Father.

Jon: Yeah. Which I think sometimes that’s how some of our theology works is that actually our families are turned out to be better than God. And we don’t want to do that. We don’t want to commit to that kind of theology. But yes, I think that (as Paul would say) God’s loving kindness is what leads us to repentance.

Anthony: Yes.

Jon: It’s not anything else.

Anthony: Amen. Hallelujah.

The text informs us that when Christ appears a second time, he won’t be dealing with sin. That’s good news, right? What’s going on?

Jon: Yeah, I think what the author of Hebrews is getting at here is that in Jesus’s second coming, it’s not going to be to deal with sin anymore because Christ’s sacrifice is something that’s universally sufficient once for all. I think that’s the key point that the author’s trying to drive home there.

So, what’s being emphasized with the second coming is that because what Christ has done is sufficient once for all, when he arrives again, it’s just going to be to bring this sort of heavenly sancta, this heavenly sanctuary type thing, to us who are still alive, namely those who are eagerly awaiting his return.

So, there’s nothing more that sort of needs to be added on to what Christ has already done. So, I think that’s the distinction here. The reason why Christ isn’t coming back to deal with sin anymore for the author of Hebrews is because that’s already been dealt with. We don’t need to worry about that.

That’s dealt with. What needs to be done for the author is Christ bringing this. “heavenly cleanse sancta” to people awaiting.

Anthony: Yeah, that seems to be an ongoing theme in Hebrews, the sufficiency and supremacy of Christ. There’s nothing to add on. There’s nothing you can bring to God’s table to make it better.

It’s good and it’s done. And let’s respond and liberate and as we join him in what he’s doing, in the activity.

Jon: That’s exactly right. I think that once we’ve removed kind of your contractual theology (which I like that way of talking about this negative kind of gospel), once we’re freed from that way of viewing things, these texts become much more clear and they become much more powerful for us, right?

Because now what it says is that Christ has done something for you once and for all. You don’t have to contract into this in order for God to love you in Christ, right? That’s already established. Once we removed all the damaging sort of trappings of a contractual, conditional gospel, we’re able to be confronted with this wonderful inclusive, liberative gospel that’s been there all along, but we’ve just kind of missed it a lot of the time.

Anthony: And therefore, we end up, we don’t have to respond. We want to, it’s just like when you love somebody, you want to lean into that relationship.

Jon: Yeah, that’s right.

Anthony: But trusting that — like even repentance (which you mentioned earlier), if it were dependent on my repentance, Jon, it’s puny, it’s anemic. But Jesus’ repentance on my behalf and for me as the man, the forerunner, the vicarious man, he’s done it, and his efforts are enough. And so therefore I do want to repent. I want to say, Hey, ah I want to change my mind on that.

Jon: That’s right. And it’s such a different logic than this idea that we need to be threatened with something in order to behave well. If there’s not some sort of impending doom that we’re facing, then we can’t want to be involved with God.

No, we want to be involved with God because he is the bringer of life and brings us into this reality that’s all around us. And when we respond to that it’s because we really want to. This is what we’ve been created for, as people, is to be responding to Christ and involved in, as you had said, adopted into this loving family.

Anthony: Yeah. Wow. Gospel’s good, friends! It turns out it

Jon: It turns out it is good news. Yes.

Anthony: Yes, It is good news. Yes. Full stop. Full stop.