Atonement

Atonement.  The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the highest holy day in the Jewish calendar, is today. Linked with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur concludes a 10-day festival with a mandatory fast where the observers confess and repent of sin and make amends for the new year. The word atonement basically means covering, as in appeasement.

Historically, the Day of Atonement involved many prayers and a multi-faceted sacrifice (Lev. 16) which the high priest brought into the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum of the tabernacle/temple. Only he, and only on this day each year, would the high priest make atonement, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. After covering his own sin by sacrificing a bull, the high priest was allowed to present a covering for the sins of the people by sacrificing a pair of goats. One goat would be chased away from the people into the wilderness, traditionally over a cliff, depicting the removal of sin (expiation). The other goat would be killed, depicting the payment of sin (propitiation). Its blood would be carried into the Holy of Holies and splattered upon the golden lid of the Ark of the Covenant inside of which were the Ten Commandments. Thus, a visceral yet temporary covering existed between the Law’s broken requirements and the thrice-holy God. The blood thinly negotiated a bonus year of delayed judgment (forbearance) bought with the substitute’s sacrifice. This was no guarantee of pardon but merely a stay of execution.

In 70 a.d., when the (second) temple was razed to the ground by the Roman General Titus, later known as Caesar Vespasian, the celebration and interpretation of Yom Kippur changed drastically. Without a temple, Yom Kippur came to occupy a purely symbolic role in Judaism. Contrition (Lev. 16:29; Num. 29:7) became the acceptable bloodless sacrifice for Yom Kippur instead of the blood of bulls and goats (Heb. 9:13; 10:4) despite the instruction that “without blood there can be no remission of sins” (Heb. 9:22, referencing Lev. 17:11).

But the main takeaway of today’s contemplation of Yom Kippur is not its history, or even its interpretation, but its impermanence. Modern adherents of Yom Kippur explain: “At the end of Yom Kippur, one hopes that they have been forgiven by God” (https://harfordjewishcenter.org/yom-kippur/). However, the forgiveness of sins is far too weighty a matter to exist within a maybe or hang upon a wish. Speaking from the sacrificial system’s impermanence and upon Yom Kippur’s temporary nature, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews leaves no doubt whatsoever upon the identity and the efficacy of Jesus, who is both the perfect sacrifice and the prefect Great High Priest who sheds his own blood for the sins of the whole world. The concept of maybe has been banished at the cross. The prospect of wishing has been displaced by faith in Christ. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh … let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:19-22).