The Feasts of God: The Day of Atonement

Today's passage deals with the meaning of the Day of Atonement, the most solemn feast in Judaism, and the complex sacrificial procedure the high priest carried out on it. The passage explains in detail how the high priest, before entering the Most Holy Place on behalf of the people's sins, changed into clean linen garments, washed his hands and feet, and first confessed his own sins and those of his family. And through the ritual of sending into the wilderness the goat onto which the sins had been placed, it vividly conveys how tense and reverent the people were as they stood before God at that time.

The sermon points out that these Old Testament sacrificial rituals were not mere religious acts but a shadow showing in advance the once-for-all atonement of Jesus Christ. Just as the high priest, allowed not a single mistake, rehearsed again and again, God stresses how weighty a matter it is to receive forgiveness of sins. But while the animal sacrifices people offered only put sin on hold and could not remove it completely, it proclaims that Jesus Christ accomplished eternal atonement once for all by his own blood. So it points out that believers must believe in Jesus' love on the cross and live holy lives every day, as if washing their hands and feet.

We look back on whether we merely know as a fact that Jesus Christ died for us, while living without gratitude and awe for it. Through prayer of repentance today, we should examine whether we are using God, or truly striving to live the life of a believer.