Old Testament and New Testament Sacrifices
5th Sunday of Great Lent
Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 10:32-45
In the ancient temple, people sacrificed animals for their sins: calves, lambs, goats... They were killed and slaughtered in accordance with a certain ritual, and their blood was sprinkled on the altar of the covenant. Even when Christ was on earth, such blood sacrifices were offered in the Jerusalem temple.
These rites of sacrifice, which were used to purify from sins, were performed by priests, and high priests. We also know from the Gospel story that the Jewish chief priests were the ones who most sought to condemn Jesus to death by crucifixion on the cross. Even when Pilate wanted to release one convicted person, Jesus, according to custom, as the Gospel testifies:
"the chief priests and elders persuaded the people to ask for Barabbas, and to put Jesus to death." (Matthew 27:20)
And it was the chief priests and their servants who shouted the most:
"Crucify, crucify!"
By these active acts of blasphemy, these chief priests made themselves unworthy of their office and unworthy to offer sacrifices for the sins of men. But at the moment when Jesus Christ died on the cross, "He gave up his spirit... And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from the top to the bottom..." (Matthew 27:51), at that moment the power of the Old Testament ended and all Old Testament blood sacrifices became unnecessary.
At the moment of Jesus Christ's death on the cross, the purification actions of sprinkling animal blood were made ineffectual, for Jesus Christ washed away the sins of those who would believe in Him as the Son of God with His own blood. The fulfillment of the rituals established through Moses no longer had any saving value. Spiritually, the Old Testament temple was destroyed at the same time, and the very structure of that Jewish temple stood for about 30 years, until it was destroyed by the Romans under the leadership of Emperor Titus in 70 A.D. All that remained were ruins; one wall survived, which the Jews call the "wailing wall" and pray at. It should be noted that the Romans--when they subdued the Jews in 70, destroying their capital, and at the same time their temple--probably had only a military and political goal of subjugating the Jews and punishing them for trying to free themselves from the power of the mighty Roman Empire.
But whether the Romans wished it or not, they also brought about God's punishment for the humiliation and crucifixion of the Son of God. The punishment for the hypocrisy, blasphemy, and theology of the Jewish chief priests and the Jewish leaders in general and those who supported them was fulfilled. The curse of the Jews was fulfilled:
"His blood is on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27:25).
The temple was destroyed and, as already mentioned, the performance of blood sacrifices ceased. The very performance of rituals, without confessing the truth of faith in God, turned into sacrilege, and therefore God gave Jerusalem, the city where this sacrilege was performed under the leadership of the Jewish high priests, to be destroyed by the pagans, the Romans. This is how we understand the matter when we study and reflect on the events of the Gospel and the development of historical events in general after the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross.
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ took place on Friday, and the day before, on Thursday, Christ made a bloodless sacrifice in the form of bread and wine, which He commanded His disciples and followers to do "in remembrance" of Him. (Luke 22:19) The Apostle Paul testifies that the Lord commanded that the Sacrament of Communion (Eucharist) be celebrated in the form of bread and wine "until He comes" (1 Corinthians 11:26); that is, until He comes to earth for the second time.
The same apostle, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, explains and makes us understand that
"the blood of Christ, who offered Himself undefiled to God by the Holy Spirit, will cleanse our conscience from dead works, so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:14).
From this it should be clear to us that we are forgiven our sins and transgressions in the New Testament through the worthiness of Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world. The priests of the Church of Christ forgive sins in the name of Christ, with the grace of God.
God does not love our acts of sinfulness, but He loves us sinners as His children (Romans 8:16) and therefore has mercy on us, forgives us our sins when we repent; but we must show faith in His Son as our Saviour. Out of His love for us, the Lord instituted the Sacraments of Penance and Communion so that we might find forgiveness and union with Him.
Without a deep and sincere faith and love for Christ as our Saviour, without comprehending His work of salvation - sacrificing Himself on the cross - no amount of ritual performance will help us.
We may be struck by the fact that, on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus Christ told his twelve closest disciples that
" the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again." (Mark 10:33-34)
All of this, as we know, happened exactly in this way. Why, then, was Christ in such a hurry to go to Jerusalem - to suffer, be mocked, and die? As it is written in the Gospel:
"But Jesus was going ahead of them..."; so that the disciples could not keep up with Him. (Mark 10:32)
God, Jesus Christ, did not create this difficult situation, did not fuel the evil intentions of people, but Jesus Christ is a soul-searcher. He, as God, knew about all human intentions, and He knew about the evil intention of betrayal that was nestled in Judas, as He revealed at the Last Supper.
Jesus knew that all that neglect, suffering, and horrible death on the cross was going to happen. He wanted "that cup to pass from him," but he also wanted to do the will of the Father, to do the will of His Father in heaven. (Matthew 26:39) The will of God was that all the evil intentions and deeds of men should be revealed. For even though Jesus foreknew those evil intentions, about the unrighteous judgment that awaited Him in Jerusalem, yet He hastened to encounter and fulfill all that was inevitable.
Jesus hastened to accept all the contempt and all the terrible suffering, the death of the cross, because only through that hard road of suffering could people be saved, only by dying on the cross could people's sins be taken away, could people be freed from the slavery of sin.
The Lord Jesus Christ was also aware that the resurrection could be realized through death, on the cross. He knew that this would happen on the third day. He spoke about it many times, and He wanted that day of resurrection, the day of the victory of life over death, the victory of truth over falsehood, to come as soon as possible.
That is why Jesus Christ hurried so to go to Jerusalem to fulfill His divine mission of salvation.
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
