Love (Hebrews 10:5-10)

At this time of year, a lot of people are invited to meals or Christmas celebrations with families or friends. We can often bring something to eat or drink to share with others when we get together. For example, we might like to bring a platter of the Barossa’s best meats and cheeses, a delicious dessert, a bottle of fine wine, or maybe a box of chocolates. If you were going to an occasion like this, would you share what you had brought with the other guests? Would you risk giving it all away for the others to enjoy and missing out on it yourself? Or would you prefer to keep it to yourself, or share only a small part with others?

How much would you offer – a small portion of what you had, or would you give it all away?

The Letter to the Hebrews can be a difficult book of the Bible for modern Christians to understand. It was written to Jewish Christians who were familiar with the forms of worship commanded in the Books of Moses where animals were regularly sacrificed in the Temple at Jerusalem. Hebrews uses the Jewish sacrificial worship which had been performed since the time of Moses, about 1400 years before the birth of Jesus, to point readers to Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice for us, to take away our sin and bring us into a new relationship with God as a community of his holy priests in the world.

The books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy detail all the offerings the Old Testament Jewish people were commanded to offer to God. At the start of Leviticus, we can read that specific sacrifices needed to be made for the people’s sin to make them right with God. Animals were brought to the priests by the guilty person to be killed so the person could be set free from their sin. It would be like bringing something valuable like a food platter of local meats and cheeses, a bottle of expensive wine, or a very fancy dessert, and giving it to someone as a way of showing them how sorry we were for wronging them. The problem with the Old Testament sacrifices, however, was that God’s people had to keep offering them over and over again, and they never actually removed their guilt.

This week’s New Testament reading, Hebrews 10:5-10, contrasts the offerings the Old Testament Jews were commanded to make with the one, ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Because the sacrifices commanded by Moses couldn’t actually take away people’s guilt, they had to be repeated year after year for almost 1500 years until the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire in 70AD. However, when Jesus offered his life for all people on the cross, this sacrifice fulfilled and surpassed all other sacrifices, making more sacrifices unnecessary.

When Jesus turned up to God’s redemptive Christmas party, he didn’t offer just a little portion of his platter or a small sip of wine, but he gave everything. Referring to Psalm 40:6, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews explains that God gave Jesus ‘a body to offer’ (Hebrews 10:5 NLT). Jesus wasn’t going to give a small portion of what he had. He was going to give himself, and all of himself, as an offering to God. Jesus didn’t hold anything back but offered everything to God for the sake of the world. If we think about it as our Christmas party or dinner, Jesus brought everything he had and he gladly gave it all away for the benefit and joy of others. Like a platter of the best local small goods and cheeses, a delicious dessert, a bottle of the finest wine, or even a box of chocolates, Jesus offered all of himself up so that we can share in what he offered and receive the goodness of God through him.

By offering his body as a sacrifice for us, Jesus gives us the gift of holiness. The fancy theological word for this is that he ‘sanctified’ us. This means he made us clean, pure and without fault, just as God is holy, or clean, pure and without fault. When Jesus offered all of himself for us, he washed us clean of everything that is impure, dirty or unacceptable in any way. Being ‘sanctified’ or made holy also means that we are set apart for God and his purposes. When items were ‘sanctified’ in the Old Testament, they were set apart to be God’s possession and used for God’s purposes. God sanctifies us in Jesus and sets us apart to work with him in his mission to make all things new through the good news of Jesus. The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that this is God’s will for us: to make us holy, pure, clean and faultless through Jesus offering his body as a sacrifice once and for all.

Jesus’ sacrifice wasn’t just something he did for us on the cross. Jesus began offering his body for us when he took on a human body in his incarnation. The Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Word of God who was present at creation and through whom all things were created, began offering himself for us when he entered creation as a human infant. Part of the mystery and miracle of Christmas is that God wrapped himself up in a human body so he could offer that body on the cross. Jesus didn’t just give his body for us when he died. He offered all of himself to us when he was born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem.

We encounter the perfect and infinite love of God in Jesus taking on a human body in his birth and offering up that body in his death. Just like a person who gives up everything they might bring to a meal to and for their family and friends without thinking about themselves, Jesus shows his love for us by offering his body to us in his birth and for us on the cross to make us clean and pure, and to set us apart for God’s good purposes in the world. Jesus didn’t become human and go to the cross for his own benefit. He did it all out of love for us. We can see the incredible and extreme love of God for us when he took on a human body just like ours and became human just like us to meet us wherever we might be in life and to bless us with his presence in humility, weakness, and suffering. It was in this love that Jesus went to the cross and sacrificed everything for us once and for all, so we can live our lives as God’s holy and loved children now and forever.

Today we remember and celebrate that in his great love for us, the eternal and almighty Son of God took on the frailty of a human body for us and offered up that body on the cross to make us holy. This Christmas season, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus with family and friends, we might have opportunities to bring a platter, a dessert, a bottle of wine, or a box of chocolates to offer to the meal or celebration. As we offer what we have for the benefit and enjoyment of others, we can remember and give thanks that Jesus offered his body up to and for us, so we can we live as God’s holy and loved children now and for ever.

More to think about or discuss:

• When you are invited to bring something to a meal with family and friends, what would you take? Are you happy offering everything to others? Or do you prefer to have some yourself?
• How might God’s will for you to be holy through the birth & death of Jesus be good news for you? How might that help you grow in your identity as God’s holy and loved child?
• How might you be able to offer yourself to others this Christmas as a way of showing them how Jesus offered himself to us and for us in his birth and death?