So, I was headed to my dentist apt. Usually, my journey has me exit off the freeway to the right (along with another lane). My lane then swings up and to the left on a flyover ramp, over top of the freeway I was just on, to join in with another major road.
I have always found it to be rather fun to go flying up and across this huge flyover ramp.
This time, however, the traffic pattern had changed!
The flyover had been removed!
I reached the point where my lane exits. Great! I went tootling down the exit lane. But then … wait a minute! I’ve never gone down this road before! Did I miss a turn or something! This is all different!
This road is taking me somewhere I’ve never been before! (yes … because they’ve been doing construction and this is a brand-new lane)
Wait a minute! The lanes are all different than they used to be! Used to it was just me flying off to the left … and the other lane flying off to the right. There’s all these new lanes now! (as you can tell, I’m having a mini freak-out session!)
Eeeekkk! I thought I was in the correct lane, but I wasn’t! There’s three lanes now that go flying off to the right! And my lane is just one tiny lane coming to a stop at a brand-new traffic light.
This is all so new!
This new-ness is so stressful!
I can’t help but think this is the way the Jewish people felt after Jesus had risen from the dead. Everything about how to worship God changed! No longer were sacrifices needed at the Temple anymore. Jesus had paid the once-for-all sacrifice for the payment of sin. The only requirement for the forgiveness of sin was to believe in Jesus Christ … that was it.
No more lambs brought to be sacrificed every year.
No more bulls, or rams, or doves.
The veil in the Temple – separating the Holy of Holies (the very presence of God) from humanity – had been ripped in two from top to bottom when Jesus had died!
Jesus’s sacrificial death had torn open the barrier separating God and man.
Jesus had been the ultimate high priest, entering the Holy of Holies in Heaven to pay the once-and-for-all sacrifice for sin. There is no longer any need for a high priest to mediate between God and mankind. Jesus has become our mediator. Jesus has given us free access to come into God’s presence whenever we want.
“Oh this is all so new!” the Jewish people thought. “I don’t know about this!”
“Worship has never been done this way before!”
It was very very hard for the Jewish people to accept the “new traffic pattern” (in regards to worship) … just like I was taken off guard by the new traffic pattern on my way to the dentist office.
The Jewish people didn’t like the “new traffic pattern.” They had rejected and murdered Jesus Christ.
And they now rejected the message that forgiveness of sin is through Jesus Christ, and not the sacrificial system they had followed for hundreds of years.
The Jewish people persecuted those who believed in Jesus Christ. They stoned and murdered those who preached Jesus Christ.
And just like the freeway flyover I once drove to go to the dentist is now completely gone … dismantled and removed by construction crews … so also, God did the same thing to the Temple! In AD 70 the Romans, under the command of Titus, sacked Jerusalem and burned the Temple! Completely gone! Dismantled and destroyed!
No longer could the Jewish people continue in the “old traffic pattern” of the way they used to worship.
A “new traffic pattern” is here!
A new roadway has been built!
And this new “roadway” is Jesus Christ!
“It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. … Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
“But when this priest [Jesus Christ] had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” – Hebrews 10:4, 11-12
“Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God [Jesus Christ], let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” – Hebrews 10:19-22
