The Gospels have at times been referenced as four different witnesses. Just as witnesses to an automobile accident might remember different things, the Gospels all have a slightly different emphasis on the person and work of Jesus the Messiah. And we take all four of them together to get a true and well-rounded image of who Jesus is.
The first three Gospels all have largely a similar view of the events in Jesus’ life, following the events roughly sequentially, and emphasizing various points to reach their target audience. But John’s Gospel puts more of the emphasis on who Christ is in the eternal order of things, and so John’s Gospel moves stories around and places them where they might have the most effect. Sometimes, he even leaves out things mentioned in the other Gospels, because for John, the important thing for people to understand is that Jesus is part of the Godhead, one with God, more than a mere man.
Two of the things that we find to be different in John’s Gospel is that in the other three, the narrative moves toward the crucifixion, and in the process, the disciples eat a Passover meal with Jesus on the night before his death. But in John’s Gospel, the meal on the Thursday night before his death on the cross was merely a preparation meal, so that the Passover fell on the day that Christ died.
The second thing that is different in the Gospel of John is that in all the other Gospels, when Jesus dies on the cross, the temple veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two.
The Gospel of John makes many references to Jesus as the Lamb of God. All these references about Jesus being the Lamb of God then coincide with John’s movement of the crucifixion to the day of Passover, rather than the day before. Because, just as the passover lamb was to be pure and spotless, without any damage, so too, Jesus, the Lamb of God was sacrificed on the cross to restore us to a right relationship with God. The fact that the other two men on the cross had their bones broken, but Jesus did not, further emphasizes the point that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb, the one who, as the Isaiah passage says “has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases” (v. 4), and “upon him was the punishment that made us whole” (v. 5).
John refers to Jesus as the Passover Lamb, and in John’s Gospel, Jesus died on the Passover. The Passover Lamb refers to the event in Israel’s history where Moses seeks to gain the release of the captive people of Israel from Pharaoh’s control, but Pharaoh refuses. So God kills all the first-born male children of the Egyptians, and any Israelites who failed to take the blood of an unblemished lamb and paint it on their doorposts. Those who did put the blood on their doorposts were spared the wrath of God, and the death of their children.
In the Old Testament, a lamb was often used as a sacrifice for atonement, the forgiveness of sins, and the person who had to perform that sacrifice was the High Priest.
The scripture from the letter to the Hebrews pulls these concepts together. Christ has become the great high priest, who offers a sacrifice once and for all. But – not only is Christ the great High Priest who does the sacrificing he is also the sacrifice himself. This is why John wanted to make sure to help us to see the merging of Passover and the forgiveness of sins with the enduring work of Jesus’ death on the cross. This imagery was picked up by the author of the letter to the Hebrews: “since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:21-22).
As the name of the letter suggests, this epistle was written to Jewish people, and they would have made the connections easily, and understood the symbolism represented in this letter. For us, it takes a bit more work.
When Jesus read from the scripture in the synagogue, very early in his ministry, he read from Isaiah chapter 61: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
For people who had historically been required to pay for a lamb, or offer up a lamb from their own supply to the priesthood for slaughter – for those who were poor, and could not afford the lamb as a sacrifice for their sins – this would have been an amazing proclamation of grace and an amazing declaration of freedom in the face of condemnation. Because if they were not able to perform the ritual sacrifices they would be relegated to the same levels as the outcasts and the sinners – even if they wanted to follow all the purity laws, and just weren’t able to.
If our scriptures ended there, that alone might be an amazing understanding of what Christ has done for us. Whether rich or poor we all have access to the saving grace of God.
But there’s more.
According to Jewish tradition, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies once a year, on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest wore clothes specified by God – linen clothing, linen underwear, and a turban. Bells were placed on the hem of his robes so that they could hear him moving around. The Holy of Holies represented the place where God resided, and was blocked off from the rest of the temple by a veil; it was the sanctuary of God’s presence.
Because of this, for fear that a High Priest might not survive standing in the presence of God, a rope was tied around the ankle of the High priest, so that if he died while performing his duties, they could pull his body out of the sanctuary without having to enter in themselves. This was how sacred that space was, and how much people feared the presence of God.
The other three Gospels tell the story of how the temple veil separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn apart at Jesus’ death. The temple veil, the curtain that separated the rest of the temple from the Holy of Holies. The curtain that separated the very presence of God from all but the High Priest.
That curtain. That curtain was ripped in half at the death of Christ.
And our letter to the Hebrews gives us an understanding of what that means to us. We now “have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain” (v. 20).
Imagine that! Not only did people receive the message that they could receive forgiveness of sins as a free gift through the eternal and enduring sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and that they would no longer have to offer up sacrifices for the forgiveness of their sins, but now they are told that they themselves could now enter into the Holy of Holies, into the very sanctuary of God, and stand in God’s presence through the work of Jesus.
For a people who have always looked to the High Priest to offer sacrifices on their behalf, which they would have to pay for, no less, understanding that Christ has become the high priest, that Christ has also become the sacrifice, and that Christ tore the veil from top to bottom so that you too might stand in the very presence of God! would be Good News indeed.
What the work of Christ had done is open up for us a direct line of communication to God, that we might stand in the presence of the Almighty, with confidence, protected by the blood of the lamb that was slain, by a high priest who has offered that sacrifice once and for all, in perpetuity.
Christ took on the sin of the world, from its beginning to its end, and “became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (1 Cor. 5:21).
Imagine for a moment, the weight of that sin.
Imagine for a moment, the depth of despair at holding the sin of the world.
Imagine for a moment, the agony Christ must have endured, feeling the distortion of all humanity’s relationship with God because of all we have done, are doing, and will do.
Christ died, so that all people might be restored to a right relationship with God, regardless of their social standing or wealth.
Christ died, so that we might all have the freedom to access that gift at any moment, and do not need to find an intermediary.
Christ died, so that we might stand in the very presence of a Loving God, and do so with the confidence that Christ’s blood has restored us to that good and perfect relationship with God.
And if that were the end of the story, then that alone might be an amazing understanding of what Christ has done for us.
But the story continues – only days from now – with even more exciting news.
For now, though, we focus on the death of Christ on the cross
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you,
Because by your holy cross, you have redeemed the world.