The new and living way
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
We bless you from the house of the Lord. Psalm 118:26
Read Hebrews 10:19—23
Sometimes when I come to pray there seems to be a curtain between me and God. I love this phrase, ‘new and living way’, but I can still feel a bit old and dead. Then I can try to manufacture some new way to be alive to God. If I go hunting in the spiritual market place it can all get a bit quirky. Tonight’s reading assures me that I already have it, without my doing it, without my having to invent some new spirituality of my own. (Not that I want to scotch all I can learn from sound spiritual practice.) The point I can take from this reading lies in the fact that Jesus assumed an immense cost for me. I can picture the Jewish high priest going through the curtain into the holy place on the Day of Atonement. He had to wear the sacred clothing or he would die in face of the fierce holiness.[1] Now Jesus is called our high priest. But when he went to the cross he was not wearing the high priest’s clothing. Instead he was wearing my sin. And, clothed in that, he did die. It was then, at the death of the one and only great high priest, that the curtain, the separation from God’s living presence, was torn apart.[2]
Prayer
Dear Father, I declare tonight that for me Jesus is the new and living way. He leads me direct to you. To who you are. To your presence, your company, your consuming love; your forgiveness, which liberates me, leaving me with nothing to prove to anyone. You call me your beloved. You delight in me. I could go on with the list, for there is more, still more that Jesus has won for me. It is all living! He has brought me to you free and gratis. I need not even remember my unworthiness, except to keep me humble and thankful. In the dear and only name, Jesus.
[1] Exodus 28:35
[2] Mark 15:38