Preview of John 18

So far, in our journey through the tabernacle, there is only one place we have not been, a place so holy that only the High Priest could enter it, and only once a year, bringing sacrificial blood for his own sins and the sins of the people. This is the Holy of Holies, a room behind the veil that separated it from the Holy Place, in which was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat, covered with solid gold. This is where God’s glory and presence specifically dwelt, in the days before the Temple, and, as the furniture in the room suggests, it was only because of divine mercy that the Holy God could even dwell among His people; and furthermore, it was only because of the divine covenant that He had made with them.

The one time a year that the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies was the Day of Atonement; and, if the Holy of Holies was the very pinnacle of the Tabernacle arrangement, so the Day of Atonement was the pinnacle of the Jewish year, and the highest expression of the symbolic intent of the Mosaic sacrificial system. Our most detailed description of the Day of Atonement comes from Leviticus 16. There, we read that this was a day of solemn holiness, when all the people would afflict themselves in sorrow for their sins. But the affliction would soon turn to joy: for in that day, God would forgive their sins, on the basis of sacrificial blood. The most telling ceremony of the day was the sacrifice of the two goats. The High Priest would lay his hands upon the head of one goat, and confess all the sins of the people upon it; then, he would kill the other goat, and send the first goat away into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Finally, he would take blood from the goat (after taking blood from a sacrificed bull, for his own sins), and place it upon the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies, together with incense from the altar of incense.

The events of this day were perhaps the clearest picture we have of Christ’s sacrifice anywhere in the Old Testament. Just as the one goat was killed, so Christ shed His blood for the sins of His people. Just as the other goat had the people’s sins placed upon it and was driven away to the wilderness, so Christ took our sins upon Him, and carried them far away. Just as the blood of the sacrifices and the incense covered the Mercy Seat of God’s presence, so that the priest did not die, so Christ’s blood and high-priestly plea for us cover God’s righteous anger against our sins, so that we might enter His presence without falling under His wrath. And finally, just as this sacrifice was only for those who afflicted themselves because of their sins, so Christ’s self-sacrifice is only for those who are afflicted over their sin, and repentant. In today’s lesson, we have the staggering privilege of observing, not just the typical Day of Atonement, but its true fulfillment, when Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, shed His own blood, took it behind the veil into God’s very presence, satisfied God’s just wrath against our sins, and permanently tore down the veil, having secured an eternal way into the very presence of God, even for the most sinful of men!

If we merely say that the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the central event and purpose of John’s gospel, we are vastly minimizing its importance. The very reason that God created the world in the first place; the reason for the formation of man, God’s image-bearer; the reason for man’s fall; the reason for all of history; the only reason you and I even exist and will forever, either in the eternal joy of God’s presence or the eternal torment of God’s holy wrath – the reason for all created things throughout all of time is nothing other than this event, the perfect and inexhaustible self-display of the character of God in Jesus Christ, the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The only eternal joy we have is the true knowledge of God; and the only place where we can see God so clearly that all of eternity will only reveal new wonders is the cross of Calvary. Let us feast our eyes upon this place, as long as God leaves us in this fallen world! What is your trouble? I can promise you that the answer resides on Mount Calvary, where Jesus shed His precious blood.