[0410E] Epistle for Holy Monday

Hebrews 9:11-15

When Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God! For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant.

This is the Epistle for Holy Monday.  In this reading, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, traditionally unknown (though at some point well beyond the early Church some attributed this to the apostle Paul although this epistle does not mirror at all his writing style), points to Christ Jesus, Son of God, as the perfect priest who makes the perfect sacrifice that is good for all time and never needs to be repeated again.  With this sacrifice a new covenant is made between God and God’s people.  It is under this covenant that we who are the Church of Jesus Christ live now in this world and shall live in the world to come, where the redeemed of Christ live in that place where there is no more sin, nor death, nor separation from God and from one another.

The Rev’d Father Timothy Alleman, Rector

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