It’s Taken Care Of…

Hebrews 9:24-28

So there’s an important responsibility in your life and you are dependent upon someone else for handling part of it and in the course of a conversation, this person says to you, “Don’t worry about it. It’s taken care of.” Has anyone ever been burned by placing trust in these words? Someone at work fails to do their part and now they’re in trouble…but you are too. Your spouse assures you they’ll purchase a gift for that family member who never forgets anything and now it’s the day of the family gathering and someone forgot to buy a gift. You’ve reminded and reminded your teenager that the deadline for their science project is looming. Each time you hear, “Stop harping! It’s taken care of!” but the night before the project is due, someone still has a long ways to go on it and you’re up half the night.

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day and those of you who have served in the military understand much better than the rest of us that when someone is counted on to “take care of it”…no matter whether it’s securing a position, defending a bridge, or advancing on a position that people’s lives are at stake if it’s not taken care of. We use and hear these words all the time, “Don’t worry! It’s taken care of!” and we soon learn who is credible when they say this to us and who are those people for whom back-up plans must be created.

Do you ever create a back-up plan with God? Be honest with yourself…and with God…for a moment. Have you ever prayed to God for something…and then, just as a safeguard, continually reminded God over and over again? I know it says we should pray without ceasing[1] and Jarius begged Jesus repeatedly for the life of his daughter[2] but do we ever continually go back to God just as a “reminder”? I’ve done this before. Sometimes I’m fully aware of what I’m doing and sometimes I’m doing it as a habit.

Do you ever repeatedly ask God to forgive you for a sin despite the words in 1^st John 1:9 that promise, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”? I can think of a number of times when I’ve committed what I consider a real whopper of a sin and I seem to continually go back to God seeking forgiveness just in case forgiveness didn’t stick the first time. The message of Scripture is that God says, “It’s taken care of” yet many of us live as if we’re afraid we’re going to get burned.

Every time I read the book of Hebrews, I get the impression that the first readers of this sermon wanted to believe Jesus had atoned for their sin, but they had their doubts…at least in their hearts. One scholar puts it this way: “The readers of Hebrews have a real and distressing problem of conscience. They need to feel that they are forgiven.”[3] Hebrews doesn’t seek to intellectually convince someone that Jesus’ work on the cross takes care of sin. Hebrews is like a sermon that goes for the person’s heart. The goal is not to explain what Jesus did for us, but to enact it in our lives.[4]

Some have suggested that Hebrews was written to people who were losing confidence in the Gospel and were contemplating a return to Judaism.[5] After all, Hebrews is filled with imagery and contrasts between Christianity and the Jewish faith. But it seems more likely to me that Hebrews was written to a congregation that grew weary of the Christian life and the demands of being a disciple. These people had been practicing their faith for some time now and the repetition seems to be dragging them down. They knew the drill, but the drill wasn’t passionate anymore. They seem to just drift along.[6]

The section of Hebrews we’re looking at today is about the most powerful act in the Christian faith – the atonement. Now, don’t say, “ho, hum…the atonement.” That’s what the first readers of Hebrews were saying. The atonement is the occasion when we ask, “Hey Jesus, what about our sin?” and Jesus responds, “It’s taken care of.” Do you believe that? Hebrews wants us to hear…and live…as if the atonement for our sins has been enacted in our lives.

One of the powerful images of Jesus in Hebrews is of him as our high priest. The Jewish high priest would repeatedly offer blood sacrifices for the sins of the people. The problem was that the cycle of sacrifices was never complete. No one could ever really say, “It’s been taken care of” regarding sin because the sacrifices were not fully adequate. This section of Hebrews says, “…he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.”[7] This is not intended as a knock on Judaism. Rather, as Tom Long writes, “the contrast is between two forms of Christianity: the kind practiced at Mt. Sinai Church and that practiced at Mt. Zion Church.”[8] Let me explain.

At Mt. Sinai Church, the members get into the sanctuary but not into the Holy of Holies. They come to church but don’t ever encounter the presence of the living God. Oh, they have building programs, committee assignments, sermons, and singing. They pray and are told that they are the light of the world but they don’t get God. They’re not even sure they want God, in fact. They fear that God – the real God – would judge them severely and when they read in the Gospels that Jesus says, “It’s taken care of,” they have suspicions that they’re not covered. In short, those at Mt. Sinai Church have their membership letters. They put their offerings in the collection plate. They hear they’re forgiven but they don’t really believe it. It’s no wonder they’re tired. It makes me tired just speaking these words. Do you want to be a part of Mt. Sinai Church? Is that us?

If that’s us, Hebrews wants us to hear about the Church we can be – Mt. Zion Church. At this church, Jesus calls us brother and sister and is not ashamed of us.[9] The offerings given are not just questions of how much should we give so God won’t be mad of us. Rather, Jesus jumps into the offering plate and invites us to join him. And you know what, the offering is complete, sufficient, and once and for all. When people come into the presence of God at Mt. Zion Church, they come in boldly, and with confidence.[10] Jesus, at Mt. Zion Church, is more like one who’s throwing a party than leading a funeral dirge. And he repeatedly is calling out, “I’m home, and I’ve brought the rest of the children with me!”[11]

Those at Mt. Zion Church have membership letters, but most of them have lost them at the party celebrating the fact that when Jesus says, “It’s taken care of,” it’s taken care of!

I wonder which Church you’d rather be part of: Mt. Sinai or Mt. Zion? It’s time for each of us to live as if the atonement has been enacted in our lives. Jesus has moved on from the atonement to celebration. He’s not going to keep dying for us so why should keep asking him to.

The invitation has two parts to it today.

First, some of us today may never have put your sin in the hands of Jesus. You’ve never asked him to “take care of it.” If you’ve never done that, then unhook the plow today and let his forgiveness lighten your load. He’ll do it today. Done deal.

Second, some of us are living like we’re at Mt. Sinai Church instead of Mt. Zion Church. If that’s you, then it’s time to move your church membership! Let’s make sure Cane Creek is not a church that cowers in the corner in the presence of God but is a church is “eagerly waiting for him” as the end of our passage says.[12]

Amen.

[3] Barnabas Lindars, The Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 14.

[4] Thomas Long, “Bold in the Presence of God,” Interpretation, Volume 52, Number 1, p. 55.

[5] Barnabas Lindars, The Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 4-6, 8-15.

[6] Hebrews 2:1 says, “Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it” (NRSV).

[8] Thomas Long, “Bold in the Presence of God,” Interpretation, Volume 52, Number 1, pp. 67-68.