By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. – Hebrews 8:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 7, 2018): Hebrews 8

“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; there is no need for a complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” There is much in the wisdom of the Dalai Lama to which I seem to agree, including this comment on the need for a Temple. In my faith, God has placed his Temple at the center of my being. It is there that he works and it is there that he reminds me of my responsibilities to this world. And if I could successfully live out God’s philosophy of kindness in my life, I am convinced that that would be enough. I am not a big believer in feelings of guilt. To me, guilt seems to be filled with too much wasted energy. I do feel guilt, but the guilt that convicts me is when I seem unable to live out this philosophy of kindness and love. It is then that God once more reminds me of my commitments to him and my relationship with the world around me.

Having said all of that, I am also intrigued by the Jewish preparations for a new Temple. In spite of the fact that Jewish prayer is currently outlawed on Temple Mount, some Jewish religious leaders seem to be ready to rebuild the Temple of Jerusalem if the opportunity ever presents itself. I have even openly argued, admittedly as a Gentile, that I am not sure why these Jewish believers do not rebuild the tabernacle which was meant to provide a place for the priestly duties of the Temple, but which also existed on several spaces in history other than Temple Mount. Surely there is a piece of land that could be made available for the Tabernacle where the sacrifices of Judaism could continue until the time when it might be possible to rebuild the Temple on Mount Zion. But I am not a Jew, and so I am sure that there are subtleties that I am missing.

In my writing, I try to not use the words ‘old’ and ‘new’ when referring to the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) and the Christian Testament. Part of the rationale is that I do not want to dismiss the validity of anyone’s faith. I truly believe that Judaism and Christianity are siblings and I look forward to the day when we might be reunited, but sometimes the text requires the use of old and new. And this is such a text.

The author of Hebrews argues that in calling the Christian covenant “new,” we are indicating that the first covenant is “obsolete” (which sounds even worse than “old’). But there is an element of truth in the argument. The new covenant under Jesus has replaced the first one under Moses. Under Moses, there was a frequent need for sacrifice, which has now been replaced by Jesus’s “once for all” sacrifice on our behalf. But maybe the more compelling evidence for this is that Judaism has existed without a temple for almost two thousand years. No sacrifices have been offered for sin because there has been no mechanism in place to offer those sacrifices. Some Jews believe that the day is coming when sacrifices will once again resume in a new Temple, but for now, the word of the Letter to the Hebrews weighs heavily on us. There is no sacrifice for sin, and so the first covenant exists at best in an incomplete state, and at worst has become obsolete, just as the author of Hebrews predicted.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hebrews 9