November 22 2025 - Hebrews 8-9

The writer of Hebrews just cannot stop writing about priestly matters and Jesus.  And so, I suppose, we should also spend a bit more time with him.  His opening words of chapter 8 inform us that, though he has already written on these things, he has more to say, and he wishes that we clearly understand:  “Now the point in what we are saying is this . . .” (8:1).  It’s almost, “OK, let’s do this one more time.”  What’s the old preaching adage about repetition in preaching?  For people to really consume and get your point, you need to repeat it.  And so our writer does:  “We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (8:1).  He is not like human priests:  “They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things” (8:5).  And so, we begin to understand the real nature of the Old Testament priesthood and sacrifices.  They did not cleanse and give life but they pointed to One who does.  Christ’s ministry is so much more excellent than the previous (8:6)!  “Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (9:24).  He “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (9:26) in order “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (9:28).  Oh, my!

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

O precious is the flow

that makes me white as snow;

no other fount I know;

nothing but the blood of Jesus.   --Robert Lowry (1876)