Celebrated With Joy (Ezra 6:22)

 


Monday, October 21, 2024


Psalms 121; 122; 123

Ezra 6:16-7:10

1 Peter 3:1-7


Celebrated With Joy (Ezra 6:22)


After so much heartbreak, destruction, false starts and misery, we are finally back on track! The temple has been rebuilt; the religious offices have been reinstated; and the festivals are back in the calendar. This land, having completed its divinely ordained seventy years of rest, is back up and running again, with the Law of Moses being carefully studied, the smell of animal blood in the air, and songs and laughter filling the streets.


God has saved his people, once again. God is in the salvation business, and business is booming.


I’m sure, however, that one of these things seems to stick out. The priests are back to leading worship – good. The Levites are back making music (for that is one of their primary tasks) – also good. The joy of the God Who Saves is in the hearts of the people – also also good. But all these animals, being led up to the slaughter, blood spilling everywhere, the stench of animal death in the air – is this good in the same way?


For all the joy of the new temple that we read about here today, the blood of the sacrifice seems to bring us back down to earth. For there is a greater joy still yet to be revealed.


All these animals, all this blood, is one day to be done away with. And this feast of the Passover, of eating a roasted lamb, will one day be fulfilled in a heavenly way, too. God is doing an amazing thing in the rebuilt Jerusalem, to be sure: the “Assyrian King” (for Darius was the successor to what was originally the ancient Assyrian Empire) has been changed from the conqueror to the liberator by the hand of God. But God is to do even more. In about 500 years from this moment, God will come down into this material realm and join himself to human flesh. He will give himself up as the true Passover Lamb. He will spill his blood as the one, true sacrifice for sin. And there will be no more need to build a new temple, because he will build a temple for himself out of the human race. After that point, there will be no more animal blood, because the blood of Christ will fulfil and complete everything that has come before.


When we come before the table of the Lord to celebrate Holy Communion, what sense of wonder and joy do we have? What can we glean from the experience of the returned exiles in order to deepen our own appreciation for what Jesus has done for us?


Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world: may we so venerate the sacred mysteries of your body and blood that we may evermore perceive within ourselves the fruit of redemption, for your name’s sake.

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