Today’s Epistle reading:
Hebrews 8:1 Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. 4 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; 5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
It is something of a commonplace to characterize OT worship as physical, external and crude. NT worship, on the other hand, is spiritual, an inward disposition expressly contrary to that which was physical, thereby avoiding that constant of human temptations: idolatry. OT devotion was outward and rather coarse; NT worship embraces the simplicity of worship in spirit and truth. A corollary to this is that in the NT God doesn’t care about the structure in which we worship. Buildings are merely utilitarian, a place for the assembling of the faithful.
Hebrews 8 (and 9) belies these notions. God is not only concerned about how we worship but also where we worship. God Himself designed every aspect of the OT Tabernacle, the copy and shadow of heavenly things. Man contributed nothing to its design. Indeed, “Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; … “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain [Mt Sinai].” The OT tabernacle was constructed according to the pattern of heavenly worship revealed to Moses on Mt Sinai. In its design and in its manner of worship the OT tabernacle was heavenly, not earthly; it was the shadow cast by the reality.
Think about this … the OT tabernacle was a copy and shadow of heavenly things! Who else but God could be the architect? If man is to worship on earth as it is in heaven, then the how and where of worship must be revealed by God. With Jesus’ entry into heaven, NT worship no longer takes place in the copy and shadow of heavenly things, but in the “true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” …”For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence” (Hebrews 9:24). ** Hebrews 8:2 states that Jesus is the leitourgos (Greek), literally the liturgist, in the sanctuary, true tabernacle.
The true tabernacle not only replaces the copy and shadow, but fulfills the OT pattern. The OT copy and shadow points forward to and receives its meaning from the true tabernacle. More to the point, the NT true tabernacle not only replaces the OT tabernacle, it is also the archetype of the OT tabernacle. The design and manner of worship in the OT tabernacle was always heavenly, not earthly.
There is an important principle of continuity and discontinuity here: the principle of heavenly worship has not changed; the place and the manner of our entrance into that worship has changed. For example, our entrance into the the true tabernacle is no longer by means of animal sacrifice, but by the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Sacrifice was necessary to approach God — in the OT sacrifice had to be offered on the bronze altar at the entrance to the tabernacle. For the Church, we enter into God’s presence by Jesus’ sacrifice signified by the processional cross at the beginning of the Mass. We enter into worship in and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Who alone is the Way, the Truth and the life. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”
Heavenly worship engages us as human beings, in both body and soul. Our spiritual formation takes place in worship in what say and do, through our inward disposition and through our outward demeanor. In heavenly worship God awakens in us the truth of our life and salvation, our true citizenship, so that we learn them “by heart” in the fullest sense of that expression, that is, with one's whole being: with the body in what we say and do, with the memory which fixes and holds these truths, with our understanding which more and more fully comprehends them, with our will which puts these truths into practice. Heavenly worship is entirely oriented toward the fullness life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
JSH+