Winning the Better Atonement
In Luke 19:10, Jesus described his mission as coming “to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) Once he “found” and rescued us, he still needed to repair the damage we incurred while being lost. That’s where atonement comes in. It basically covers and cleanses the mess sin leaves behind.
The rituals of the Feast of Atonement beautifully illustrate this process. It acts as an annual spring-cleaning event that purifies the people and their place of worship.
A cleansing agent more powerful than soap and water would be used for the job. Blood from a blemish-free sacrifice in the hands of the reigning high priest would be poured out to cleanse the people. Then it would be brought into God’s inner sanctum, the holy of holies, to purify it as well. This required great preparation on the part of the priest. First, he needed to be clean himself. Then he had to make sure he was ready to execute each rite and prayer of the Feast of Atonement with absolute perfection. That meant a long, sleepless night reviewing and rehearsing every procedure and recitation before the feast began.
Two Ways to Win Atonement
With this in mind, imagine two different men preparing to administer atonement at two different times in history. On our right is Zadok, the high priest during Solomon’s reign. He kneels in a temple anteroom in preparation for the Feast of Atonement the next day. His attendants circulate as they serve him, their movements setting the flames of scattered oil lamps aflutter.
A groan turns our attention to the left, where Jesus kneels in a grove of ancient olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is the eve of Passover, and his disciples lie sleeping near the flickering light of a campfire.
For both of these men, the work of atonement is set to begin with the dawning light.
Zadok’s prayers reach our ears. “Blessed are you, oh Lord our God, King of the Universe. Grant that I may not falter in my duties for the great of Feast of Atonement. Make me perfect in all my ways that I may follow your instructions to the letter. Let my memory not fail in all the words I must speak. Make my hands firm and keep my feet from stumbling as I move through your temple and enter your Holy of Holies.”
His helpers add their amens, then help him to his feet. They lead him to a table where a scroll lies open. “Come, Holiness,” says one of them. “Let us run through the procedures for tomorrow again. Here are the prayers for you to rehearse.”
The high priest nods. He opens his mouth to recite, but a huge yawn emerges. He gives his head a shake and blinks several times.
“Don’t worry, Holiness. We’ll stay awake with you all night and make sure you don’t fall asleep during your vigil.”
Meanwhile, in Gethsemane…
Jesus stirs in the garden, and we turn to the left. Dropping from his knees to all fours, he weeps while he prays. We can’t hear his words through the sobs until he lifts his head.
“Holy Father, help. Let this cup pass from me, I pray.” His hands clench, and he presses his face to the ground once more. He seems to fight with the earth beneath him while he continues to pray. At last, he sits upright. Muddy tears pepper his cheeks as he turns a pleading gaze toward heaven. He raises his hands as though lifting unseen weights, and sighs heavily. “Yet not as I will, but as you will, my Father.”
He gropes for the trunk of a nearby tree and hauls himself to his feet. Stumbling, he approaches his disciples. “Peter. John.” He kicks weakly against Peter’s leg.
Blinking the sleep away, Peter sits up. “Master. I’m sorry. Do you need something? Are we going back into Jerusalem now?” John sputters awake beside him.
Jesus shakes his head weakly. “Could you not keep watch with me for an hour? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Atonement on Earth
Activity in the temple anteroom turns our gaze back to the right, where morning light streams through the anteroom windows. Zadok steps from a mikvah bath and dons a floor-length linen tunic. He raises his arms so attendants can drop a blue robe over his head. Colorful yarn pomegranates and tiny gold bells lining the robe’s hem bounce playfully against each other as the robe settles into place, just above his calves. His helpers strap a colorful vest encrusted with jewels onto his chest and tie an embroidered sash around his waist. The high priest dips his head slightly as one attendant crowns him with a white turban. Another priest ties a golden medallion over it so that the words “Holy to the Lord” rest over Zadok’s forehead.
Dazzling in his ritual attire, the high priest stands erect. Blue, scarlet, purple, gold, and white play against the rainbow-colored stones upon his chest. He turns with elegant grace and leaves the room, his robe jingling as he enters the crowded temple courtyard. He stops at a huge bronze wash basin where an attendant hurries to open a spigot. Zadok opens his palms beneath the flowing water and washes his arms up to each elbow.
He climbs a ramp and steps onto a ledge surrounding a great bronze altar where the morning sacrifice awaits him. He examines the lamb before nodding to another priest. “I find no fault in him.” After slaying the lamb and pouring its blood at the base of the altar, he lays it in the fire. Then he climbs an elevated platform and disappears behind a large sheet hung between poles.
The sound of a rabble turns our gaze to the left. Jesus is no longer in the garden. He’s standing on a dais with Pontius Pilate before an angry crowd. Pilate gestures toward Jesus and cries, “I have examined him myself, and I find no fault in him.” The mob roars its disapproval, and soldiers take him away.
Out of the corner of our eye, we spot Zadok to our right, just reappearing from behind the sheet. His hair is dripping, as though he’s just had another bath. His glorious outfit is nowhere to be seen. Instead, he wears the simple linen tunic and trousers of ordinary priests.
The crowd to our left is shouting again. The soldiers have returned Jesus to Pontius Pilate’s side. His hair drips too—not with water, but with blood. Pilate jerks him forward and yells over the racket, “Behold your king!”
We avert our eyes and look back at Zadok, who is approaching a bull near the altar. Grasping its head in his hands, the high priest cries out his confessions, then leaves the bull in the care of a priest and crosses to stand before an urn between two goats. He draws two stones from the urn and holds one over each goat’s head. Attendants quickly tie a red cord around the neck of one goat and another around the horn of the other. He leaves the goats and returns to the bull, where he once more laments the sins of the family of priests.
Slashing the bull’s throat, he gathers its blood into a golden bowl, which he gives to another priest. Then he collects coals from the altar and adds them to a bronze censer. He takes a ladle full of incense and carries it and the censer into the holy place. He pauses in front of the smoking altar of incense and the splendid veil of the holy of holies.
Heaven’s Answer
The crack of thunder turns our gaze upward. The sky seems to split before Jesus as he rises from the tomb. He continues to ascend until he’s standing before a heaven-sized golden altar and a veil more magnificent than any curtain on earth. Angels of every description and size zoom and whizz and whirl about him, crying, “Holy! Holy! Holy is the Lamb who was slain!”
Like Zadok, Jesus carries a censer and a ladle. Pausing at the altar, he leans into its smoke and inhales deeply. The fragrance fills the air around us, and we gasp as the sweet perfume of cinnamon, pine, orange blossoms, and something like licorice distill on our faces like fine mist.
The resplendent veil surges and billows like a living thing before Jesus. Blinding light flashes from behind it like something trying to break free. The air fills with the sound of matza, cracking and breaking, and we suddenly hear Jesus’ words at the Last Supper. “This is my body, broken for you.” Immediately, the veil shrieks as the light heaving and swelling behind it slashes at it like an acetylene torch. As it splits apart from top to bottom, countless angels pour through the gap. Like flashing torches, they race around Jesus as he steps behind the veil.
(If you’d like to read more about the Feast of Atonement, check my series of blogs on the topic, starting with The Play’s the Thing.)
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