Text: Hebrews 10:5-10
Date: December 19, 2021
Event: The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year C
Hebrews 10:5-10 (EHV)
Therefore when he entered the world, Christ said:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but you prepared a body for me.
6You were not pleased
with burnt offerings and sin offerings.
7Then I said, “Here I am.
I have come to do your will, God.
In the scroll of the book it is written about me.”
8First he said:
Sacrifices and offerings that were offered according to the law,
both burnt offerings and sin offerings,
you did not desire,
and you were not pleased with them.
9Then he said:
Here I am.
I have come to do your will.
He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Is Coming to Do God’s Will
“What do you want for Christmas?” Is that a question you’ve asked or been asked recently? Maybe there’s that person you want to show love to who just doesn’t seem to want anything, or maybe they buy everything they want when they want it, or maybe it’s just tough to know where their ever-shifting interests might fall in late December. So you ask and hopefully you get a list of ideas, or you provide some ideas and maybe something you’re interested in is under the tree on Christmas.
What does God want for Christmas? Or more, what does God want in general? This is a question that people have been wrestling with for as long as people have existed. The whole history of world religions, both current and past, centers on this. Does he want me to behave a certain way? Eat a certain way? Live in a certain place? Speak a certain language? Dress in certain clothes? The list goes on and on.
In our Second Reading for this morning, we have the writer to the Hebrews wrestling with a bit of Psalm 40, one of the psalms that David wrote. The writer to the Hebrews is speaking about Jesus because David’s original psalm is messianic—it spoke about and as the coming promised Savior. So we can glean a lot from the words God inspired David to write, and what God inspired the writer to the Hebrews to write about that psalm.
The quote from Psalm 40 begins with a perhaps-surprising revelation: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. What is on God’s Christmas list? Well, not sacrifices and offerings. And that’s surprising not just in general, but especially in the context of when David was writing. God doesn’t want sacrifices? Really? We’re at the heart of Old Testament worship that largely centered on animal and grain sacrifices for sin, guilt, and thanksgiving offerings. The temple hadn’t even been built yet. When David is writing there’s a solid 1000 years or so before Jesus would even be born.
So, why would God command all of these sacrifices and offerings if that’s not what he really wanted? Well, the Messiah through David’s pen goes on: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me. God was less concerned with animal sacrifices, and more concerned about preparing the body of the Messiah for his work.
We heard a bit of that preparation work in our Gospel this morning. Just prior to our Gospel, the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce that she would be the mother of the Savior, and we got to hear Mary’s joyful response in her poetic words in Elizabeth and Zechariah’s home.
Jesus knows what God wants. And what God wanted was exactly what you and I needed: not animal sacrifices as a picture of sin being removed, but sin actually being removed. And for the Messiah, a body was necessary for that, because there were things that needed to be done to save us from our sin. Jesus looked at the mission his Father set before him and said, “I have come to do your will, God. In the scroll of the book it is written about me.” Jesus would come to do God’s will, which had been promised from the beginning in the pledges God gave to his people.
We needed a Savior who could take our place. Like, actually take our place. Not playacting, not pretending, not going through the motions. We needed a Savior who would be a physical human being and live flawlessly under the demands of God’s law. We needed a Savior who would do what we should have done but could not do because of our sin.
So God’s will provides a body for Jesus. At his first advent, which we will celebrate in just a few days, Jesus is born as that baby in the manger. He’s born with clear purpose and direction. We will hear the angels proclaim it. We will hear the shepherds share it. The Savior will have been born. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you prepared a body for me.
And so this first advent, this first arrival, is not just about Christmas. It begins with Christmas, but it certainly does not end there. The will of God was never that the Savior simply be born; God’s will was that the Messiah come and accomplish what the Old Testament sacrifices could never do. Those sacrifices were pictures of what Jesus would accomplish. They reminded the people of the reality of their sin and that the without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. But those animals did not pay for sin at all; they pointed ahead to the ultimate sacrifice.
And that would be Jesus, once grown, having completed his three-year earthly ministry, and having lived a flawless life from beginning to end, Jesus would die on the cross. That death would be taking our place, suffering our hell, because that was God’s will. Sin has to be punished, but what God desired was for Jesus to endure it for us so that you and I would never face eternal separation from him.
So the writer the Hebrews notes what the effect of the Messiah’s work on our behalf is: He does away with the first (the system of sacrifices) in order to establish the second (forgiveness freely given to the world). By this will, we have been sanctified once and for all, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death undid the need for these continued, repeated sacrifices because we don’t need any pictures of what was coming. It has already come. Jesus has already accomplished his work for us so that we are freed from everything our sins deserved.
By God’s will we are sanctified in Jesus. That word, sanctified, means to be set apart, made holy, reserved for a special purpose. And so you are. You have been changed from sinner and enemy of God to the dearly loved child of God. You have been brought out of your slavery to sin and into his wonderful, perfect family. This was not something you made happen, this is not because you offered such great gifts or good works or dedicated yourself in such a way. No, this happened because it was God’s will. It was God’s will for you to be rescued. It was God’s will that you be rescued by Jesus. And Jesus has come and actually rescued you.
And so he lifts you and me up. We no longer wallow in the lowliness of our sins, but rejoice in the restored, loved position we have in God’s family through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ. We can look forward to celebrating Christmas knowing that Good Friday and Easter bring joyous meaning to life here and the promises for eternity. Because Jesus will return to continue to do God’s will. God’s will is not complete until you and me and all who are his own are with him for eternity. So, while Christmas is right at hand, don’t lose sight of what is yet to come for us. Jesus will return to bring us to that perfect life he was won for and promised to us. This too, is God’s will. You are what he wants. Thanks be to God! Amen.
