Hebrews 8:1–13 (NKJV)
1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” 13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
St. Paul says in Romans 8 that Christ “is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Rom. 8:34). This same truth is emphasized in today’s reading.
The writer to the Hebrews shows us that the tabernacle described in the Law of Moses was a “copy and shadow” of how things really are in heaven, just as the ministry of the priests in the earthly tabernacle was a picture of the heavenly ministry of Christ before God the Father. The ministers who served under the covenant God made with Israel on Mt. Sinai had an important, God-given role. But that role was always meant to be temporary. The sacrifices they offered and their mediation between sinful Israel and the holy God were vivid pictures of the true sacrifice of Christ, which He, as our perfect Mediator, being both God and Man, continually holds before the eyes of the Father as He makes intercession for all who believe in Him. Through that intercession of our High Priest, His atoning sacrifice is credited to us, and we sinners are no longer counted as sinners in the eyes of the holy Father, but as holy ones, cleansed by the blood of a better sacrifice.
There are some who claim that the Old Testament is still in force, side by side with the New. But today’s reading makes it clear that the old covenant (or testament) was always meant to be replaced by the new covenant instituted by Christ Jesus. The Old Testament, with its ministers and their sacrifices, was a shadow, pointing to the better promises of the better covenant of which Christ Jesus is the Mediator.
Let us pray: Holy Father, we thank You for establishing the new covenant of the forgiveness of sins through Christ and for bringing us into it through Holy Baptism and faith. Have mercy on us and grant us our petitions for the sake of Christ, our Mediator. Amen.
