Thus far, the tabernacle's symbolism
has done a great job of illustrating Jesus' life...
It has showed us that ---
So... having experienced the 'water',
if the tabernacle's symbolism continues to hold true,
the next thing Jesus should experience is the 'blood',
as represented by ---
And indeed, bloodshed is not far
off in our story...
Reason being that
Jesus eventually angers many of the Jewish religious leaders...
At the root of the dispute, lies a fundamental disagreement regarding the
true purpose and application of "the Law"...
In order to properly understand
this issue,
we need to consider a group of Jewish people referred to in the bible as "scribes"
and "Pharisees"...
Among the Jewish people, these were considered
to have been the most educated and religious of men.
They prided themselves on their ability to 'keep' the Law (and thus believed
that they were in relationship with God).
But in the following passage, notice
what Jesus says to these people ---
Matthew 23:13-15 "But
woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom
of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you
allow those who are entering to go in. (v.14) Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widow's houses, and
for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater
condemnation. (v.15) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when
he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
Matthew 23:25-33 "Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside
of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.
(v.26) Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup
and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. (v.27)
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed
tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of
dead men's bones and all uncleanness. (v.28) Even so you
also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy
and lawlessness. (v.29) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the
monuments of the righteous, (v.30) and say, 'If we had
lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with
them in the blood of the prophets'. (v.31) Therefore you
are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered
the prophets. (v.32) Fill up, then, the measure of your
fathers' guilt. (v.33) Serpents, brood of vipers! How
can you escape the condemnation of hell?"
60
In the above passages, Jesus rather
forcefully tells the scribes and Pharisees that they have missed the mark.
He even goes so far as to tell them that their perspective will ultimately
lead to their "condemnation". 61
So... where did these people go
wrong?
Basically, they refused to recognize
what the Law was really meant to convey...
The Law was meant to 'expose' sin.
Clearly, if there is no law, there
is no sin. This can be seen by looking back at 'the garden' where all of mankind
sinned... If God had not set a boundary (i.e. a 'law') around the 'tree of
the knowledge of good and evil', there would have been no transgression (or
'sin'). Thus, 'law' exposes the existence of sin.
The Law illustrates the need for 'death'.
As seen previously, the penalty of
sin is 'death' (or 'separation'). Point being that the Law 'exposes' sin,
and as stated in Genesis 2:17, sin leads to 'death'.
The Law shows
that the required 'death' can be experienced by a 'substitute'.
This could be clearly seen in the
substitutionary deaths of the animal sacrifices, through which the Jewish
people could be restored to (a limited) 'relationship with God'.
And now we come to the critically
important point ---
The Law (and its sacrifices) alone cannot
establish "everlasting" relationship with God.
As we've seen earlier, the use of
the Law and its animal sacrifices did allow the Jewish people a limited
degree of 'relationship' with God... But the tabernacle's symbolism has also
made it quite clear that the Law and its sacrifices did not provide the "everlasting"
relationship that God promised. Thus something more was clearly
necessary and would be coming.
This is what the
scribes and Pharisees have failed to understand.
Instead of rightly perceiving the
Law and its ultimate purpose, which was to show that 'something more' must
be necessary, the scribes and Pharisees had twisted things around to such
a degree that they actually believed they could fulfill the Law by outwardly
honoring its requirements, while ignoring the internal problem it was meant
to expose.
Over time, many of the Jewish people
(and particularly the scribes & Pharisees) had turned the Law and the
animal sacrifices into an empty ritual that had lost much (if not all) of
its original meaning. By Jesus' day, many of the Jewish people had become
convinced that the Law and its animal sacrifices were all that was necessary
in order for one to be made 'right' with God.
These people had become blind to
the Law's true purpose and had become content with an outward appearance of
righteousness... Outwardly, they observed the ordinances of the Law as best
they could, while blinding themselves to the fact that inwardly, on a daily
basis, the Law showed that they were far from having attained the "everlasting"
relationship with God that was promised to Abraham's descendants.
62
The bottom line here is that the
scribes & Pharisees do not receive Jesus' criticism well.
To their minds, Jesus' comments represent
an attempt to invalidate the Law and its sacrifices,
along with their personal 'righteousness'.
Far from invalidating the Law however,
Jesus was actually emphasizing the Law's validity ---
Matthew 5:17-18
"Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the Prophets. I did
not come to destroy but to fulfill. (v.18) For
assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one
tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled".
Here, you can see Jesus clearly says
the Law is not to be changed in the least way.
On the contrary, by his own testimony in the passage above, he validates the
Law by saying that he has come to "fulfill"
it.
He knew (better than anyone) that
the Law had a purpose...
Again, the Law's purpose was to emphasize 'guilt'
by exposing sin...
It was not intended to foster a false
sense of 'purity'... its purpose was to expose sin. Once sin was exposed,
it showed the need for an 'inward' (or 'spiritual') 'separation' (i.e. 'death').
Furthermore, while the Law allowed an animal to
be 'substituted' for the required 'death', as the tabernacle's symbolism and
Israel's history have showed, in reality, something more 63
would actually be required in order to truly attain the promise of "everlasting"
relationship with God.
The entire value of the Law depended
upon its leading to that conclusion.
Unfortunately, the scribes and
Pharisees totally missed this.
Their error was made even more serious
by the fact that they were closely connected with the Jewish 'Temple' (essentially
a later version of the tabernacle). Because of their affiliation with the
Temple and because they portrayed themselves as the 'most spiritual of people',
the scribes and Pharisees were not only deceiving themselves regarding the
Temple and its Law and sacrifices, they were also leading countless others
astray
And to Jesus, this was a major
offense.
Thus Jesus plainly warns that the
'faith' of the scribes and Pharisees is not to be emulated ---
Matthew 5:20
"For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of
heaven".
As you might imagine, statements
like the above do not endear Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders.
In fact, they are quite offended by both his various teachings and the authority
with which he presumes to speak.
Thus they actively begin seeking a way to end his life. 64
And eventually, they find a way...
For a full account of the events
surrounding the death of Jesus, you can read the biblical books of Matthew,
Mark, Luke & John.
In the interest of keeping this short, I will just skip to the bottom line,
which is that Jesus eventually dies an excruciating death ---
Matthew 27:35 "Then
they crucified Him...".
Matthew 27:46 "And
about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying 'Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'"
Matthew 27:50 "Jesus,
when He had cried out again with a loud voice, yielded up His spirit".
Luke 23:50-56 "And
behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just
man. (v.51) He had not consented to their counsel and deed.
He was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who himself was was also waiting
for the kingdom of God. (v.52) This man went to Pilate and
asked for the body of Jesus. (v.53) Then he took it down,
wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a tomb that was hewn out of the rock,
where no one had ever lain before. (v.54) That day was the
Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. (v.55) And the women
who had come with him from Galilee followed after, and they observed the
tomb and how His body was laid. (v.56) Then they returned
and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according
to the commandment."
This is where our story really begins
to get interesting...
NEXT
CHAPTER
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