True worship
Today's reading Hebrews 8:1-6
.
Today’s blog
“We have a High Priest who... who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.” (Hebrews 8:1-2)
.
Worship is a spiritual matter. Jesus made that clear in his conversation with the Samaritan woman who asked him about the right place to worship God. It’s not about where you worship on earth, replied Jesus, because “God is spirit, and his true worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:19-24).
.
That same thought is at the heart of this passage from Hebrews. The outward expression of worship in the earthly tabernacle was but “a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven” (5). The inner sanctuary, the high priest who served there, and the sacrifices he offered were all a limited symbol of spiritual reality, and that “reality is found in Christ” (Col.2:17). He is the true high priest who serves in heaven itself. And because he is the Son of God seated “at the right hand of the throne of Majesty” (1) his ministry achieves what earthly copies could only point to.
.
This is the truth of Christian worship, the way that we can come to him with our praise and prayer. But we need to do that not only “in truth” but also “in spirit”. In other words, for the worshipper too the outward form on its own is of no value – it’s just a shadow of true worship. What matters is the spiritual reality of worship that comes from our inner being, rooted in our hearts. “Those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks” (John 4:23).
(To dig a bit deeper into Hebrews 8:1-6 click here for some commentary notes.)