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Bring No More Vain Oblations

Preached at St. Barnabas Church, Bellville, TX

Passion Sunday, 2009

by The Rev. Stephen E. Stults

Isaiah 1:13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

In this verse, taken from the First Lesson from Isaiah, we hear an amazing plea from the great prophet Isaiah. He tells the people Israel to “Bring no more futile sacrifices (from the NKJV).” The offering of incense, the celebration of the new moon, even the keeping of the Sabbath has become “an abomination” to the Lord. Not only does God no longer delight in it, it has become even hateful to Him.

This is a puzzling and perhaps even a troubling statement! How could the Lord, Yahweh, the Lord of Hosts, say such a thing? Is He who gave the law, with all its corrective and instructive aspects, now turning away from it? Is it now incorrect to obey the Law given to Moses? If so, how could God’s People find righteousness in His eyes?

The answer to this query contains both negative and positive aspects. First, the negative aspects are very plain: sacrifice and oblation, without true consent of the heart, are worthless. Even worse, they are spiritually dangerous, as one who is “going through the motions” to God may actually be inciting His anger or displeasure. This is exactly what Isaiah is addressing as he says, “Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1:14-15).

We know that the Israelites sought righteousness through the works of the Law. After all, that was what they were taught, that following the Law ensured a righteous life. From this passage, however, one can infer that the Jews sought “to game the system," so to speak, in order to gain justification from God, while their actions were from far from righteous. That is, they felt that offering sacrifice, oblation, and worship were sufficient in and of themselves to make the good in the sight of God. Righteous acts and righteous behavior were really not needed, just as long as one followed the prescribed forms of worship and sacrifice. While this is a gross oversimplification of the situation, there is a lot of truth in it. Isaiah makes this abundantly clear when he exhorts the people to:  “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:16-17). In short, he asks if their actions actually echo their worship.

This is an excellent question, not only for the ancient Jews, but for modern Christians as well. It is a question we need to ask each time we approach Almighty God in worship and also when we leave His Presence in the Holy Sacrament.

We come to church as sinners, we offer penance and contrition for our misdeeds in “thought, word and deed," we receive absolution from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then we are fed with the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. We leave church, still sinners, but now as washed and refreshed in Christ. The question becomes: how much do we strive to remain in His Grace? How much do we seek Him in our daily thoughts, words, and deeds? Perhaps, we too need to avoid bringing God “vain oblations.”

Now, lest this presbyter be accused of preaching “works righteousness," be assured that he is not. All of our deeds done to ingratiate ourselves to God may be compared with dirty rags compared with His Righteousness. They mean nothing because we cannot, in and of ourselves, ever be holy “enough” in God’s eyes.

Efforts to prove our holiness end up with the same degree of disregard, even disdain that the Jews’ action of Isaiah's time received. There is nothing we can do to gain entrance into Heaven, save one. Even that act is not really of our own volition so much as the Grace of God calling us to Him.

What is that one act? Simply to believe on the One that He has sent, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins. He and only He is able to accomplish this mighty act.

Our epistle to the Hebrews has been the New Testament selection. This book is a marvelous piece of theology that very clearly places Jesus at the center of the Christian faith as our Great High Priest. It is He, Jesus, who makes intercession for us to the Father and it is He who makes the one, perfect and complete atonement for our sins. This is the main point of the epistle, “boiled down” to its essentials.

The author of Hebrews draws a very clear contrast between the yearly, ephemeral, non-lasting atonement of the High Priest of Israel under the old Law, to the complete and efficacious sacrifice and atonement of Christ. In Hebrews 9:6-7, we read: ”Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:”

Thus, the priests went into the first tabernacle daily, offering the daily sacrifice to the Lord. The second tabernacle was the place of the Holy of Holies, the most sacred spot in the Temple. Here, only the High Priest entered once a year, bearing sacrificial blood to atone for the sins of the people on the appointed Day of Atonement, or Rosh Hashanah. However, Hebrews makes it very clear that this was a non-durable sacrifice, because it needed repetition year after year. That is, the sacrifice was not complete and efficacious.

Yet now we see Jesus, in the words of Hebrews, bringing eternal atonement for us:

Hebrews 9:11-12: “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”

We see then, that we have an eternal, durable, efficacious and complete sacrifice for our sins through Christ. Let us not miss the point here. The old sacrifice could make the fleshly sins pure, temporarily, by the ordinance of a sacrificial system. It offered the required sacrifice and thus atoned for the sins of the people for a time. Note however, that it could not make the conscience pure from the stain of sin. That is, all the old system could do was condemn people as sinners under the law and make atonement for their sins past. It was effective in what it was meant to do, but it was not complete.

The author of Hebrews foreshadows his whole message in the very first two verses of the book. He says, in Hebrews 1:1-2: “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets; Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”

That is, God has made his complete and final Revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ. Whereas the Law served as our schoolmaster, according to St. Paul, bringing us to remembrance of our duty and knowledge of our sinfulness before an eternal, holy and just God, only the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ is able to reform our consciences. Our minds, marred by the deceitfulness of habitual sin, are re-constructed and made better in Christ.

Recall that last week, we spoke about St. Paul’s treatment in Galatians of the choice offered to the early Christians: either submit to the old Jewish ceremonial law and be bound by its innumerable conditions and restrictions, or embrace the wonderful liberty of Jesus Christ.

That is, once again, the point for us today. The old law could not change us; it could only condemn. The liberating gospel of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, has the actual power to change who we are. With Christ, we are no longer the old, heavy-laden creatures, bearing an impossibly heavy load of sin, as under the Law. Instead, we are the new creatures of Jesus Christ, forgiven, light in the Lord, transformed by the new, permanent, and complete sacrifice of Jesus.

Once again turning to Hebrews, let us let the Scripture speak to us:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9:14-15)

We are not creatures of the old, slaves to a man-made construct of self-righteousness, which could only fail due to the fallen, un-reconstructed nature of man. No, we are creatures of the new, transformed, reborn, re-made in the image of Christ.

This is not a mission accomplished solely by man. Other religions that depend on the righteous acts of men always ultimately fail, because they do not address the true nature of man without Christ, which is that of a fallen, hapless slave to sin and death. Man cannot do it by himself. All we bring to our salvation, in the words of Martin Luther, is our sinfulness. No, this is a mission only accomplished by the one named in Hebrews as the Author and Captain of our salvation.

This is the same Jesus, who in our Gospel from John for today, defended and validated Himself to the unbelieving Jews: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. “Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

This statement, which so infuriated the Jews, is our hope and comfort. We do not preach so-called “replacement” theology, but “fulfillment” theology. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all prophecy. He is the completion of the Law. He is God’s final Word to mankind.

Therein lies our hope. Therein lies our transformation in holiness. Therein lies our joy and our eternal salvation.

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. AMEN.

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