Jesus and the Jewish High Holy Days: Were They Even Relevant? by Bobbie Ann Cole

 

Jesus did not just make Yom Kippur. He showed us that he was our Yom Kippur.

Every year at around this time, Jews prepare for the High Holy Days, also called Days of Awe— four festivals that fall virtually back to back.

First comes Rosh haShanah, which means Head of the Year.  Jewish New Year, which begins this year on the evening of September 15^th. Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, follows on September 24^th. Then comes the week-long festival of Sukkot, Tabernacles, starting September 29^th and, finally, the relatively modern (and fun) festival of Simchat Torah, (more about that below)*.

JESUS AT ROSH HASHANAH AND SUKKOT

Jesus would have celebrated the first three festivals, although he might have known Rosh haShanah as ‘Trumpets’.

At Sukkot, Jesus, on his feet, as the High Priest finished pouring gallons of water over the Temple’s Great Altar, declared, 

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them,” (John 7:37-38). 

Thus, he aligned himself and his message with this festival.

YOM KIPPUR

But what about Yom Kippur? How could someone perfect atone for sin? 

Since Jesus came to fulfil, not overturn, the Law, he would have been obedient to Leviticus and afflicted His soul through the twenty-five-hour fast, without even water.

In my view, Jesus did not just keep Yom Kippur but showed us that he was our Yom Kippur.

TWO GOATS

On Yom Kippur in Jesus’ time, in the eastern part of the Temple court, north of the great altar where sacrifices took place, two kid goats would be brought for a sin offering.

One was devoted to God in the Temple.

The High Priest made confession for the whole nation over the other, designated the scapegoat. It was then taken to Azazel, a rocky clifftop in the Judean desert where it would fall to its death, bearing away the sins placed on its head.

CAIPHAS’ PROPHECY

The High Priest of Jesus' time, Caiaphas, unknowingly designated Jesus as this scapegoat when, according to John's Gospel, he declared,

“'It is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.’ He did not say this on his own, but as High Priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So, from that day on they plotted to take his life,” (John 11:49- 53).

It seems likely to me ‘that day’ would have been Yom Kippur.

BOOK OF LIFE

Since, through the cross, Jesus became both the scapegoat that carried our sins away and the goat that was sacrificed as a sin offering, I felt I no longer needed to pray at Yom Kippur to be written in the Book of Life: he has done that for me.

CURTAIN TORN

When the curtain to the Holy of Holies was ripped in two at his death on the cross, we also received immediate and direct access to God. Until then, only the High Priest came into God’s presence, entering the Holy of Holies just once a year, on Yom Kippur:

“No one is to be in the tent of meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he comes out, having made atonement for himself, his household and the whole community of Israel,” (Leviticus 16:17).

WHITE LINEN

The High Priest wore white linen clothes on that occasion that he would never put on again, having removed them and changed after leaving the Holy of Holies.

Jesus lay alone, wrapped in white linen, in the tomb as the freedom festival of Passover, came in, remembering an end to slavery. Three days later, he rose from the dead on yom rishon, the “first day,” as Sunday is called, marking God’s new creation.

When Mary Magdalene came to tend what she expected to be his corpse, she found the tomb empty. She ran to tell the others, who were sitting shiva, Jewish mourning.

“…the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen,” (John 20:3-7).

OUR HIGH PRIEST

The gospel writer was surely making the point, as the writer of Hebrews would, that through the cross, Jesus became our eternal High Priest, with the tomb as his Holy of Holies, where he ‘wore’ linen as he made atonement for our sins.

Jesus is our Yom Kippur as well as our Passover. 

 

* At Simchat Torah the congregation would snake around my former synagogue, each person gently taking hold of a section of the Torah scroll as it was unraveled. It was then carefully wound up again, so that it started at Genesis. All this took a while. In-between time there was music and shots of whisky!  

 

Bobbie Ann Cole is a Christian writer, speaker and writing teacher. 

Please like her Facebook page where she will soon be sharing some of her discoveries in her forthcoming new homeland of Israel. 

Or check out her website at http://bobbieanncole.com/ to find out more about her books, speaking, book coaching and workshops.