Have you noticed that the start of a new year brings many new things to light? Like, I am already putting many new events on my calendar. There is a growing list of things I want to accomplish. My husband and I were talking this morning about scheduling the use of our one car! I am already feeling very BUSY! I do like being ‘busy’ though, as having ‘purpose’ is fulfilling to me.
Yet, in the midst of this new level of activity, I don’t want to miss out on the significance of the days. Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement is a day that is both joyful and reflective. It is reflective in that it is a day of fasting and repenting of sin. But is it joyful because as Psalm 103: 11, 12 states, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” And in Hebrews 8:12 it says, “I will be merciful when they fail, and I will erase their sins and wicked acts out of My memory as though they had never existed.” Isn’t that just amazing?!
I am currently teaching a class on the biblical feasts and the church year. This past week, as part of our Yom Kippur feast, we participated in the symbolic ritual of writing our sins and failures on little pieces of paper and casting the papers into water, and watching them dissolve. It was a significant moment seeing the paper just melt away. Just like God melts away the sin in our lives – it is gone forever.
There is such freedom in being forgiven! Parents teach their children to ask for forgiveness when they do something wrong. When my brother and I were very young, if we were fighting mom would step in and send us to our respective rooms. If one of us had done something to hurt the other, we would have to apologize and say ‘sorry’. Being sent to our rooms was so that we would have time to calm down but also to think about what we had done. Making us apologize, which was never fun, was a life lesson we needed to learn. When we hurt someone’s feelings it is important to recognize it and make restitution. It is also important to forgive. Because we have been forgiven much.
What we can learn from our Jewish friends about repentance is that there is healing in the repenting and knowing that we are forgiven, and restitution is also important in our relationships with others. In Leviticus chapter 16 we find the story of how God made provision for the people to have their sins forgiven. I encourage you to read that chapter again!
For those who are Christ-followers every time we come to the Lord’s Table, we are reminded not only of our sin but our need for asking for forgiveness. Jesus came and gave his life as a final sacrifice for our sin. But as humans, we all continue to make mistakes – sin – and need to find forgiveness.
The best part is that there is no need to wait once a year, or once a month to ask Jesus to forgive our sins. We can ask for forgiveness anytime and be restored! This is something to be joyful about! Let not Yom Kippur be a day of pummeling oneself but instead rejoice that your sins have been forgiven and have been flung as far as the east is from the west!
“Blessed are those whose wrongs have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the person whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” Romans 4:7, 8
Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday)
Shalom!
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