27.09 | Space & Time
Hebrews 8:1-9:14
‘But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.’
Hebrews 9:11-12
Einstein’s theory of relativity is a space and time thing.
Einstein described how both space and time are flexible concepts, that can be bent through speed and the mass of nearby objects. Neither space nor time, he argued, are linear, but both curve and change around other forces.
It’s not an easy one to wrap our heads around.
The tabernacle was a space and time thing.
And understanding it also takes a little brainwork. And yet, as we sink our minds into these realities, the wonder of the Gospel begins to creak a little wider open before us.
Let’s back up a little.
The tabernacle was the portable place of worship, made by the Israelites after they had left the land of Egypt. It was made of the most precious materials — gold woven into costly yarns, with a few select pieces of furniture, each with their own significance. The pattern of this tabernacle then set the arrangement for the temple that would be built under the reign of Solomon, a few hundred years later.
And the concept of the tabernacle was that it was the entry point both to God’s place and God’s time.
The space part is maybe a little easier to grasp, because the physical space of the tabernacle gave a physical location upon the earth for God’s presence. If you asked the ancient Hebrews where God was, they’d have turned and pointed at the tabernacle. The design of this space came directly from the mountain, where Moses had been given a glimpse of the arrangement of the true heavenly courts, meaning he could then imitate them in the tabernacle on the earth. The tabernacle, then, was a copy of the heavenly place, in order to create a space upon the earth where God dwelt. It was a physical intersection of heaven and earth.
So far so good.
The time part is a little more complex, but is maybe best understood from how we anticipate ‘heaven’ as being something that will happen for us at some point in the future.1 We can live in the basic assumption of a difficult life now, but in hope of the beauty and wholeness of God coming then.
And yet the tabernacle was also seen as the place where this time was accessed. That age. That eternal timezone where all the beauty and life of God most perfectly dwells.
The tabernacle, then, was also an intersection of the time of heaven with the times of the earth, where all the life of the beautiful future that is surely coming intersects our present moments.
Mind-bending, for sure.
And yet, also, extraordinary.
For the author of Hebrews today wants us to know how great the work of Jesus was — for this our Jesus entered both heaven space and heavenly time, offering His very own life, that a new intersection point could be created. That in His life outpoured the life of that place could overspill into this our place. And that in His life outpoured the life of that time could overspill into our this our time.
Confusing? Maybe. Wonderful? For sure.
And yet this gets more wonderful still.
For the tabernacle housed, in the ark of God, the words of the Law.
And it is this Law, as the prophet Jeremiah prophesied,2 that the Father is now inscribing into our very hearts — not just to know the Law, but to desire it, to be it, to move from endlessly trying to be holy, to simply becoming it.
Our hearts, the new place of God’s presence. Our hearts, through the blood of Jesus intersecting the place of heaven and the times eternal. Our hearts, becoming a house of God’s living presence upon the earth.
Our hearts, God’s new tabernacle, where the life of His place and the life of the age that is surely come is breaking out, unto the flowing life of God Himself into a broken world.
Reflect:
Jesus’ death opens the way to God’s place, and Jesus’ death opens the way to God’s time.
What characteristics of His place and His time do you want to pray for today?
Pray:
Father in heaven,
Invade.
Invade this place
With the realities of your place.
That my heart may become alive
With the love
Freedom,
Courage,
Creativity,
Beauty,
Compassion,
And joy
Of your eternal place.
Father in heaven,
Invade:
Invade this time
With the realities of your eternity,
That my heart become endlessly absorbed
In those things everlasting
And the ways that endure.
And, Father in heaven,
Would you make your Church
Increasingly to be a holy tabernacle of your presence—
That your place
And your time
May overflow
Into these broken places
And this broken time.
For the glory of Jesus,
By His blood,
And in His Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
1 Chronicles 27-29 | Proverbs 24:11-16
The Old Testament idea of ‘eternal’ has to do both with eternity future and eternity past: it is a different age, utterly distinct from our own, and marked by its endless nature, in comparison with our temporary age.
Jeremiah 31:31-34, as quoted in our reading today