The
Day God Handed Out Pink Slips
Employers issue pink slips to
employees whose services they no longer need. I have been laid off
several times in my life. Only once did I actually receive a pink slip,
which contained a thirty-day notice of termination of my employment.
Oddly enough, it was in 1970 from my first job after leaving the Navy.
I worked for a major airline based in Miami, FL, which hired me as an
aviation electrician during a strike. When the union settled its
dispute with the airline, all the strikers came back to work. Their
return created over-staffing. Since I was at the bottom of the
seniority totem pole, the airline issued to me and several others our
pink slips.
The longer one works in the employ of
another, the harder it is to accept a pink slip. The man who works for
a company ten years and extends himself financially due to 'reliable'
income is far more traumatized by a pink slip than the man employed for
ten weeks. Can you imagine the shock of a family member who's worked in a
family-owned and operated business for ten years getting a pink slip?
What if that family had been in business for fifteen-hundred
years and the head of the family decided to shut down the business and
issue pink slips to every family employee?
That's exactly what happened when
Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross outside the gates of Jerusalem. In
all three Synoptic Gospels, we're told “the veil of the temple was
rent” in two pieces from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke
23:45). Every priest in the temple at that hour must have marveled, and
thought: “What am I supposed to do now?”
In Hebrews 9:6-8, the scripture
provides a glimpse into the job description of the Levitical priesthood:
“Now when these things
[tabernacle
furniture] were thus ordained [set up for service], 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:
The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing.”
For fifteen-hundred years the
descendants of Levi performed tabernacle service. They performed the
service in various degrees of compliance through the centuries. At
times, the priests performing the service were corrupt individuals who
were immoral and took bribes. At other times, the priesthood was
performed with the proper reverence. While Solomon was dedicating the
Temple, wherein the priests were fully engaged, the “fire came down
from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and sacrifices; and the
glory of the LORD filled the house. And the priests could not enter
into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled
the LORD'S house” (2 Chronicles 7:1-2). That glorious day in the
history of Israel was like NO other day before it or after it...UNTIL
Jesus died at Calvary!
The priests in Solomon's day were
confronted with a glory that, while
it kept the priests out of the Temple for a season, nevertheless left
intact the veil separating the first tabernacle from the second. But
the blood Jesus shed for sinners ripped that veil wide open from top to
bottom, the Holy Ghost thus signifying the way into the holiest had
been established. That was the day God handed out pink slips to the
family of Levi.
After three days, Jesus arose from
the dead, appeared to selected
groups of disciples for forty days, ascended to the Father's right hand
to become our High Priest after the order of Melchisedec and sent the
Holy Ghost into the hearts of the disciples on the Day of Pentecost.
The empowered Church was an evangelistic dynamo, a growing entity!
Within a matter of weeks, this is what was happening in Jerusalem
according to Luke: “And the word of God increased; and the number of
the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of
the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). Those priests who
might have wondered, “What am I supposed to do now?” found the answer to that
question: BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ! Can you imagine the pure
bliss of believing priests, who heretofore could NOT enter the second
tabernacle, now enjoying through the blood of Jesus free and unlimited
access to the holiest in the heavenly tabernacle, which God pitched,
and not man?!
How many priests make up a “great
company”? The Greek is ὄχλος
(ochlos), “a multitude, crowd, throng.” The NT often uses the word to
describe the massive crowds that followed Jesus around Judaea and
Galilee. The word ὄχλος
speaks of common men, not societal elites.
While we will never know the exact number of which that great company
of priests consisted, we do know these former priests found new
significance in the blood of Christ—a precious blood they now shared in
common with the whole world!
Those priests ministering in the
temple precinct at the moment Jesus
died witnessed first hand God opening the way into the holiest as he
rent the veil asunder. Again, Hebrews provides this truth:
“Having therefore, brethren,
boldness
to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for
us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”
(10:19-20).
Several observations are in order.
First, having
is a present
participle. The brethren are in continual possession of boldness to go
every moment of every day where only the OT high priest could go once a
year. Secondly, the word boldness
is παρρησία
(parrēsia), “freedom in
speaking, openness, fearless confidence.” Jesus used the same word when
he said he “spoke openly
to the world” (John 18:20). We are exhorted to
“come boldly
unto the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16). In at least five
NT instances, παρρησία
is translated confidence.
Consider that truth in
contrast to the trepidation the OT high priest experienced on that ONE
day (Atonement) wherein he was required to enter the holiest. Under
certain prescribed violative circumstances, God could strike the high
priest dead. The blood of Jesus vanquished that fear once-for-all!
Thirdly, the way into the holiest is
a new way
and a living
way. The
word new
is πρόσφατος
(prosphatos), that which is “lately slaughtered,
recently slain.” It's been two-thousand years since Jesus offered
himself for sinners as the Lamb slain. But the efficaciousness of his
blood is as fresh and recent with God as though it was shed this
morning. Access into the holiest by the blood of Jesus will NEVER wear
itself out! The word living
is a present participle, depicting the KIND
of way Jesus made for us. When Jesus said he was the way, the truth,
and the life (John 14:6), he no doubt had in mind the WAY into the
holiest his blood would provide and the privilege of believers to
experience HIS LIFE on an ongoing basis by means of the indwelling
Spirit.
Human experience has taught us we
should avoid pink slips at all costs.
Pink slips are the pathway to joblessness...and sometimes hopelessness.
In the spiritual realm, God is in the business of handing out pink
slips of his own. It was not a good day for Ananias and Sapphira when
God issued to them pink slips for lying to the Holy Ghost. But the day
God issued pink slips to the Levitical priesthood by ripping the veil
asunder and providing a new and living way into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus was the best thing that could have happened...for them
and for us!
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