April 3, 2026 Holy God, Holy Lives: The Greatest, Most Dreadful Day | Leviticus 23:26-32

This week is Good Friday. We will be hosting our Good Friday service at 7:00 p.m. and will be reflecting on Leviticus 23:26-32, The Greatest, Most Dreadful Day. This passage is on the Day of Atonement, a reminder that the daily and weekly sacrifices for sin were not enough to atone for the people’s sins; the sacrifices were a temporary measure that God gave the people to enable them to come close to him. The Day of Atonement points directly to Jesus’ sacrifice of his life for our sin as the one who is fully God, so that he could bear the weight and horror of our sin, and fully human, so he could take our place.

Transcript

The Greatest, Most Dreadful Day

Leviticus 23:26–32

Do you ever wonder if all your sins are really forgiven? Are you afraid that God will hold some of your worst sins over your head for when you die and Jesus comes to take you home? Good Friday is the most somber day of the church year, the day that the weight and destructiveness of our sin is put right before us so that we cannot deny its horror or cost. The crown of thorns on Jesus’ head, the beating at his trial, the nails used to hang him from the cross, the mocking of the crowds, the abandonment of his disciples, being forsaken by his Father, the inner anguish of carrying our sin is all stuck in our faces to get us to finally acknowledge the pain, brokenness, and suffering sin brings. It forces us to confess that there’s no such thing as a small sin; all sin separates us from God and adds to the burden Jesus carries to the cross, adding to the brokenness in the world. Good Friday visually reveals the destructiveness of our sins in Jesus’ hanging on the cross.

Tim Keller gives us a glimpse of what leads us to Good Friday in an imagined conversation between God the Father and Jesus, “You can see God saying to Jesus, in effect, “Son, I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone and I will never say it again. Throughout all eternity I’ve always said and always will say, ‘If you obey me, I’ll come near to you.’ But to you I say, ‘If you obey me now, I will abandon you.’ I will let you go, so I don’t have to let them go. I will pour all the wrath and punishment humanity’s sins deserve onto you. And even though you are the eternal Son of God, that pain and the power of that justice will be so great, your body and soul will be ripped apart—so theirs don’t have to be. Are you willing to do this?” Jesus said, “Yes.” 

The Day of Atonement visually shows the people the seriousness of their sin. Sin must not merely be kept in check. It must be removed entirely. That’s what the Day of Atonement points to. This is the only day of the year that the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies, dressed in only a simple white garment. Before going into the Holy of Holies, the high priest needed to offer a bull calf as a personal sin-offering, then filling his bowl with live coals from the altar, he entered the Holy place, placed incense on the coals, sending smoke over the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant. He then took blood from the bull calf sacrifice and spread it on the mercy seat and on the ground before the altar. He then sacrificed a male goat as a sin-offering for the people, taking some of the blood of the goat into the Holy place and spreading it on the mercy seat. 

After the sacrifices, the mercy seat and altar were purified and the high priest then laid his hands on a second goat and confessed the sins of Israel over it. This goat, called the scape goat, was then led out into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people on it outside of the camp without any protection. The carcasses of the bull calf and first goat were then taken outside the camp and burned. This was also a day where no-one was allowed to work, a day of rest; they are not to work on this day, a sign that their work is unable to save them, that it’s only through God’s grace and love that forgiveness is found. This was to be a day of humility and denying themselves to focus on their sins and the forgiveness given to them by God. 

God calls this the Day of Atonement. Atonement, in the faith sense, is about reconciliation and repairing the relationship between God and humanity through sacrifice. In the Old Testament, the sacrifice was a perfect male goat and the casting out of a second male goat, the scape goat, who carries the sin away. In the New Testament, atonement is achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus. through Jesus’ sacrifice, we’re made right with God. Like the scape goat, Jesus is taken outside the city without protection where he washed away our sin through his blood. Jesus carries our sin away as far as the east is from the west, paying the penalty for our sin!

What compels God to allow his son Jesus to go the route of sacrifice, to allow Jesus to become the scape-goat? The Old Testament uses a word, “hesed” that shows us why. Hesed love is often translated as unfailing love in English. This is God’s promised love, his covenantal love, the love he declares under oath, binding himself in love, his never ending, unbreakable love that never bends even though ours does. This love shows up in Hebrews 10:19–22, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” When we humble ourselves today and see our need for a savior, we may then take hold of the One who gave his life for us.