Leviticus 16:3

³But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁵And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁷Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the LORD at the entrance of the tent of meeting. ⁸And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for Azazel. ⁹And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the LORD and use it as a sin offering, ¹⁰but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. ¹⁵"Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. ²¹And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. ²²The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

(Lev 16:3-24 ESV)

The president of our Synod recently said, "The crisis in preaching in our church body today is that pastors are not taking people by the throats and holding them up to the wall and saying, 'You are dying.'" President Harrison is right. You are dying and by your own merits are going to hell.

The Law of God takes us out of our comfort zone and shows us the reality of our sin. It shows us who we really are, as opposed to who we think we are. It makes us squirm. It slays us. It holds us up against the wall by our throats and says, "You are going to die."

We only have to look at the bickering that goes on, the pride, the desire for recognition. See the criticism, the fingers pointing, like a bunch of children fighting on a playground.

But the worst sin is what we don't do. Our greatest sin is what we have left undone. We have not loved each other. We don't love our husbands or wives as much as we should. We don't love the people outside our small group. We have not been zealous about bringing people to hear God's Word. We have not been enthusiastic about evangelism. We have not reached out to hurting people. We don't forgive when someone hurts us. We don't ask forgiveness when we hurt someone else. And for all this God says we deserve his punishment in hell.

God holds up the law in our face like a mirror and says, "Just look at yourself. What do you see? Is what you see what following Jesus is all about? Is this how children of God behave?" The law of God condemns all to the wrath of God.

All that is wrong! This sin; this separation from God; this wrath; this death; even hell is wrong. It is not God's will. It is not the way God created things to be. He is a God of life, not of death.

So God has done something to solve the problem. We are on the road to hell, but Jesus did something about that. We are under God's wrath, but he has quenched that wrath and made peace with God. Jesus has reconciled us to God. He has atoned for your sins by placing them on his head and running away with them into the wilderness. He was sacrificed to pay for them in blood.

One week ago the Jewish community around the world celebrated the Day of Atonement. The day which we just read about in our text. On that day, two goats were presented to God. One goat was offered as a sacrifice for sin. It's blood was poured out and so it died, because the life is in the blood. The blood was then sprinkled on the ark of the covenant to atone for the sins of the people. Then the goat was burned in a holocaust as a sacrifice to God for sin.

The priest took the other goat and placed his hand on its head. He confessed the sins of the people over it, and then, with their sins on its head, it was led out into the wilderness to carry away the sins of the people. As far as the east is from the west, so are your sins removed from you. That is atonement. The blood sacrifice and the carrying away of sin.

Blood? Yes! "There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood," says the Book of Hebrews. Jesus is the goat that shed his blood for your sin. Jesus is the goat that carried away your sin as far as East is from the West. By our own merits we all are going to hell, but Christ did something about it. He shed his blood and carried away our sins. St. Peter says, "You were ransomed from your futile ways with the precious blood of Christ." And he says, "Christ took your sin into his own flesh that we might die to sins and live for righteousness." The Apostle John says, "The blood of Christ purifies us from all sin." Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Everything is purified with blood. So if you want forgiveness, you need the blood of God that purifies you. If you want to be free from the terrible wrath of God, you need the blood of the Lamb. If you want to escape the fire of hell, you need the blood of Christ. The Book of Revelation tells us: "Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood." It's all about the blood!

Jesus says, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life." There is life in the blood of Jesus. In the Old Testament, God prohibited the drinking of the blood of an animal. He says, "You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood." Also, "the life of every creature is its blood; its blood is its life. Therefore I have said, 'You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood.'" Life is in the blood. Therefore it was forbidden to eat the blood.

But now Jesus says, "If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. But, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him."

The life is in the blood. We are allowed to drink the blood of Jesus, because it is His blood that gives us life. When we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus, life is literally poured into us. That very blood which Jesus shed for the forgiveness of sins is the life blood of the world.

So, when Jesus says, "Take, drink. This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins," he is offering you his very own blood. That same blood which he shed for the forgiveness of sins. That blood which contains the life of Jesus. When that blood comes into you it gives you life; eternal life. By nature you deserve hell; by the blood of Jesus you escape hell. For all the things you have done, and all the love and good deeds you have not done, you deserve the eternal wrath of God; by the blood of Jesus you are redeemed from God's wrath and set free or order to love one another.

And now Jesus makes that blood available to you in the Sacrament of the Altar. Jesus gives you this precious blood of life, of forgiveness. The blood that atoned for your sins. "Take, drink," he said, "This cup is the New Testament in my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of sins."

In the Lord's Prayer we pray: "Give us this day our daily bread." And immediately after, in the same sentence in the Greek, we say, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgiven those who trespass against us." The early church understood this as Communion. The daily bread is the bread of life; the flesh of Christ, which we eat at the Communion rail and the blood which we drink which gives us the forgiveness of sins.

Therefore, Holy Communion is not just some ritual that we perform every other Lord's Day. It is not just a rite or a ceremony. It is not a commemoration of Christ's death. It is not an expression of fellowship or friendship. It is not reaching out to others. It is not just to make us feel good. It is not just something we tack on to the worship service every now and then.

It is the source and center of our life in Christ. It is an integral part of worship. It is why the church gathers on the Lord's Day; so it can be taught and fed by Jesus Christ himself.

Holy Communion is God working in you. It is God giving you forgiveness of sin. It is God nourishing your faith. It is God pouring his lifeblood into you. It is God releasing you from the threat of hell. It is God laying down his wrath against you. It is God restoring you to communion with him. God is doing something to you in Holy Communion! God is changing you! God is fixing up what is wrong with you!

If God were a surgeon, Holy Communion is the instruments he uses to operate on your heart. It is the scalpel, the forceps, the clamps, the retractors, the distracters, the trocars, the dilators, the specula. If God were a craftsman, Holy Communion is his workbench, his hammer, his power saw, screw driver, pliers, and vise grips. God is at work in you when you come to the altar to receive his holy body and precious blood. This is where he does his work. In the sermon, you hear about his promises and gifts. In prayer, you ask for his promises and gifts. In the Sacrament, you receive them.

You are God's workmanship. First he created you. Then he redeemed you by his death on the cross. Then he called you with the Gospel. Then he washed away your sins and made you his child in Baptism. And now he keeps on forgiving you, bringing you back into fellowship with him, giving you life, and producing the works of righteousness and love for one another in Holy Communion. The Apostle Paul writes, "You are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." You are his workmanship. He is the potter, the craftsman, the surgeon that is operating on you, repairing you, restoring you. His work is not yet done. You only have to look at your own life in order to see that. But in Holy Communion he continues to work on you, fix you, perfect you, and preserve you in your calling as God's children. Thanks be to God! Amen.