The Lord said to Moses:... “This is how Aaron is to enter the Most Holy Place: He must first bring a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on. From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.
“Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat.
Leviticus 16:2-10

"God has come to dwell among his people. The tent has been purified by the Day of Atonement. It's a reset. And the sins that have polluted Israel and polluted the tent are exiled in the form of a goat that's sent out of the camp. All that is accomplished so that God can live among his people."
-Tim Mackie, The Bible Project

And so Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.”
Hebrews 13:12

And so Jesus suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.”
Hebrews 13:12

Jesus accomplishes permanently what the Day of Atonement symbolized temporarily.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:13-15

"We stand between the resurrection of Jesus as the great sign of God’s new creation and the final renewal of the whole world, which has already begun and will be completed on the last day."
- NT Wright

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you onChrist’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Bottom Line

Jesus makes us a way for us to be reconciled to God so that we may become reconcilers to the world.

Ways to practice horizontal reconciliation:

1. Start in your own backyard
2. Become an everyday peacemaker
3. Extend the love of Christ to those in yourneighborhood & communities
4. Share the hope of Christ with those who are hurting
5. Practice generosity
6. Care for the marginalized
7. Work for justice

Action Steps

Enter into vertical reconciliation with God.

Identify one practical way you can join God’s reconciling work in the world this week.

• Love and serve a neighbor
• Reconcile with someone you have a conflict with
• Join a Kingdom Community – student mentor, racial peacemaking, Celebrate Recovery, human trafficking