If you’ve gone to a popular nightclub or a new restaurant, then you know about SRO – standing room only. SRO is an acronym used by some in the entertainment or restaurant business. If your franchise is in a state of SRO, that’s good. It means your establishment is packed to the gills.
The writer to the Hebrews discusses SRO –“standing room only.” He does so as he discusses the superiority of Christ. In this letter, the author convincingly argues for the superiority of Christ’s person -- he greater than the angels, the prophets, and the priests of Aaron’s order. Then he shows us that Christ’s priestly work is superior to that of the Aaronic pries in the Old Testament.
Jesus is superior and as a result there will be SRO – “standing room only.” Consider what St. John said about the crowd in heaven, the multitude of redeemed saints: “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” SRO – “standing room only.”
What a blessed hope to have! One day we will stand with fellow believers before our glorified Savior. The reason is that Jesus Christ is our superior Savior. He makes it possible for heavenly STANDING ROOM ONLY. The reason is because of Christ’s faithful work. 1) Christ Jesus didn’t sit down on the job. The result is SRO. And the proof is further evident in our lives because 2) Christ has put up his feet. The result is SRO.
1) Christ Jesus Didn’t Sit Down on the Job
Everyone has had one of those days. You come home from work or school, and for whatever reason, you feel as if you’ve been on your feet all day long. I know for some of us that is a daily reality. If you’ve ever spent a good amount of time on your feet, you will feel it.
The Old Testament priests knew what it was like to stand all day long. They always stood while serving in the temple. God never invited them to take a seat and rest from their work. The Old Testament temple furniture included a table, a lampstand, an altar of incense, and the Ark of the Covenant behind a thick curtain. But there never was a chair. On returning home from working at the temple, an Old Testament priest would rightly say, “I’ve been on my feet all day.” If an Israelite ever saw a priest sitting down, it meant he wasn’t on the job. It was SRO – “standing room only” – for the priests.
The picture of rest was an important part of what we call the “old covenant”. The ceremonial and civil laws that God placed on the Israelites were stringent. And there were specific regulations as to how and when the people would find rest. Certain days were required days of rest for the people. There were specific periods of time when the people could not plant or plow their fields because the land needed to “rest.”
God’s intent was to get the people’s attention. He wanted them to understand the blessedness of rest. How good it is to cease from labor; to have a day off; or even just to have a 15-minute break when a person can sit down and get off his feet. But as a whole, the Old Testament priesthood never rested. That’s because their work was never done. The countless animal sacrifices they were obliged to offer never removed a speck of sin from a single heart. The daily slaughter at the temple would continue as long as sin continued – daily.
Old Covenant sacrifices were offered day after day; year after year. In the course of a single year priests would slaughter approximately 1,100 lambs, 113 bulls, 37 rams, 30 goats. They also offered over 2,500 grain and drink offerings to God. It was continual. The purpose was to teach the people that on their own, by their own devises, they could never achieve spiritual rest. It would always be a case of SRO – standing room only – for those who try to gain favor with God.
The same is true of us. If we try to gain spiritual rest for ourselves it will be a matter of “standing room only.” We’d all be working incessantly in a fruitless attempt to win our own salvation! How sad it is when people try to gain favor before God on their own terms and try so hard to make themselves acceptable to God. In our society we have countless people trying to achieve the correct “religious experience.” So many are seeking emotional rest before God. And yet they feel it is a matter of what they must do. And what they do must be done “correctly.” So individuals seek the “right” music to properly stir emotions and to put them into the right frame of mind to find God, or they seek the “right” speaker who will validate their desire for self-esteem, or people will seek out the “right” ministry center with the appropriate family programs to accommodate their weary schedules. Dog-tired souls will seek ways to find immediate results to an eternal problem. Guilty sinners continually attempt to stand before God and say, “See! Look at how hard I’m working!” And soon worship becomes a place of SRO – standing room only – as people try to desperately gain an audience with God
After awhile the work becomes too much. The time comes when we must sit down from sheer exhaustion. It’s impossible to please a just God, but there is no room to sit down when God expects SRO. It’s not about what we can do for God, but what God has done for us. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that there is One who has come to put an end to this perpetual dilemma – seeking rest with God. It’s Jesus Christ, our great High Priest who came to offer the ultimate sacrifice – himself. Notice the stark contrast in our reading: “Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made perfect.”
Jesus sat down! When Jesus offered himself on the cross, he put an end to the daily routine of Old Testament sacrifice. He put an end to the frantic Standing Room Only attitude of the sinful flesh, which desperately attempts to gain rest and favor from God on its own. Christ’s sacrifice is all there will ever need to be to take away sins. Jesus is not sitting down on the job. He’s sitting down because the job is finished. He’s sitting down because rest has been achieved. And he achieved it for us! Jesus put an end to the desperate Standing Room Only dilemma. We don’t need to fight to get to the front of the crowd in a hysterical attempt to get God’s attention. Instead Jesus says, “Come to me you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” In other words, Jesus is telling us to simply trust in him for our salvation. “Take a load off,” Jesus says, “sit down and place your sins on me.”
We can trust Jesus because he isn’t sitting down like some wallflower at the school dance dreaming of a dance with the prom king, but too shy to make a move. And Jesus isn’t nervously seated on a folding chair in the school spelling Bee, quietly wondering about his abilities, and timidly waiting for us to cheer him on. Instead, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. He is seated in a position of authority and power. He is in the best seat possible – next to his heavenly Father. There is no place of greater glory than at the right hand of God. And Jesus is there to intercede for us on our behalf. He continues to remind his Father that we are his children on the basis of his past sacrifice.
2) Christ Jesus Put His Feet Up
Jesus has his Father’s attention and reminds him that our sins are forgiven because our enemies are conquered. The writer to the Hebrews quotes from Psalm 110 to prove this truth: “from that time on he waits until his enemies be placed as a footstool for his feet.” What’s a throne without a good footstool? Our High Priest is also our King. And on the Last Day he will victoriously tower over his enemies. Jesus has conquered sin, death, and the devil through his death and resurrection. And one day it will be evident for all to see. Just like a champion in battle, Jesus will put his foot on the neck of his enemies to demonstrate complete control over them.
If you’ve ever purchased new furniture, then you understand the nature of this footstool. Perhaps you’ve picked out a new living room or dining room set, or maybe it was that new bedroom suite. You go to the showroom, decide what you want, and then you go home to make room for the furniture to be delivered. The house may look odd for a time – an obvious bare space here or there – but you know as soon as the furniture is delivered that space will be filled up. Jesus’ footstool hasn’t been delivered yet, but God says not to worry its on order; he promises it. Christ’s footstool will be delivered to him. And Jesus fully intends to rest his feet on it -- on the necks of sin, death, and the devil.
There’s that obvious space available in God’s throne room. But don’t be fooled. Jesus has made room. He’s ordered the furniture. And one day he’ll make sure it’s delivered. And whenever Jesus intercedes for us its as if he points to that empty space at his feet, and then his Father is reminded of that divine footstool on order. Jesus has conquered our enemies. The Father is further reminded of why Jesus conquered our enemies, its so we might gain access into his presence. And the Father is pleased! God the Father is pleased because our consciences have been cleansed from guilt. We are now able to approach God and know we are acceptable worshipers. We have been brought into a perfect relationship with God. And the day is coming when we will experience it in real time for all eternity.
God is serious about this. In fact he testifies to it: The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says, “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds; “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” God has made a new agreement or covenant with us. And it is so comforting to hear God tell us who is responsible for this agreement being kept. He says, “I will put … I will write … I will remember no more.” This is all God. The Old Covenant -- the one God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai and was further ratified in the sacrificial code -- that covenant failed, not because it was bad, but because it required faithfulness, and people are not faithful. This new covenant is based on Christ Jesus, its based on grace alone, and this one will not fail.
Did you notice where God chose to record this new covenant? He didn’t write it on stone, but in flesh. He put it on our hearts. This new agreement with God is not about outward obedience but about inward joy. The power of Christ’s work is behind this new agreement. And it penetrates the inner being of the soul. It brings faith to dead hearts and leads people to rise up in joy. We have received this new covenant or agreement from God. It is the gospel – the good news that our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. The Holy Spirit has revealed this news to us in the Word and sacraments and he has brought us to faith. It’s as if he’d written the gospel on our hearts and minds. This news is that intimate and real to us. We now know God more deeply and personally than ever before because it’s Jesus who reveals the Father’s heart to us, and in turn, he reveals our hearts to the Father.
The Old Testament worship was a continual reminder of sin. There would be standing room only as you came to the temple, especially on a festival day when the sacrifices were multiplied. As those animals died before your eyes, you were reminded of the punishment for your sins. You could see the blood splattered on the priest’s clothes. Touch was involved as you would lay your hand on the animal’s head, as if to transfer you sins to the animal, and then its neck was slit. The sound of the ritualized slaughterhouse, the smell of the burning meat, even the taste of it in the air, it all communicated death. And you would be reminded of what God says about the payment for sin.
Memory was an important part of the sacrificial code in the old covenant. But now we hear how lack of memory – God’s memory – was crucial to the new covenant. God would forgive wickedness and the guilt attached to it. He wouldn’t overlook it or ignore it. God forgives sin because he has dealt with it through the atoning sacrifice of his Son. The Father doesn’t keep files of our sins. He won’t dredge them up from the past. He wipes them completely from his memory by the blood of his Son. They are forgiven and forgotten by the grace of God.
The first readers of this letter were familiar with the commotion and sacrificial death that permeated their worship. They knew about SRO as they tried to get to the temple, fighting through the crowds, with their lamb or goat for sacrifice. But now there is a stark transition. The absence of those sacrifices means something important has happened. If there is no longer any need for sacrifices to be offered, then sin has been removed. Forever.
That’s the truth the Holy Spirit places in our hearts and minds by the gospel. We can put our feet up and relax. We can worship with our feet up. We do not need to frantically crowd together as if God-pleasing worship is primarily about us offering the “right” music, prayer, or preaching. Worship is about praising God for what he offers, and proclaiming his love. We believe the blood of Christ forgives us and that means our salvation is complete. In our worship we offer sacrifices of love and thanks. So put your feet up and know we are able to worship in freedom and truth!
What a joy if we could witness Standing Room Only as our members regularly gather – making the time, giving a gift, offering sincere service – in worship to our Lord and Savior. It is worth it. Spurring on one another, reminding each other that we have a living Savior – it’s worth the time. Serving one another out of love to the One who first served us – it’s worth the energy.
The Standing Room Only attitude of thanks and gratitude that we exhibit in this place and on this side of heaven is merely a reflection of the Spirit-written hope we have of what’s to come: Standing Room Only before the throne and in front of the Lamb. All the redeemed wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands, crying out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and ever.” Amen.
