Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Praise to God the Help of Israel

The Lord’s Remission

15 “You must cancel your debts at the end of every seventh year. ² This is the way to conduct remission: every creditor must cancel the loan that his friend borrowed, and he must not pressure his friend or brother to repay it,^[a] because remission to the Lord will be proclaimed. ³ You may exact payment from a foreigner, but cancel whatever your brother owes you. ⁴ Moreover, there will be no poor person among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that he^[b] is about to give you to possess. ⁵ Only be certain to obey the voice of the Lord your God. Carefully observe all of these commands that I’m commanding you today, ⁶ because the Lord your God will bless you just as he promised. You are to lend to many nations, but not to borrow. Also, you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.”

Care for the Poor

⁷ “If there should be a poor man among your relatives^[c] in one of the cities of the land that the Lord your God is about to give you, don’t be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your poor relative.^{[d] 8} Instead, be sure to open your hand to him and lend him enough to lessen his need. ⁹ Be careful not to think this wicked thought to yourselves: ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is drawing near…’ and you show ill will^[e] toward your poor relative^[f] and not give to him. He may then call to the Lord on account of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ You must certainly give to him and not feel regret for doing so.^[g] Because of this, the Lord your God will bless all your works and everything you do. ¹¹ Since poor people won’t cease to exist in the land, I’m commanding you: Be sure to display generosity^[h] to your poor and needy relatives in your land.”

The Messiah is the Mediator of a New Covenant

¹⁵ This is why the Messiah^[a] is the mediator of a new covenant; so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance promised them, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the offenses committed under the first covenant. ¹⁶ For where there is a will, the death of the one who made it must be established. ¹⁷ For a will is in force only when somebody has died, since it never takes effect as long as the one who made it is alive. ¹⁸ This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. ¹⁹ For after every commandment in the Law had been spoken to all the people by Moses, he took the blood of calves and goats,^[b] together with some water, scarlet wool, and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people, ²⁰ saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God ordained for you.”^{[c] 21} In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and everything used in worship. ²² In fact, under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of the blood there is no forgiveness.

The Messiah’s Perfect Sacrifice

²³ Thus it was necessary for these earthly^[d] copies of the things in heaven to be cleansed by these sacrifices,^[e] but the heavenly things themselves are made clean^[f] with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴ For the Messiah^[g] did not go into a sanctuary made by human^[h] hands that is merely a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear now in God’s presence on our behalf.