The Feasts of the Lord, Part 3 - The Day of Atonement

What would it take to bridge the chasm that separates God from God's beloved creation?  The people of Israel were taught in one of their great feast days - the Day of Atonement - that sacrifice was necessary.  On that day, the high priest performed two rituals: first, he would make a blood sacrifice in the Temple and second he would declare the sins of the people to be laid on the back of an animal he would then send off into the wilderness.  Both Paul in his letter to the Romans and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews clearly saw this feast as pointing to the work of Christ Jesus who is perfect priest, perfect sacrifice, and the perfect one on whom all our sins are laid.  In Christ's sacrifice, all that alienates us from God is overcome so that atonement (at-one-ment) can happen.