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sermonette: Room for Empathy
Austin Del Castillo
Given 21-Sep-26; Sermon #1895s; 11 minutes
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The Day of Atonement uniquely commands fasting because it portrays a profound reality: Jesus Christ, not Satan, is the sin-bearer pictured by the goat of departure. Scripture declares that God laid humanity's iniquity upon Christ, who became sin for us, bearing the weight of our separation from the Father. This role extends beyond the crucifixion, pointing forward to Christ's continuing work of carrying away the sins of humanity and making forgiveness possible. Because believers are members of Christ's body and He is their Head, Atonement fasting is more than remembrance of His suffering—it represents empathy and spiritual participation in the burden He bears as Savior. Understanding this gives the fast a deeply personal meaning: we share, in a small but profound way, in the significance of Christ's ongoing work of reconciliation and atonement.
But my subject of today is going to of course consider atonement, but um The point of this particular message began in my mind about a year ago when I spoke on the Day of Atonement at that time. Uh, as I considered the Day of Atonement and its many facets, one question kept coming to the forefront of my thoughts. That question is, why are we commanded to afflict our souls on this day? Yes like most of us, I've heard many years of messages that address the act of fasting on this day. Naturally the thought pretty much goes to the need to humble ourselves before God and to achieve at onement with God and Jesus Christ, which of course makes sense to all of us. The question that keeps coming to my mind is why on this particular day and not commanded on the other holy days too fast or afflict ourselves. If we think about it, we are actually commanded to eat all through the Days of Unleavened Bread. We cannot choose to fast during that period if our intent is to obey God. So what is it about atonement that God commands us to fast on this day? In II Peter 3:18, we are told, not asked, told by our God through Peter to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The only way I can take this to mean is that we as God's people must always be learning something we did not realize before about Jesus our Savior. Like a good number of us, I was called some decades ago. Guess what? I still do not feel I fully understand our savior Jesus Christ the way I should. So What's up with my wandering about why afflict ourselves on this day? Well, actually it has a lot to do with our recent realization in our particular group anyway. That it's Jesus and not Satan who is the actual goat of departure. The goat on whose head all the sins of Israel and all of mankind for that matter are laid on his head. I feel that I need to take us to a couple of scriptures that plainly tell us this. And that Jesus was required to do by the Father as part of Jesus' job when he became a human being. And walked among us. Please do turn to Isaiah 53 and 6. Isaiah 53 and 6. Here we read All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. This particular scripture could not be more plain. God the Father laid all of our sins on his son Jesus Christ. We know this because this chapter of Isaiah is describing our Messiah and what he has, he was going to face to have to endure in in order to become our savior, the things he was going to have to go through. God did not place the sins of all mankind on the head of Satan or any demon. They will answer for their own sins. God placed all of our sins on our Savior, Jesus Christ. We as God's people need to accept this. It's the reality of our situation. If any of us refuse to acknowledge this and want to hold to what we were told back in the Worldwide Church of God, we are denying the plain truth of God's word. Do we really want to give preference to our tradition instead of God's inspired word? I truly hope not. We can also remember what we find in II Corinthians 5:21. Uh, where we read II Corinthians 5: 21. For he made him who knew no sin to be sinned for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Let's consider what happened while our Savior was on the cross and all the sky darkened from 120 to about 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. What was taking place at that time? Jesus Himself provides us with what was actually happening. He says, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Yes, he's quoting from the first words of Psalm 22, which is an obviously Messianic Psalm. Why was Jesus quoting that Psalm at that specific time? Isn't it because the fulfillment of that psalm was taking place? At that exact moment. The dark that came upon the land represented the sins of all mankind being laid on him. At that time God the Father had to break the oneness they had always shared at that moment. God the Father cannot be with anyone filled with sin. He cannot be one with anyone filled with sin. Jesus felt completely alone, and that's why he said what he said. And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. That meant that sins of all mankind, past, present, and future. We need to consider that when we are baptized these days, Jesus is still taking on our sins by his shed blood in order to be set free from our own doings. That's how we began to walk at liberty. As Psalm 119 and verse 45 clearly tells us, we are now walking at liberty. Let's remember that the Day of Atonement, according to God's plan of salvation. Comes after the Feast of Trumpets, which we understand to picture the powerful return of Christ to this earth and forcefully establish His kingdom. That kingdom is going to be made up of resurrected spirit beings and what remains of humanity who survived what took place. These human survivors are going to be unconverted peoples who will still resist God's way of life, including what remains of Israel, who will be brought back to physical life as is described in the book of Ezekiel and chapter 37, the Valley of Dry Bones, if we recall. There will be millions of people who will be given the opportunity to take part in the salvation process. They will need to have their sins removed and be forgiven. This is where the role of our savior, Savior will still be active as the goat of departure. The sins of all remaining humanity who choose to respond to God's way of life. will be laid on his head as he takes those sins away into the wilderness. That wilderness, by the way, to my understanding at least, represents the eternal distance. And it is an eternal distance as we can see in Psalm 103 and verse 12. 10 Psalms 103 and verse 12, it says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. Sometimes I have to think. Imagine being out in space and you need to find the distance between the east and the west. How would that be accomplished? I mean, it would be millions of light years. It would just be It's so far away that God has removed our sins from us. It is here that our need to fast on this day may become more clear to us if we take into account what God's word tells us in Ephesians, the first chapter, verses 22 through 23, tell us that we are members of Christ's body and He is our head. Then we are fasting today not only in sympathy that would be feeling sorry for what he's going through. But in truth, Empathy Sympathy is the act of feeling bad for someone who is suffering somehow. Empathy is the act of feeling that suffering along with them. When we really care about someone, we feel their pain in ourselves, not just feel bad for them. I remember that feeling when we had small children and they would get sick. I was not I was not having sympathy for them. I was going through it with them, asking God to please put that on me instead of them. So it was that it was that intense. We are actually feeling the weight of our Savior's role in this matter. This is an extreme hardship that has been given to our head as savior of mankind. If we actually consider the ramifications of accepting our role of being a part of Christ's body, Then the act of our fasting today is even more significant. Then some of us, some of us may have considered. Only a loving God can help us understand where those considerations could lead us in further understanding who we are in becoming a part of Jesus our Savior. And what becoming part of the God family includes for us.