But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.” John 20:11-12
The two angels sitting “one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” brings to mind the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in Exodus 25 which was where the High Priest sprinkled the blood of atonement each year pointing to the coming sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold; two and a half cubits shall be its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work you shall make them at the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub at one end, and the other cherub at the other end; you shall make the cherubim at the two ends of it of one piece with the mercy seat. And the cherubim shall stretch out their wings above, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and they shall face one another; the faces of the cherubim shall be toward the mercy seat. You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the Testimony that I will give you. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. Exodus 25:17-22
And indeed the Apostle John tells us that Christ is the propitiation for our sins. The Greek word for propitiation in the New Testament and the word in the Septuagint, Old Testament in Greek, LXX, for mercy seat are derived from the same word.
“My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2
The Lord Jesus Christ is our mercy seat!
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