Blood is precious. It sustains our life, without it our heart stops and we perish. Blood is life, “for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the LORD. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.” (Leviticus 17:11). Perhaps that is why seeing it shed makes us uneasy, because if there is crimson pools on the ground or walls, we know a person has lost too much and is dead.
Our bodies house the red matter, that fuels our brains, hearts, veins, and organs. It is unseen until something causes us fo bleed. Every drop is precious and our instinct is to plug the wound with salve and bandage. The Divine did the opposite. God became a man, and opened His body as a living sacrifice, His blood poured out of His side, “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” (John 19:34). Christ did not covet His blood, but spilt it so that we may be cleansed of all sin, and enter heaven and the holiest place:
Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--” (Revelation 1:5)
“This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5,7)
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest place by the blood of Jesus..” (Hebrews 10:19)
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14 KJV)
“Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.” (Hebrews 13:12 KJV)
“Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:9 KJV)
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28 KJV)
Our Lord tore open His body to make propitiation. The Roman soldiers were His executioners and coroners, but even they were obeying His will and the Will of His Father, “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father." (John 10:17-18).
Filius Hominis Interfecerunt
“The carnage at Calvary was not a crime scene, but Christ who committed no crime dying for all criminals, all sinners.
The Son of Man-slaughtered, the Son of God offered, until on the Third Day He rose from the dead. The crimson pools washed many fools, so that with God they may rule.
The stains of His blood loss upon that cross, were the cost that saved the lost. The marks of His sorrow, carried through marrow, poured forth to harrow those who were more precious than sparrows.” (Jeffrey Pendragon, March XXVIII: 28, Year MMXIX: 2019)
Amen.
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