The Better Blood
Maundy Thursday
Leviticus 4 3 “If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people, he is to present to the Lord a young, unblemished bull as a sin offering for the sin he has committed. 4 He is to bring the bull to the entrance to the tent of meeting before the Lord, lay his hand on the bull’s head, and slaughter it before the Lord. 5 The anointed priest will then take some of the bull’s blood and bring it into the tent of meeting. 6 The priest is to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the Lord in front of the curtain of the sanctuary. 7 The priest is to apply some of the blood to the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the Lord in the tent of meeting. He must pour out the rest of the bull’s blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance to the tent of meeting.”
Leviticus 4:3-7 CSB
Our children have found money can be tight when they go off to college. They find part time jobs during the school year and fulltime work during the summer. But still with tuition, room and board, gas, car upkeeps, food, and so forth, it is a struggle. Some of our children found a renewable source of income in their own bodies: their blood. Donating their blood. Their blood was money! They could earn up to $50 per donation. All it takes is a needle in the arm and you are in and out in about an hour.
These Old Testament altar sacrifices pictured a similar thing for the Israelites. Many of them raised sheep, goats, and cattle. Every family owned some or had to buy some. So, God requiring the blood of those animals would have been an “expense” to them. The God-given ritual of temple sacrifices taught these people over many centuries – as they saw it with their very eyes – the value of blood. But it did another thing too. It taught them that their own blood wasn’t going to work –God required blood from an animal, not just any animal, but an animal that was unblemished – pure, perfect. Blood that was not their own and blood from a creature that was unblemished.
When we talk about our offspring proudly, we might say, “that’s my flesh and blood” (“they’re from me”). Blood is, in a very real sense, the essence of our life, of our worth. It’s why God said to Moses in Leviticus 17, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement.” (Lev. 17:11). But the Israelites own blood, their own worth and value, wasn’t good enough, for their lives were greatly blemished lives. And therefore their blood was contaminated blood; it could not pay to God what their deeds deserved. And when you read through Leviticus and the other first four books of Moses, it becomes clear that we in the 21st century with all our progress and technology are blemished in the same way they were – the sins they committed back then are the ones we continue to commit today.
You and I – we are not different. Our tongues are tainted with slander and gossip (even of our Christian brothers and sisters). Our hearts are full of pride – soaked full of arrogance. When we fall short, we justify ourselves by referring to our “good intentions” or we say, “Well, I did the best I could” (which is hardly if ever the case). Consider our deeds left undone, the kind words we never spoke, failing to put the best construction on something someone did or said, rejoicing when someone got what he deserved, getting provoked when someone says something to us or about us that we think should not have been said. Just think of things done or said within our own families or within our own congregation, not to mention the thoughts and attitudes in our hearts that no one will ever know, except God who searches our hearts. We have a blemished record, blemished lives, and therefore impure blood that cannot pay for and cover our sins.
Our blemished lives and the sins we commit run deep. Very deep. And if we think otherwise, consider the words of the hymn-writer: “Ye who think of sin but lightly Nor suppose the evil great.” And then goes on to say, “Here may view its nature rightly, Here its guilt may estimate“. What is the “here”? He tells us in the next line: “Mark the sacrifice appointed.”
I cannot come to God the Almighty and All-Just and appeal to him on the basis of my own goodness, as if I had an unblemished life; I cannot appeal to my own flesh and blood. You and I need someone’s blood who is distinct from ours, who comes with a true unblemished life from the time of his conception until the moment he shed his blood. We need someone else’s better blood.
That better blood was foreshadowed in the Old Testament; it was what all the Old Testament sacrifices were pointing to. The better blood – the only blood that would work – was finally provided and serves us now – Jesus’ blood. He and his shed blood were “the sacrifice appointed.”
The New Testament book of Hebrews is, in many ways, sort of like the sequel book to Leviticus. It points out all those Old Testament sacrifices commissioned by God have come to an end and have made way to the perfect, lasting, and saving sacrifice:
“For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?”
Heb. 9:13-14 CSB
We sometimes say, “money talks.” And that’s true in many cases. But in God the Father’s payment office and courtroom, there is only one money that talks. Jesus’ blood is the money! And it speaks loudly and winsomely in your behalf. St. John writes:
“If anyone sins, (that one who sins) has an Advocate (a defense attorney) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (unblemished) One. And He Himself is the propitiation (the blood-money that talks) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2)
When we enter this house where the Holy God has promised to be present, we are able to do so only because of the blood of Jesus. When we walk about day by day living as we ought to live, it is only because of the blood of Jesus. When we pray to our heavenly Father bringing our requests to Him and He answers, it is only because of the blood of Jesus. And when we breathe our last breath on earth knowing full well that we will enter paradise, it is only because of the blood – the better blood – of Jesus. His blood is blood for living and blood for dying.
This blood of Jesus – this better blood – was there on the cross, paying for what no animal and what we could not pay for. And this blood of Jesus will be present very soon, along with his body, in the sacrament of the altar.
Do you need this blood? Your life, your very blemished life, says you do. The blemished and harsh world you have lived in and still live in says you do. This blood will not harm you. As you come in repentance, as you come in faith that this blood has covered all your sins, as you come believing that his body and blood are truly present in the bread and wine, it will only bless you, it will only comfort you, it will only assure you, it will only strengthen you. Amen.
(KM; 3/22/2021; BL)
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