Cleansed (?) by the Blood
The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Exodus 24:3–8 / Psalm 116:13 / Hebrews 9:11–15 / Mark 14:12–16, 22–26
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Reflecting on the Word
By Dr. Karla J. Bellinger
“Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people? Yuck . . . gross.” Her face wrinkled with disgust. As I looked around the room, all of their faces said the same. Sacrifice and the splashing of blood and the slaughter of heifers and goats; the ninth-grade girls whom I taught had no cultural framework for that use of blood. “That’s repulsive,” they grimaced.
We talk about “the bread” on this feast day. But what about “the blood”?
The Hebrews sacrificed an animal for its blood. Blood was life. Life was from God. Sprinkling with blood was to purify, to set things right, to atone for sin. To sin meant to throw things out of kilter, to break a relationship, to miss the mark of what we should be or do, to sever a bond. So the blood was for cleaning things up. But why did they need to do that?
At the core of Jewish theology is the “bigness” of God. God is untouchable. God is inaccessible. The God who is holy is so pure that sin cannot even be looked upon. We who are sinful, therefore, have no access to the Almighty. The atonement of blood made things right again when people messed up and strayed. Think of the psalms: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”
The reading from Hebrews also talks about this cleansing of blood. But goat and bull blood are temporary. Jesus shed his own blood so that we would be made clean eternally; clean so that we could draw near to God. He said, “This is my blood,” then took a cup, and they all drank from it. Did they, like those teenagers, maybe . . . gag a little?
Consider/Discuss:
- “Wash up for dinner,” my grandmother used to say. I can still hear her words. “Wash up for dinner;” whenever we say the words, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” Jesus says back to us that we will be healed—also made clean, restored, and sanctified. Have we grown so accustomed to that cleansing of Jesus’ blood that we don’t think about it? Does it (or should it) unsettle us a little bit?
- When our image of God grows inordinately small, almost teddy bear–like, we can become presumptuous, as though we ask, God is so nice, how could we not “get through?” What happens to our worldview if we grow blasé about the “bigness” of God? What does that do to reverence and awe?
Living and Praying with the Word
Jesus, Blood of cleansing, you have opened the way for us to be holy. You came to make things right. Yet we are still broken. We still mess up. Life knocks us around. Life knocks around those we love. Wash us this day with your Blood, for we want to be healers as well. You who are infinite have chosen to dwell among us. Let us not take you for granted. Come, Lord Jesus; bring us into your presence, so that we can bring you to others.