Lent 2a Wed Matthew 27:15-25 Christ’s Blood
Exodus 24:3-8
Our Lenten series entitled “Confessions of Christ’s Enemies” continues tonight with the confession of all the people standing before Pilate who answered, “His blood be on us and our Children.”
Today the word ‘Bloodguilt’ means guilt over resulting from bloodshed. During the time of Christ however, bloodguilt meant something more. For the Hebrew people bloodguilt meant any sin that remained unforgiven would block God’s favor to His people and to the Promised Land of Israel.
In Our Old Testament lesson we read that God made a blood covenant with the Israelites. God redeemed the people from bondage to Egypt by revealing His power to the Israelites. The plagues He sent on the Egyptians, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock and all the other miracles that God revealed to the Israelites as a God of great power and compassion. Through Moses, He gave them not only the 10 Commandments but other commandments as well. He promised to be their God and they would be His people.
Once again just as Adam and Eve were given a choice, the people of Israel had a choice. They could obey God and be blessed or they could disobey God and suffer the consequences.
God promised them, “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.”
“Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves.” (Leviticus 26:3-13 ESV) In fact God promised them even more blessings.
But God also warned them, "But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies.” (Leviticus 26:14-22 ESV) The list of warnings goes on as well.
Obviously knowing what God could do for them, they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. The covenant was sealed with the blood of oxen. Half of the blood was sprinkled on the Altar and half was sprinkled on the people.
When we look at Old Testament history, however, we see that blood covenant played out over and over again. When Israel obeyed God, they prospered, but when they forgot about God, disobeyed the commandments and worshipped idols, they suffered. Even today that Covenant between God and Israel is still in effect. God has always kept His end of the agreement, but the people of Israel never have been able to keep their end. Clearly no one is able to keep all of God’s Commandments. And because God is a God of compassion, He promised to send a Savior, a messiah into the world to save not only the Hebrew people from bondage to sin, but all of mankind. God has also kept that promise.
At just the right time, He sent Jesus into the world to pay for all sin upon the cross. In our Gospel lesson we see Israel is under Roman rule. But even worse, they are under the bondage of sin. As the Savior stands before Pilate, the people are given another choice, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Christ?
We are now halfway into the season of Lent. For those who are members of the Church, Lent is a special time of confession and repentance. It is a time when we look to Jesus Christ and the suffering He is about to undergo for us. But in this time of legalized abortion, gay marriage and heterodox churches, confession and repentance is the furthest thing from many people’s minds.
For countless people, Lent is not a time of repentance but rather it is a time of March madness when basketball takes center stage. As our country is involved in different wars and rumors of wars, and the threat of terror still looming, people are not turning to God but remain caught up in the things of the word easily stirred up by current events rather than looking at the world to come. Lent will end and Easter will come, but March madness never seems to end. The world still chooses to turn away from God.
Barabbas or Jesus; “Which of the two do you want me to release to you? The Israelites called for Barabbas to live and for Christ to die. But Jesus was free of sin; he was not guilty of any crime. Yet the people called out for Him to be crucified. How many of God’s Commandments did the people break when they called out for the death of an innocent man? How many of them showed their lack of faith when they rejected Jesus as their Savior? How many of them realized the curse they were calling down upon themselves and their descendants when they said, “His blood be on us and our children.”
The Jews’ curse upon themselves has been answered in the sufferings of their people ever since. Their temple was destroyed and their land was taken away about forty years later.
They were scattered all over the world but wherever they went they were met with hatred and cruelty. In Spain, Germany and Holland Israelites have suffered the bloodguilt of rejecting God and His Covenants. Even in this country, Jewish people have faced persecution. Even now, we hear about bombings and terrorist’s attacks in Israel on a weekly and sometimes on a daily basis.
Today, Barabbas is still preferred over Jesus whenever sinners reject salvation in order to retain their precious sins and favorite activities. Those who do not worship God by confessing their sins and receiving His forgiveness won by the blood of Christ are essentially saying, “This is my life and I choose to be completely responsible for my own actions. I do not need Jesus nor do I need a Savior; I choose Barabbas instead.” In so doing, they become enemies of Christ and condemn their own souls. Truly, they have the bloodguilt of Jesus upon them.
When the people all called out, “Let His blood be on us and our children!” They took responsibility for their actions that day. Those that did not repent and turn to Jesus still have that bloodguilt upon them.
Ironically, that same confession that because a curse for those who rejected Jesus has become a blessing for all those who believe in Christ. Leviticus (17:11) says, “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” It has always been God’s plan for Jesus to shed His blood on the cross to make atonement for our sins. Unlike the blood of animals that had to be sacrificed over and over again each time one committed new sins, the blood of Christ washes away our sins once and for all.
Blood itself stains and can ruin many of the things it comes in contact with? However, God created blood to be a cleansing agent inside your own body. In your body, blood takes oxygen and other nutrients to cells and removes waste and impurities as it passed through.
Blood literally cleans out the filth from your body. There is no other cleansing agent known to man that can purify our bodily system as well as the blood that flows through your veins. So also there is no other cleansing agent known to man that can rid your soul of its filth and shame better than the Blood of Jesus. Eternal life is found in the blood of Christ; blood ordained by God to be used to forgive you and me of our sin.
Jesus said to His disciples (John 6:53-57), “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.”
Jesus instituted that New Covenant at His Passover meal when He said, “Take and eat, this is my body given for you.” Then He said “take and drink this is my blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.” Therefore according to His New Covenant, you receive His body and blood each time you share in His supper and because it is the Lord’s Supper, you receive His promise. When you come humbly before Him faithfully confessing your sins, you receive His body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. When you eat and drink His body and blood without recognizing your Savior, as Saint Paul warns, you are calling down the covenant curse upon yourself.
Therefore, may you always choose to confess Christ as your Savior to His eternal glory and to your salvation. And may His precious saving blood be on you and your children now and forever, Amen.