Isaiah 52: 13 – 53: 12; Psalm 22: 1 - 21;Hebrews 10: 1 – 25; John 18: 1- 19: 37
A homily by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, IL; and at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL; Friday, April 14th, 2006
“Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9: 22 NRSV)
On this Good Friday, when we remember our Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, His precious blood spilled on the hard wood of the cross, it might be well for us to reflect a little on the meaning of that sacrifice, made once for all time on this day.
“The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar, for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement.” (Leviticus 17: 11 NRSV)
Why is shedding blood necessary to cleanse us from sin? The pattern is very clear in the Old Testament, as we can see in the passage from Leviticus, quoted above. And the New Testament picks up the theme, particularly in Hebrews, beginning at Chapter nine, and continuing into the passage we heard tonight.
The Leviticus passage makes clear that a life is given up (in Leviticus, the life of an animal – for Christians, the life of Jesus Christ) in order to restore another life to full life , lived according to God’s purposes.
There’s a clue as to the reason for the shedding of blood: that sin destroys life.
So, let’s reflect briefly on the nature of sin, and how it destroys life:
We should begin by saying that sin is often quite attractive, appealing in some way to one or more of our natural senses, or to one or more of the basic needs that we all have in order to be able to continue living….Look, for example, at the Temptation in the Garden of Eden: The Tempter came, saying, “did God say ‘you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?’”[1] Then, having been led to the forbidden tree, Eve notices that it was “good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.”[2] Sin is often just like that….it looks mighty good at the beginning.
Sad to say, we are all “fully trained sinners”. We know how to sin very easily, and most of us need absolutely no coaching in being able to be very good at sinning.
But where does sin lead us? Beyond the surface attraction or pleasure, what then?
That’s what a blood sacrifice – animals in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ in the New Testament – was designed to do:
- To remind us that life is fragile. The animal whose blood was spilled on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem died quickly, its lifeblood pouring out over the great stone altar. Likewise, Jesus’ blood poured from His body, and His breath with it, and in just six hours on the cross, He was dead.[3]
- Secondly, the shedding of blood reminds us that sin leads to death. The dying animal became the substitute for the deadly effects of sin in the ancient Israelites. Jesus’ death becomes the substitute, done once for all time on the cross, as a substitute for our sins. Jesus died so that we don’t have to, if we accept the benefits that flow from His passion, death and resurrection.
The events of this day ask us to reflect on the ways in which our own sins destroy life….They destroy life by alienating us from God, and from each other. Alone in our sinful isolation, we become easy prey for the Prince of Darkness, who seeks to claim us as his victim in the ongoing struggle of good with evil.
May the blood of Jesus Christ stand between us and our sins, restoring us to God by the death and sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
AMEN.
[1] Genesis 3: 1
[2] Genesis 3: 6
[3] Contemporary accounts of crucifixions tell us that victims often were on the cross for a day – and in some cases, up to three days – before death ensued. Jesus’ death in just six hours was a short length of time, by comparison (see Pilate’s reaction to the Centurion’s report that Jesus was dead – Mark 15: 44 – 45).
