Where's The Blood? :: Hebrews 9:11-15

I am a sinner. You all are sinners. The Bible says without the shedding of blood there can be no absolution ... there can be no forgiveness of sins. So ... 

WHERE’S THE BLOOD?

This is the question arising out of our readings today ... particularly from the evangelist’s sermon to the Hebrews. Where is the blood? Do you really think that just because you confessed your sins and promised to do better that God forgives you? Just because? Where is the blood? Do you really think our worship here merits the forgiveness of sins? Just because? Where is the blood? Do you really think God forgives you just because I said so? ... Nevermind the fact that we all know you will return to your sin. Where is the blood? 

1.

The sight of blood tends to make a lot of people squeamish. They may not fear it, but they certainly cringe at it. So we hide from the blood. According to the National Institute of Health, the fear of blood is still our seventh most common phobia. Hemophobia, as this fear is called, can cause a wide range of difficulties that may prove life-limiting or life threatening.

Many of our contemporaries have another form of hemophobia. And it threatens the lives of many, many more. They find the frequent references to blood in the Scriptures and our hymnody to be repulsive. So they don’t talk about it. The theology of blood in the Bible is a relic, they say, of the ancient world. ... Now we have a good God who loves us just the way we are, they say. What do we need blood for? So they don’t talk about it, even if the word blood appears nearly 400 times in the scriptures, and the shadow of blood is nearly everywhere else. Too many of us want our religion to be neat and clean. We may talk about the cross, but we avoid talking about sin. We may talk about sin, but we don’t talk about the cost of sin ... that is, the blood.

2.

So beginning today, we’re gonna talk about the blood, a lot more often. We need to talk about the blood. We need to see the blood. We need to remember the blood. To quote scriptures, without blood, there is no life ... not physically ... not spiritually ... not at all (9:22). Life is in the blood (Lv 17:11). Without blood there is no atonement. Without blood we have no cup of salvation. Without blood there is no sacrifice. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sin (Jn 1:7). God ties our life and salvation to blood ... the blood of the unblemished Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the blood of the new covenant that he cut for us. We need the blood of Jesus to do what it always does ... speak a better word (Hb 12:24). It is the word of Christ. It is the gospel. Jesus is the lamb of God. He shed his blood. He is also our high priest. He has atoned for our sins with his blood. 

With this in mind, now I want you to hear the evangelist again from Hebrews chapter 9: 

But when Christ arrived as high priest of the good things that have come through the greater and more perfect tent [that's] not handmade ... that is, not of this creation ... he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, having found eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and calves and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, by how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works for the service to the living God. And for this reason, he is a mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

3.

Before the fall into sin, we didn’t need any of this. God brought all the animals to Adam to see what he would call them. Adam personally named each creature he met (Gn 2:19-20). He was in harmony with God and creation. He was naked and not ashamed. He didn’t need atonement. It was all very good. 

But then came the fall. Adam suddenly realized he was naked ... and ashamed. So he tried to cover himself ... he tried to atone for himself. But he couldn’t do it. It was too late. But God so loved us that he promised to do it for us, as only he could. He promised a savior. Then he made garments of skin from some of those animals Adam named, shedding blood and clothing the man and woman (Gn 3:21). God covered our shame. These coverings remind us that the result of sin is death. Atoning for sins requires the shedding of blood. It requires the price of life.

Knowing God is faithful to his promises, man has been offering sacrifices to God ever since. Abel was the first to do it in faith, and the Lord had regard for his sacrifice (Gn 4:4). After the flood, Noah did the same in faith that God remains faithful to his promises (Gn 8:20). On the night of the original Passover, the Israelites all slaughtered a lamb, and in faith of the promise painted their doorposts with blood. When the Angel of Death saw the blood, he passed over their house, sparing their firstborn sons. 

After God set his chosen people free from Egypt, he provided them with a complex sacrificial system that called for shedding blood to cover past sins. When the Israelites confirmed the first covenant with the Lord, Moses sprinkled blood on the people, covering them with the promise sealed by blood (Ex 24:3-8). When Solomon built the first temple, he sacrificed 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, acknowledging the grace of God who brings peace. 

Blood covers everything in scripture. Perfect justice demands it. As the Lord once said to Moses, the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your being (Lv 17:11). 

4. 

So if we are to stand before God in faith, we need a cleansing with blood. And we can’t do this alone. Try as we might, we can never clean ourselves up. We can’t confess enough. We can’t come to worship enough. We can’t pray enough. There is nothing we can do. We need blood.

Only the blood of Christ purifies us. Only the blood of Jesus Christ gives us a clean conscience. Only the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from the sins we have committed and that have been committed against us. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, because in him God’s wrath is appeased. That propitiation required his blood. 

We’ve come to church this morning because we need this cleansing. This is true both for the sins you have committed and the sins that have been committed against you that you refuse to forgive. But we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. He who knew no sin, took his blood into the holy of holies to atone for our sins. Nothing else can wipe away the stains from our conscience and give us peace ... nothing but his blood shed on the cross. 

Since Christ’s death is the payment for our transgressions, the new covenant is the one by which he delivers nothing but benefits to his heirs by his death. Unlike the Israelites who received the land as their earthly inheritance, those who have been redeemed by the death of Jesus obtain an eternal inheritance that they begin to enjoy now as they receive God’s mercy and grace in the Divine Service ... that is God’s service to you. That’s why we are here. God forgives you by the blood of Christ.

We don’t come together to offer God our sacrifice. Instead, we are gathered in the Lord’s name to receive from him the fruits of his sacrifice ... the blood of his new covenant ... that our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, made for us when he gave himself over to death. He cleanses us and nourishes us with his baptism and the Lord’s supper. With his blood he delivers to us the forgiveness of sins. And he urges us to receive these means of grace every time we meet, thus proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes. As we do all the company of heaven join us in celebration of the life God is giving to his people. 

5.

Our involvement in the heavenly liturgy is only possible on account of this, as the Rev Dr John Kleinig so beautifully wrote in his Leviticus commentary.

Here we have come to a place that is holy, the mountain of God, the city of light.

Here we cross over from earth to heaven, receiving by faith things hidden from sight.

Here we can join with ten thousands of angels, who lead us in praise for what Christ has done

Here we are part of a worldwide assembly, in which we are all joint heirs with God’s son.

Here is our Father, the judge of all people, who pardons our sin and shows us his face.

Here we are close to the saints gone before us, who rest in the light of God’s holy place.

Here we have Jesus, our one mediator, who brings God to us, and us back to him.

Here is the blood that makes us sinners holy, by giving us life and washing us clean.

 [Kleinig, Leviticus (St Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2003) 371-372]

And now, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.