By Doug Redford
Blood can convey a variety of messages. Some can be disturbing. If we’re watching a TV show about police or detective work, a police officer may enter a house or business and as he or she does so, the music in the background becomes more ominous and foreboding; and then the officer finds blood on the floor and/or on the wall. Right then we know something bad has happened. The sight of blood signals trouble, and usually a body is found at the scene.
Some people faint at the sight of blood. Some, if blood is being drawn from them, will turn away; they don’t want to see the blood filling the vial that the nurse uses.
People have questioned why the Holy Bible, particularly the Old Testament, records so many instances of bloodshed. But when has there not been a period in human history of much bloodshed? Bloodshed began with Cain’s shedding of Abel’s blood and has continued ever since. The present day, which many would term “progressive,” is characterized daily by violent acts of bloodshed that create heartache and grief for untold numbers of individuals, families, and communities.
Leave it to our creative Creator to take something heartbreaking, like bloodshed, and use it to further his holy purposes. When God provided deliverance for his people who were enslaved in Egypt, he instructed them to place the blood of a lamb upon the doorposts of their homes with the assurance, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13, New International Version). Blood became a symbol of hope.
So it is with the blood of Jesus given at the cross where, once again, God used bloodshed and a gruesome instrument of death to further his holy purposes and provide salvation for lost humanity. That blood is a welcome sight whenever we gather to observe Communion. We do not want to turn away from it! We count it a privilege to take of the juice that represents the blood of Jesus, our Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). We drink it with thankful hearts, knowing that the message of that blood is still a message of hope; for God still declares, “When I see the blood (of Jesus, applied to our sins), I will pass over you.” When we see that blood in the observance of Communion, we know that he has passed over us; we are no longer under condemnation (Romans 8:1). We are forgiven people.
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
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Excellent! I will use this for Sunday’ Lord’s Supper devotional. Thanks, Doug.