What’s with all this blood?

A theme that troubles many Christians and non Christians alike, but is central to the doctrine of the Atonement, is the blood of the covenant, or the blood of Jesus. The literal blood of the ancient sacrifice, smeared on door posts and poured out on altars, is difficult enough but, when taken up in Christian hymns and reflection, it can be pretty disconcerting. I’m sure hymns like “Nothing but the Blood” and “There is power in the Blood” have troubled countless uninitiated church visitors over the years. And, in this secular age, even the previously commonplace notion of communion wine being a symbol of Jesus’ blood, must seem strange to many.

We tend to think that images have obvious meanings, but it’s really all about associations. Every year, in mid February, we have a custom of exchanging cards decorated with stylized, disembodied human hearts. Having been schooled in this image from childhood, we “get it”. In our culture, because the heart is imagined to be the seat of love, it is a symbol of love. Unless it’s pointed out to us, the potential goriness of the symbol fails to register at all.

In a similar way, blood was a significant symbol in ancient biblical culture. It was not eaten and all contact with it was deeply significant and circumscribed by ritual, not because it was gory, but because it was sacred.

"'Any Israelite or any alien living among you who hunts any animal or bird that may be eaten must drain out the blood and cover it with earth, because the life of every creature is its blood . That is why I have said to the Israelites, "You must not eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood... (Leviticus 17:13-14)

When the blood of a creature was drained away its life departed, so blood was seen as the place where life resided. Blood was associated with death, of course, but that was the back side of the coin, as it were. When the blood of an animal was poured out, sprinkled on the altar, or used to anoint the priest, it was not the death of the animal but its life that was being manipulated in this symbolic way.

At some point blood sacrifice may have been associated with the notion of appeasing an angry God, but the prophets and psalmists challenge this view.

Psalm 50:12-15

If I were hungry I would not tell you,

for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

Do I eat the flesh of bulls

or drink the blood of goats?

Sacrifice thank offerings to God,

fulfil your vows to the Most High,

and call upon me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you will honour me."

Isaiah 1:11-13

"The multitude of your sacrifices —

what are they to me?" says the LORD....

I have no pleasure

in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me,

who has asked this of you,

this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

In the end, the sacrificial system is about what we require, not God. The life of the lamb in the Old Testament (its blood), and the life of Jesus in the New (his blood), are not poured out for God but for us. It is we who are dying and in need life, and that life is provided by God.

A crucifixion is about as gruesome a scene as anyone could imagine, so we can hardly fault those who are shocked by it. Even in the first century Paul writes that the cross is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23) And if all this suffering and death is something required by God before he will forgive, it’s not surprising that people turn away in disgust. But in the Gospels it’s not God who requires it. It is we who, in the persons of religious and political leaders and an angry mob, require it. It’s sin, rebellion, anger and fear, that require it. In short, it is death that requires life, and God, through the lamb of the Old Testament and Jesus in the New, is the only source of life.

Many years ago my brother, Tim, gave a bone marrow transplant to my brother Rick, who had leukemia. This was not because the doctors required that if one was to live another must die a little. It was because my brother, Rick, who was dying, required healthy bone marrow, and Tim was the only source he had. Tim gave up bone marrow joyfully for his brother and, seen in this way, it was a beautiful thing.

The metaphor at the heart of the Atonement is based on the idea of substitution, but it is not Jesus’ death being substituted for our death, but Jesus’ life being substituted for our death. In Paul’s words, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me . The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

To be “washed in the blood of the lamb” is to be immersed in his life. To “drink the blood of Jesus” is to live by his life. In the words of Jesus, "I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5-6)