Why blood?

“Jesus said to them, ‘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.’’’ John 6:53-55

I don’t do so well around blood… Other people’s blood that is. I had frequent nosebleeds as a child, and I can even watch my own blood being drawn into a tube, so for awhile I thought I could handle seeing blood spilled out, as long as it didn’t involve graphic violence. But I have since learned that I always freak out at the sight of another’s blood. Heck, I panic with fright at even the idea that I might see it because someone is injured. I don’t see how I would last 5 seconds in an ER. I’ve always been very sensitive to blood depicted on TV, but I thought that fear didn’t necessarily have to translate into real life, but it does.

So how to I accept the truth of the Word of God that I need His blood to live? Do I want to look away from the blood of Christ pouring out of His body? Yes. I still haven’t seen The Passion of the Christ and I know this is why. The pictures in my mind are strong enough for now. But despite this fear I have, I know that I need that blood.

A Christian doctor has reflected on the properties of blood. Blood is life. We do not have life without blood. It is the essence of our existence. God communicated this to humans a long time ago, and it is something that we know to be true through experience. We can live without some of our body parts, but we cannot survive without the lifesource of blood. When treating our wounded with life threatening injuries, we give them blood first.

In our bodies, our very cells are dependent on blood as the courier of everything they need: food, air, and relief from waste. The nature of reality is we need blood. But we need more than the blood that courses through our veins. I believe that blood must be spilled out. It must be exchanged for Another’s…

How does Christ’s blood cleanse us and why blood? Those are the questions at the heart of the atonement. Wise men have said that we can not truly fathom this mystery, but we know that it works; and that is true. Those with deep faith have penned songs singing about the blood and its wonderful cleansing powers. Words like that have the power to touch the spirit and heal the soul because they are true. The story of the end of time has already been written, we know that the saints are washed in the blood of the Lamb that was slain. (Revelation 7:15)

We may not understand it, but we can know this: His blood cleanses us from all sin. There is nothing that it cannot cure. Nothing. There is no sin too heinous that is beyond eradication by one minute drop of Jesus’ blood. The disease of sin is very real, and it is the result of our choices and others' choices. We feel the pain, and cry out for relief, but find none by our own efforts.

In our physical bodies, we are so often at the mercy of organisms that are measured in mere nanometers in size. They can bring us to our knees or even kill us, and we have barely begun to understand how they work. But there are some things we have discovered recently in the journey of humanity, and we use those principles of help our bodies fight off disease. One such method is immunization. There is risk involved, but we choose the take that risk in some cases because the alternative is worse. With “passive immunization,” high levels of human (or animal) antibodies specific for a pathogen or toxin are transferred to non-immune individuals to give them the strength they need to fight the deadly agent inside of them. Whereas, this affect wears off after a time, the blood that we can receive by faith does not wear off, and is in fact a transfusion of holiness and the death nell of sin.

Jesus already beat sin and death. Therefore, He is the solution to our two-fold problem. Man is still obsessed with beating death, even to the point of pursuing transhumanist means. But nevertheless, death is. still. there. . . . . Unless. Unless, there is a way provided outside of our finite capacities. Life from the blood of another. In the instant of faith in Christ’s blood, He says that we are transformed into new creations. We die, and are reborn. Then, we are reunited with our Creator, living our lives through the One of Who loved us enough to die for us while we were still sinners.

I don’t know if I believe in transubstantiation or not, or if I need to, but I do know this: I choose to eat His blood. It is real. I know I need it. I choose Him and this is the sign of fellowship. The Lord’s table is a symbol of Christ’s transfusion. And He is the only way to life.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”