The Gospel is Bloody Business

I don't deal well with blood. When Eden, our then 2 year old, took a dive into the coffee table splitting her forehead open I was fine until we got into the room @ the ER and the survival mode, adrenaline rush wore off. At that point I got my own nurse when I turned pale as a ghost and nearly fainted. Manly. I know.

Good Friday is a bloody day. Every year I mean to go back and watch The Passion of the Christ again but I just can't bring myself to do it. It's too hard to watch. Intense, bloody business.

There are volumes and volumes worth of possible rabbit trails to explore this idea of blood and sacrifice and probably a need to rediscover and plumb it's depths for meaning for today. Consider this a call to the medical profession to explore the metaphor of the importance and weight of blood in light of what we know now medically and scientifically. But suffice it for this blog to look at these verses from Revelation and William Cowper's hymn There is a Fountain Filled With Blood.

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
            . . .
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”  (Revelation 5:9-12 ESV)

Ransomed by blood. A payment made with blood that ought to have been mine. Innocent life given in my guilty stead.

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains; And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day; And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away. Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away; And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more. Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more; Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die. And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die; Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save, When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave. Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave; When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.

Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be, For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me! ’Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine, To sound in God the Father’s ears no other name but Thine.

I get a little queasy and sweaty from the images in this hymn but hey...the gospel is bloody business.  Thanks be to God on this good, good Friday.