Life-Giving Blood
I am very squeamish! Just the mention of blood usually makes me wobble at the knees, but even so I want to spend this Holy Week talking about blood.
Blood is what gives us life. One out of every seven people entering hospital needs blood. Someone needs blood every two seconds! Two people in our church went for blood transfusions last year. They were both boosted, physically, in an amazing way through that procedure. Somebody else in our church lost a lot of blood in a procedure last year and it was nearly catastrophic. Blood transfusions saved that person’s life.
Inspiring Acts of Love
Now, a man named Anthony Carter writes about receiving a letter in the post one day which said he’d been identified as a possible match as a donor for a bone-marrow transplant patient.
He was baffled. It came out of the blue, he wondered how they would’ve gotten his information and his blood type. And then he remembered that 18 years before, the daughter of a friend of his had leukaemia. She underwent chemo and all sorts of procedures but eventually it got to the point where she needed a bone-marrow transplant but nobody in her family was a match.
So the appeal went out to her church and a huge blood drive was undertaken and Anthony was one who got tested but proved to not be a match. Nobody did, in fact. And the little girl died some time later at 12 years old.
Listen to what Carter writes in his book: “A Spirit-filled warrior to the end, her smile and consistent faith testified to the grace and love of her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. She was welcomed into the rapturous presence of Christ because His blood did what our blood could not do—save her.”
Sacrificial Blood Redemption
There is blood which makes our physical bodies live. But as Holy Week begins and we get closer to Good Friday, let us remember the blood that was given for us, not for our physical bodies, but for our souls!
Because our souls need blood too. They need blood that only one person can give. This blood was donated to us, in a sense, by the most precious donor of all! And this blood gives us life that lasts well beyond our physical death.
It’s the blood of the King! The blood of Jesus Christ which he shed on the cross on Good Friday, 2000-odd years ago.
Would it surprise you to learn that the ‘blood’ of Christ is mentioned nearly three times more often than ‘the cross’ of Christ and five times more often than the ‘death’ of Christ in the New Testament? Jesus didn’t just get some needles stuck in him, draw some blood and then go on his way with cotton balls stuck to his arms with cello tape. He shed his blood on that day. His blood was poured out for us.
Soul Cleansing Blood
And as he did this, everything changed for all people forever! Because for those who receive it this blood gives new life to the soul like nothing else!
And so let me ask you this question today, from an old gospel song: Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? A blood transfusion from Jesus to you is the only way to find true life in the deepest parts of your soul.
May you put your faith in Jesus this week, and may you receive his soul-cleansing blood to give you new life.
