The Cross, the Blood, and You! (Pt.4)

(Pt.4)

“12 In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. 13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.”-Ephesians 2:12-13

We started talking a few weeks ago about two emblems that point to the very crux of our faith that have slowly been sanitized from the western church as well as the lives of many Christians: the cross of Christ and the blood of Jesus. Last week we finished focusing on the cross, this week we want to focus on the blood. 

I find the timing of these messages uncanny, just coming off the heels of Halloween. The celebration of Halloween has its origins in the Celtic festival Samhain. It was one of the most important festivals on the Celtic calendar. According to scholars, it was believed that during this time of year the world of the gods was made visible to humankind.  Ghosts of the dead and spirits from the underworld were thought to return to the earth to wreak havoc on their mortal worshippers. It was a festival aligned with danger and charged with fear. Sacrifices of every kind were thought to be vital, for without them the Celts believed they could not prevail over these dark forces. Why the history lesson? Halloween, back in those days, wasn’t the celebration that we see today. It wasn’t a holiday built around candy, games, and costumes. It was a time of real fear, blood and sacrifice. 

You see if you take the blood and gore out Halloween it looks fundamentally different from what it had been. In large part, our culture has successfully sanitized Halloween. Celtics would look at today’s Halloween celebrations and still see some aspects of its traditions in play like jack-o-lanterns and scary costumes. However, overall, it has been so watered down that it gives off only a faint impression of the original.

Same could be said about the church today. You take the blood out and it fundamentally changes the message, the mission and the eternal destinations of millions of souls. Many are trying to preach a sanitized message that is devoid of the blood and because of this we are beginning to see a watered down Christianity emerge that looks nothing like the original. 

We sing a lot about Jesus, but sing little about the blood of Christ. We talk about His love for us, but avoid discussions regarding the brutality of the cross. We have sanitized our faith, by removing the blood from our message. 

But here is an important truth: Humans can't live without blood. Without blood, the body's organs couldn't get the oxygen and nutrients they need to survive, we couldn't fight infections, or get rid of our own waste products. Without blood we die. Both physically and spiritually. 

Scott Burr

Dayspring Community Church