Water and Blood

“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you . ”

July 1 st is the Feast of the Precious Blood, so designated as a match to Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body of Christ, which we commemorate each year on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The Body and the Blood, the Blood and the Water: these strange a powerful signs of God's sacred love give us points of reference to the ineffable.

A covenant with God requires the shedding of blood. This is so only because of the seriousness of man's transgression. Man sinned only to break the world and ruin the perfection of God's entire creation. It couldn't be ruined only a little bit, for man was the pinnacle and the keeper of God's creative achievement. Nothing is done in a corner; nothing goes without notice in heaven. Ruined is ruined, and unto dust must we return. Only blood could be the potent enough solvent to cleanse the stain of man's failure, the only symbol serious enough to get our attention. When God made a covenant of redemption with man thereafter, it required the shedding of the blood of some living thing, a lamb, an ox, a goat.

Jesus promised true life everlasting through the bread of life, which He was, and that in eating His flesh and drinking His blood, we might live forever. This horrible thought drove many of His fair-weather followers from Him, but His word would stand. “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.” John 6:53

Finally in the upper room, Jesus showed His sorrowing Apostles what form this blood would be given. “He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'” Matthew 26:27-28 St. Paul would write: “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” 1 Cor. 10:16

This blood was not available until it was spilled, a sacrifice above all others, the life of Christ given up for the sins of mankind, and a seal on a new Covenant that God would honor, and mankind would know to be the most costly price ever paid. The Lord's beloved Apostle, St. John, witnessed Christ's death and saw the moment when the soldiers confirmed that He was truly departed. After breaking the legs of the two thieves, they saw no signs of life in Jesus, and “brake not his legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.” John 19:33-37

John apparently saw in this dual stream, of water and blood flowing down from the broken heart of Jesus, significance for us. Water is the element of the sacrament of Baptism, the washing away of sin. Blood is the seal of the New Covenant in Jesus' blood, a deeper cleansing and a life-giving strength in unity with God's people. For if we all partake of that blood, in the cup of Christ's communion, wine transformed miraculously for us, then the living blood of the living Christ flows through our own bodies, His very life endued within our souls. For the life is in the blood, and this is not dead Jesus' shed blood, but the living Christ's life's blood. We are washed, and we are empowered; cleansed and renewed. And all through the tragic moment when Jesus' own life had ended and the world in darkness shook with the terror of man's most wicked transgression.

Blood, that red fluid that flows through every living body, is a remarkable element in anyone's body. It brings life-sustaining oxygen through the its hemoglobin. It brings nutrients to each cell. It removes wastes. It hurries the healing white cells and antibodies to injuries and infections. It repairs and rebuilds damage. It transports hormones to regulate body functions. It regulates core body temperatures, and keeps the body able to flow and move. A mere 7% of our bodies, about 5 liters, compose this wonderful fluid. Blood carries water to all the cells, which by mass are just over 50% water, even bones which are over 20% water.

As blood gives life to our bodies in so many miraculous ways, so the Blood of Jesus gives us everything we need for life. He flows freely everywhere in the Body, with nutrient, breath, and healing. He removes sin and sickness. He repairs and rebuilds. He regulates the body, and lets us live and move and have our being. And He brings the water of life to us, as the waters cover 70% of the earth, so our bodies are mostly water. Without it, we would dry up and die.

St. Peter tells us, “you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He… has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” 1 Peter 1:18-21 Christ's blood is precious, more valuable than any other element. One drop of it, I like to say, is more valuable than the universe, more powerful than any sun. It is more powerful than any sin, as well, and despite our worst days, and most foul departures from grace, that blood is more powerful still. He wants you forgiven that much that He would die like that, shed that most precious of any substance, His own precious blood.

That blood He shed for the uniting of the races, that one blood might flow through us all making us brothers and sisters of Christ and of one another. “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephes. 2:13 That blood He shed as ransom paid for the enormous debt of all mankind. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephes. 1:7 “Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed…” Romans 3:25 “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.” Romans 5:9

As a great high priest, Jesus laid His sacrifice at the feet of His Father. There could never be a higher priest, for this is the Son of God, the second most glorious being, all God, beneath only His Father. And to His Father He made this sacrifice, as a man He represented all mankind in willing perfect sacrifice. “…and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant… Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; …at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.” Hebrews 9:12-28

Now by the power of Christ's blood, we are One in Him, and we are empowered by Him to live true lives of God's redeemed people. We have been washed in the water of His Spirit. Now we walk in the power of the living Blood. No one can claim anything against us, we accuse only ourselves. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see. “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood… there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one… He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself… this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life.” 1 John 5:5-12

In the death of a friend, comes a sign of God's redemption. In the death of a dream, comes the hope of real life. In the death of the Saviour, comes the power of salvation. In the water and the blood, shed from our Lord's wounded side, come the dual graces of forgiveness and transformation. May we live in the grace of Christ's most precious blood, and let it flow through us to generations around us and to those who will follow ‘til that day.

PFH+