To the left is an ad that just popped up in my Facebook feed. If you look beneath the image, you find these words, “You’re looking for a change for Good Friday this year – focused on the cross, but not so bloody. Here’s an faithful option.”
A faithful option that rids Good Friday of the blood of Jesus? That does not exist. Anyone looking for a less bloody Jesus is looking for a Jesus that needs not bleed for them and their sins.Â
Should it surprise me then that when I clicked and looked at the service they are offering, that it makes no mention of sin but only prays for those who suffer.
This service takes the prime event of salvation and turns it into nothing more than a way to think about others who suffer, as if Jesus bled solely to give us a picture of what suffering looks like. This we do not need. Suffering is all around us. Salvation is what we need. And that is why we need to talk about blood on Good Friday. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22)
In general, we have to get over our modern hang ups with blood. I know in our culture blood is connected much more in literature and even science with death than life. We often think of blood as that stuff that carries disease but in reality blood is first and foremost that that carries everything necessary for life.  In the scriptures, blood and life go together. Jesus’ blood and our life go together.
“The life of the flesh is in the blood” says the book of Leviticus. The presence of blood in the tabernacle and temple was the assurance that the forgiveness of God was delivered there to the people of God. And Jesus says of us who live in the last days, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Looking for a less bloody Jesus? Me neither. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9) “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13) “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:5-6)
