Day 32: Blood's Better Word

I'm not ready to respond to the article I mentioned yesterday, that will come eventually. I want to get this other stream of thought written down . .blood's better word.

My whole curiosity that drove this writing project came from reading Hebrews 12:24 sometime in the past year and asking myself, what did Abel's blood say, and what is the better word that Christ's blood says? Here's the actual verse, which is hard to put by itself because it is a part of a long sentence that is part of a longer "not to that, but to this" pair of paragraphs. Anyway, here's the verse "and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."

In my A-Z blood post a few weeks ago, I mentioned the Zechariah stoning from the Old Testament. When people are witness to a death or an execution, often those witnesses pay attention to and pass on the last words of the dying person. Maybe some last words are made up, or revised because everyone expects last words to be a profound epigram or a person's worldview in a nutshell. Well I'm going to make a lot of the last words of Zechariah and another person, Stephen (from Acts 6-7), because they were both stoned to death by the people of God for telling those people the truth about how they were "forever opposing the Spirit of God." As the rocks were thudding the bodies of each (do they die from bleeding out or from blunt force trauma?) they were still able to yell out some final words. Zechariah's: "May the Lord see and avenge!" Stephen's: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

Now I am getting the shivers when I think about the difference in those final words. Stephen was not a pansy, he had just been bold enough to give a history speech to all the leaders who would have been well schooled in their history. Reminding these people that their ancestors always cheated on God, and rejected his prophets and so it was no surprise that they were still doing the same thing. Zechariah and Stephen had very similar messages to bring to their audiences. And both died for saying to religious and political leaders what needed to be said. But Stephen has heard a better word that is spoken in addition to the guilty verdict, and can now say it himself. Zechariah called for vengeance, but he was still assuming that God's style of vengeance would play out like the justice code of his community: "when a man sheds innocent blood, then by man must his own blood be shed." But his creative imaginative God kept the exact letter of the code, while also doing something unexpected to turn the whole world of justice upside down. (Remember our tricky Lady of Justice from The Merchant of Venice?)

God became a man, remained innocent of all blood-guilt his whole life, but died willingly with all the blood-guilt of the world on his own head. The Lord saw and avenged the death of Abel, Zechariah and every prophet in between, not by executing the killers, but by allowing a blood-thirsty human race to execute him. He let all this rest on his head: the guilt and curse and the shame AND BLOOD! of a murderer's death. He took on the curse: "May his head go down with blood into Sheol."

Remember when Jesus was saying in Matthew 23 "surely this generation will take upon its head the blood of all the innocent prophets from A-Z?" The only way that makes sense is if our ears hear and understand that he was announcing his own coming execution. And if our eyes catch the grimace of irony on Jesus' face when the mob later calls out "crucify him and let the blood remain on our heads and our children's heads."(The deaf and blind still try to justify anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Christendom's general lack of respect throughout history for a people who are our beloved brothers and sisters because of the election.) Jesus, as he was announcing the curse that falls on yet another generation of murderers, was quite aware that he would soon take that blood-guilt on his own head.

Jesus then, at his execution, was able and willing to say this: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." He and the Father, in that communication, were telling all the witnesses that something new is being revealed about what the Hebrew God is most interested in as he accomplishes justice. The Hebrew God, because he fiercely loves Abel, won't neglect to respond to Abel's blood crying out "Avenge!" from the ground. But God also loves Cain and is reluctant to simply kill off Cain for his murder. When a brother insists upon shedding the blood of a brother, how does a just and loving Father respond? By sticking to the code which shows the most reverence for the life of the victim: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, life for a life, but putting himself in the place of the guilty.

So then we like Stephen, can be anything but pansies when we announce the bad news about how we all not only are blind to God, but we are blood-thirsty, responsible for the death of his prophets who are also our brothers. We can say it like it is, that the mess is really bad and we are one and all responsible for it. But that is not the last word of blood. Blood has moved on to a new contract, a better word: forgiveness. The "blood-guilt" is no longer on your head. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Even if your fear of bad news and judgment compells you to murder me before I get to the good news at the end of this sentence, here it is: You must take an honest look at yourself and admit that blood-guilt is on your head; but believe this, it will not be demanded of you, ever, because Jesus Christ is willing to let it rest on his head, always. And if the evangelist is killed before the eyes of the blind (with stones in their hands) get opened, he can still call out to his Father with confidence, "My brothers are killing me, but do not hold this against them."

Blood's better word is now crying out from the ground: "Father, release my brothers from the blood-guilt, as you have released me."