Lent 5 March 29, 2020 The Sunday of Jesus Greater than Death
Lent 5 Judica
John 8:42-59 & Hebrews 9:11-15
March 29, 2020
“The Pure Blood of Christ”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When I was growing up on the dairy farm, my dad had bought a couple dogs that were purebred Border Collies. Border collies were supposed to be especially good at herding dairy cows. We had a couple large pastures and the idea was that the dogs would be helpful in bringing in cows in the dark early morning hours. It didn’t ever really pan out that way. The dogs basically did what they wanted. Yet we kids didn’t mind. Because when you have two purebred dogs, one male and one female, you get puppies. And we ended up with a lot of those. And we loved them all. (We loved all the many dogs we also rescued from the animal shelter as well.)
There’s an interesting argument in the Gospel reading today between Jesus and the Jews about who’s purebred. Right before our reading starts the Jews tell Jesus, “We’re purebred sons of Abraham.” Check out our pedigree! But Jesus insinuates that their father isn’t Abraham like they think he is but the devil! To this the Jews exclaim, “We weren’t born of sexual immorality.” So they turn it around on Jesus and say, “You’re the one who isn’t purebred. You were born in sexual immorality.” Because, of course, remember that Mary wasn’t yet married to Joseph when she conceived her son
So this is quite an intense argument about bloodlines. This is one of those times we’re not seeing “Mr. Nice Jesus”. He’s nice and kind and compassionate when He needs to be to those who are sorry for their sins and want His grace. But to those who are actively against Him—He doesn’t mince words. He says, “You better get a blood test. Better do one of those fancy ancestry blood tests and see where you come from. You better see how pure that blood is running through your veins.
But the Jews up the ante. Then in v. 48 they say that Jesus has Samaritan blood in Him. And He has a demon. It’s getting really heated. If you don’t believe me, just remember what happens in the last verse. They pick up stones to stone Him to death. That’s how angry they are. So this thing is for real. But Jesus fires back that He’s speaking the truth and if anyone believes His Word they will never die. To this the Jews say, “How ridiculous! Even Abraham died. Are you greater than Abraham?” To which Jesus says, “Ding, ding, ding!!! Yes, I AM. I was before Abraham!” And at that they reach down to the ground to grab rocks to kill Him.
Boy, people really get worked up about these blood lines! And what about you? How’s your blood? We fluctuate between two extremes about our bloodlines. At times we can be downright proud of our blood, our ancestors, and where we’ve come from. Then at other times we’re quite ashamed and embarrassed of our blood-relatives and we’d rather just not know where our blood came from.
The truth is, of course, that we all share the same blood line anyway if you go back far enough. And it’s not a bloodline to be proud of. We’re purebred sinners, our blood pulsing with rebellion, pride, lust, hatred and anger, greed, and thanklessness. There isn’t a one of us who can say that our blood is pure and clean.
Right now we’re all worked up about this coronavirus. And certainly it is a serious thing. But this particular virus is really only one small part of a much bigger virus that will never go away—no matter how hard you quarantine or shelter in place. You and I are infected already. Maybe not with coronavirus yet, but with a much deadlier virus. Sinvirus has a 100% mortality rate. And we all have it. You can wear a mask but it won’t do anything because this virus is coming right out of your own heart.
Our blood isn’t pure. Our bodies aren’t pure. Our lungs aren’t pure. Our heart isn’t pure. We’ve got a big problem and it’s going to keep repeating itself over and over during our lives. Right now it’s the coronavirus. Next year it will be something else. But we will never get away from this deadly sinvirus in our lives. We need medical attention. We need a vaccine. We need a cure. We need a pureblood.
Now go back to Jesus and this argument about bloodlines and Abraham and sexual immorality and Samaritans and demons. Do you remember how big of a deal it was that God finally gave Abraham his pure-blooded son Isaac, born of Abraham’s wife Sarah? It was a huge deal! Abraham was 100 years old. He had waited and waited and waited. And then when Abraham finally gets his son Isaac, God does the unthinkable. He tells Abraham to kill his purebred son. How could he? After all this time waiting. Yet God had a plan. God wanted us to see ever so clearly that there would be a pure-blooded son who would die—but it wouldn’t be Isaac. It would be His own Son Jesus.
Jesus is pure-blooded. Not pure-blooded sinner like us. Pure-blooded God. Look at what He says to the Jews in v. 46, “Which one of you can show Me I’m a sinner?” Who can do it? Who can show even just one sin that Jesus did? No one can. Because He didn’t sin. His blood was pure. He was and is the Son of God.
And it’s His blood for your blood. That’s how it works. It’s like a complete blood transfusion or a dialysis treatment that cleans your blood with the blood of Jesus. Jesus took His perfect blood and sacrificed it before God the Father in the holy places to make atonement for us. This is from Hebrews 9:14 which we heard earlier, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
This blood of Christ purifies you. I could talk about this in different ways but I’ll just remind you for now that blood in the human body is a cleansing agent. It’s always working in your body to take out the bad stuff in your body and carry good stuff all over to your different organs and body parts. So Jesus gives us His blood so that it will cleanse our hearts and consciences. It makes us pure. So that we can serve the living God.
It’s no joke or child’s play what we do here at this altar in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus is giving us His blood under the bread and wine. It is very literally a medicine and vaccine. It deals with the deadliest virus—the root of all other viruses—it takes care of sinvirus. It goes into your heart and your conscience where all that guilt and shame is and it purifies you and says, “You’re all clean. Forgiven. Pure. Holy. Spotless.”
And there’s more. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My Word, he will never see death.” That’s a pretty big claim He’s making to you there. If you keep His Word, if you have His blood flowing in your heart, if you are baptized and washed clean in His blood—then you won’t ever see death. This is, ultimately, why coronavirus doesn’t make us afraid. Yes, it’s serious and yes, we want to do everything we can to help others and keep them from getting it. Yet ultimately, we’re not scared. Because Jesus has said to us, “You won’t ever see death.”
Why? Well, I’ll briefly explain a simple concept here that the Bible teaches two resurrections. The first resurrection is the one that you, as a believer in Christ cleansed in His blood, have already undergone. You’ve already been raised from spiritual death to life in Christ. So your spirit will never die again. You’re already raised with Christ. He lives, so you live.
That means that when you physically die you won’t see actual death but will only enter a doorway into eternal life with Christ. We’ve heard countless stories of people with near death experiences relating these very things to us. That when they are near death they’ve seen a light. No doubt this is the light of heaven when God sends His angels to bring our souls to paradise—as He did for Esther Matzke this last week and also for Iona Oltman. They didn’t see death. Their bodies died but their souls live with Jesus.
Now then comes the second resurrection. This will be on the Last Day. Our bodies will not die forever but Christ will raise them on the Last Day to be like His body. Immortal. Incorruptible. Perfect. With the purebred blood of Christ flowing in our veins. Never to die again.
So look at what this blood of Christ does for you! You’re a purebred, pure-blooded child of God now. And that means your heart and soul and conscience is pure and clean. And that means you will never see death.
One of our Lent hymns says this so well. I give you two verses:
Glory be to Jesus,
Who in bitter pains
Poured for me the lifeblood
From His sacred veins!
Lift we, then, our voices,
Swell the mighty flood;
Louder still and louder
Praise the precious blood! (LSB 433:1,6)
In Jesus’ name. Amen.