Under the Law of Moses an offering for sin was a gruesome, shocking event that the individual himself had to participate in. He or she was required to bring a perfect specimen of a goat, sheep, or lamb to the priest. They were required to put their hand on the innocent animal’s head while its throat was slashed. Then they watched as the perfect, innocent animal was dismembered and burned to ashes. Here’s a significant part of that procedure the supplicant watched:
Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering. (Leviticus 4:22–25, also vv. 30, 34)
What a ghastly and sobering sight it must have been for a person who watch an unblemished
goat or sheep slain and incinerated and then watch it’s life-blood poured out at the base of the altar. The Jews fully understood that the blood was the animal’s very life. (That was why they were forbidden to eat blood.) The supplicant comes to the priest and watches a flawless, innocent animal destroyed and it’s blood poured out because of his own transgression. It made him experientially aware that “the wages of sin [his own sin] is death.”So when Jesus arrives, he fulfills the role that is foreshadowed in the sacrificial practices. He is repeated called the Lamb of God. Like a high priest he approaches the altar of God. Like the high priest he offers innocent blood for the sin of the supplicant. But it is not sheep’s blood that he offers. He pours out his very own blood as a sacrifice. (You will remember that at the crucifixion Jesus’ side was pierced with a spear and blood and fluid poured out.)
The impact on the people who watched Jesus’ crucifixion was like the effect of offering a lamb’s blood. . .but times ten!
And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. Luke 23:48
“Beating their breasts” was the Jewish way of expressing overpowering grief, sorrow, or regret. They were shocked and overwhelmed at the atrocity that they had just witnessed. Even those who hadn’t believed in Jesus knew that an innocent man had been brutally executed. Little did they know at the time that they had just witnessed God’s own sacrifice for their sins!
So what did the early Christians do with this information? They recreated it before the eyes of their listeners:
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Galatians 3:1
This was the focus of Paul’s preaching:
- For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 1 Corinthians 1:22–23
- For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2
This is, no doubt, one of the reason why we have our four gospels each of which spends an inordinate amount of time on the crucifixion and the immediate events that led up to it. We need watch for ourselves as Jesus lets his own life-blood be poured out for our sins.
So finally we must ask: Why was this atrocity told and retold time and time again?
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for each one. Hebrews 2:9
Each time the apostles painted the picture of Jesus pouring out his lifeblood on the cross, they communicated the fact that Jesus experienced death for all humanity because he experienced it for each person, and by that act Jesus laid claim to the life every person who has ever lived:
- 15and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:15
- 20I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
Peter explains it this way
. . . you were ransomed from the futile ways (godless idolatry) inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Peter 1:18–19
Jesus didn’t pour out his blood for us so that we would have to go to church on Sunday, drop some money in a collection plate, or say a few prayers, or read our bibles occasionally, or clean up a few bad habits. His death wasn’t a mere token. He knew exactly what He was doing. He fully intended to lay claim on the totality of our lives. Jesus, the great high priest, offered Himself as the sacrifice me! He let his lifeblood be poured out for me! It is by His blood that I can be forgiven and saved from the wrath to come. And it is his lifeblood that makes His total claim on my entire life.
I think it is critical that we prayerfully read and reread the Gospel accounts of Jesus ministry and sacrifice until our heart of hearts is so gripped by Him that He becomes to each one of us, the Jesus “who loved me and gave himself for me.” And as that begins to take root in my own heart, I also begin to see that to hand my entire life over to Jesus is far too small a gift!