Hebrews 9: 11-22

Theme: The Cross

THE CRUELTY OF THE CROSS

I remember as a small child that when we would sing, There is A Fountain Filled With Blood, I would wonder what kind of fountain that is. I pictured a big round fountain with a couple of layers of sprayers, spraying up large volumes of Blood into a grotesque fountain pool. What was a kid to think of this imagery?

Blood never bothered me. I was raised on a farm and blood was just part of it. But somewhere along the way that changed. In the latter years I can’t stand the sight of my own blood. I have to turn my head when the nurse takes a blood sample and I can’t seem to give blood during our blood drive because something always goes wrong. I have never liked passing out!

When we talk about blood, it makes me a little uncomfortable. I have come to associate blood with tragedy and suffering. Every night on the evening news, we read about the spilling of blood. So, the image of that fountain is now a macabre vision of suffering.

Blood is a complex liquid that is necessary for our lives. It carries oxygen to our cells and carries carbon dioxide away from our cells. Blood carries the nutrients and hormones that our bodies need to operate and all the antibiotics that are used to fight off disease. Life is literally in the blood. We dread words like leukemia and other blood diseases. We have our semi annual blood drive because it is a precious need in the lives of people. I talked to the sister of Ronnie Adams. This week, he had an abdominal aneurysm that ruptured. As of Friday, he was listed in stable condition and had been given 110 units of blood. Blood is vital to our lives.

When we turn to the Bible and we read all about the blood sacrifices, it makes us uncomfortable. The Judeo-Christian tradition is a bloody religion. From the moment that Man sinned, God demanded a blood substitute for our sins. It seems that our sin demanded the death penalty. "In the day that you take of the fruit you shall surely die," was warning to Adam and Eve of the consequences of sin. It is serious business. But, God allowed for a substitute, the life of a victim on behalf of the sinner would pay the penalty and turn away the wrath of God. However, the victim was never another sinful person, it was limited to animals which were symbolic of Someone yet to come. So, from the beginning, as can be seen in Abel’s offering before the Lord, a blood sacrifice has to be offered unto God.

In Leviticus 17, God says that He has given the blood sacrifice to Israel. The blood of the sacrificial victim would be sprinkled on the altar and in Tabernacle and on the Mercy seat and sometimes on the people. Verse 11 says, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement." A blood sacrifice was required because a life was required and the pouring out of the blood symbolized the pouring of that life as an atonement for sin. Life is in the blood and a blood sacrifice is literally a giving of life unto death.

The author of the Book of Hebrews says that the sacrificial system was but a pale shadow of the real thing. The whole system worked only because it was a ban aid until the One sacrifice that would end all sacrifices. God would become flesh and offer Himself as the one sacrifice. However, the Old Testament saints never quite understood this. If we don’t understand the full impact of the Old Testament sacrificial system, then we will not understand what Jesus did.

When Jesus was crucified, it was not clear to them what was happening. Where the crowd saw a madman, the writer of Hebrews saw the Messiah. Where others may see bad behavior, the writer saw depravity and sinfulness being played out. Where the crowd saw an execution, he saw a sacrifice. Where the crowd saw a rebel, the writer of Hebrews saw a Lamb. He saw the tabernacle not made with hands, the perfect high priest, and the Blood of the Lamb being poured out. He saw the atonement once and for all.

Jesus is our perfect sacrifice, He is our Atonement and our Passover. Here we are concerned with the Day of Atonement. On the day of Atonement, the High Priest was to make sacrifice for his sins and the sins of the people. The first time he sacrificed a bull for his own sins and entered the Holy of Holies and in a cloud of incense, sprinkled blood of the bull on the mercy seat, the throne of God. He did the same when he cleansed the Holy Place in the temple. Then, two goats were brought to him. On one he laid hands on its head and he confessed the sins of the people. The scapegoat was let go in the wilderness as a symbol of the people being separated from their sins. The second goat was sacrificed and the priest, on behalf of all the people, entered the Holy of Holies in a cloud of incense and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat for the forgiveness of sins.

The mercy seat is also called the Propitiation. This word "propitiation" means to turn away the wrath of God. The word wrath in relation to God is mentioned more than 500 times in the Old Testament and many more times in the New Testament. God's righteous wrath burns against us in our sin. But His wrath is tempered by His love for us. And while the penalty for our sins is death, God made provision for us by allowing a substitute, a victim to die in our place. The blood of the goat that was sprinkled on the mercy seat was the act of propitiation that turned away God’s wrath. It was an act that was repeated yearly until God became flesh and he became our perfect high priest and the perfect sacrifice and the perfect propitiation for our sins.

Under the old system, the act of atonement had to be repeated over and over again. Why? Because the sacrifices offered under the old covenant cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience. The blood of bulls and goats did not do a permanent job. It was an external act, the heart condition was not changed by the sacrifice of bulls and goats.

The sacrifice of the Tabernacle involved the blood of bulls and goats. But the superiority of Jesus as our sacrifice is that he offered up his own life, His blood poured out for us. Notice what he says, HEB 9:14 "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?" In other words, if the blood of bulls and goats were effective to bring about a temporary covering for sin, how much more effective is the blood of the perfect lamb of God? He not only atones for our sins, he also cleanses our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. His sacrifice was once and for all times, never to be repeated.

The death of Jesus on the cross is the blood of the covenant that is commanded of us. God made that provision for us. NAS Hebrews 9:22 "And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." But in this case, it is not the temporary sacrifice of bulls and goats and lambs, it is the blood of the God-Man who dies as our substitute. The new covenant that we have in Christ is based on the fact that our sins have been washed away forever by the Blood of Jesus.

There is a certain cruelty in the cross. It is vicious and even barbaric. But the ancient sin debt of mankind demanded such an event. Our condition was so cruel in the eyes of God that only an equally cruel event could cleanse us of our sin.

If you want to be free of your sin and guilt forever, then you must come to faith in Christ whose blood cleanses us from all sin.