Blood of the Lamb

On this Good Friday, we can recognize what Jesus has done for us in shedding His blood - in the Old Testament, a lamb was sacrifice at Passover and the blood placed at the doors of the Israelites to secure their lives.  In the New Testament, we read how Jesus, the perfect sacrifice for sin, the Lamb
of God, gave His life so that we might be forgiven. Ephesians 1 reminds us:
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him.

Humanity has the desperate need to be brought into a right relationship with God - our sins have separated us from Him, but we can enjoy Christ's forgiveness as we accept Him as our Savior.  The cross reminds us that we can be made right with our Heavenly Father, that we can know peace, because Jesus loved us so much that He died for us.  And, through His resurrection, we can enter into eternal life and experience His victory in this life as a testimony to His faithfulness.

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In Exodus 12, we read the story of a people spared from God's punishment out of His great love for them and because of their obedience to Him. The Israelites were instructed to take a lamb, prepare it in a certain way, and take some of the blood of the lamb and, as verse 7 states, "put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it."  Later in the chapter, we can read:
11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.
13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Throughout history, we know that God has spoken through some unlikely suspects.  The very fact that God would use any of us, quite frankly, is a testimony of the grace of God.  That is one of the messages of the cross - because of sin, we don't deserve to have a relationship with God.  But, Jesus gave His life so that we could enter in to new life, that our sins would be forgiven and that we could be right with Him.

A unlikely messenger emerged in the past week. A gentleman by the name of Terry Gene Bollea, according to a Faithwire story, "urged people to use their newfound free time to reflect on God and the Bible."

This 66-year-old professional wrestler, regarding the Coronavirus, said, "God has taken away everything we worship..." in an Instagram post.  He delivered these strong words, as well:

God said, “You want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to worship musicians, I will shut down civic centers. You want to worship actors, I will shut down theaters. You want to worship money, I will shut down the economy and collapse the stock market. You don’t want to go to church and worship me, I will make it where you can’t go to a church.”

In the post, he had also likened our current crisis to the plagues of Egypt. 

For the second time in a matter of days, Mr. Bollea, who is better known as Hulk Hogan, referenced 2nd Corinthians 7:14, a verse that calls people to repentance and offers the promise of God healing our land if we do repent.  Faithwire relates that:

Hogan concluded the post by arguing maybe people “don’t need a vaccine.” Instead, he wrote, “Maybe we need to take this time of isolation from the distractions of the world and have a personal revival where we focus on the ONLY thing in the world that really matters. Jesus.”

Hogan had also described that verse, 2nd Corinthians 7:14, as “one of the most powerful gifts to our human race.”  

Well, who would have thought that I would use Hulk Hogan as a messenger on this Good Friday?  But, I do want to adopt some of the language here, because I think it's important to recognize what Christ has done.  In the Old Testament, the Israelites were held captive in Egypt.  Nine plagues had been sent on the land, and the tenth was death.  The children of Israel were instructed to take the blood of a slain Lamb and put over their doors.  If they did that, their lives would be spared.  It's called the Passover.

Now, fast forward to the time of Jesus.  Humanity was under the curse of sin.  In order to be spared from eternal death, the blood of a Lamb was shed.  This was the Lamb of God, whom John the Baptist had said years before would take away the sins of the world.  We need a spiritual vaccine to spare us from eternal separation from God and to inoculate us from sin's power.  Jesus has provided the ultimate sacrifice so that we might be saved, that we might know Him and live with Him forever.

And, during the curse of this Coronavirus, we can be prompted to look to the precious lamb of God, to repent of our sins and accept the blood that Jesus shed for us.  As Hogan rightly said, God has stripped so much away, so much that we "worship."  Perhaps it is time to put aside the distractions of life and wholeheartedly worship our King, the Lamb of God, who enables us to be right with Him.