NRS Matthew 27
20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. 21 The governor again said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." 22 Pilate said to them, "Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?" All of them said, "Let him be crucified!" 23 Then he asked, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified!" 24 So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves."
25 Then the people as a whole answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!"

Please pray with me: Gracious heavenly Father, keep us near the cross, that by the innocent suffering and death of your Son we may know your life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For ancient people, blood equaled life. Blood was more than just a symbol of life, or a necessary bodily fluid for life, but rather, blood was life. This connection between blood and life goes all the way back to the dawn of civilization. In the burial sites of late Stone Age cultures, archaeologists have uncovered skeletons smeared in red ochre. Many interpret this as a kind of pre-historic prayer for lifeblood to return to dry bones.

As an ancient text of an ancient people, there's a lot of blood in the Bible. Writer Kathleen Norris is pretty much on target when she describes both Christianity and Judaism as "blood religions" (see her Amazing Grace, pages 112-115). That's not to say that the Bible is fixated on blood, or that the people of the Bible have a "blood thing." But you have to remember that in the Bible - and that's both Old and New Testaments -- blood was the primary medium for sacrifice. Since blood was life and life came from God (see Genesis 9:4), for Israel and for many other cultures, blood sacrificed to God was how communion with God was either established or re-established. In the ritual of the Passover, the blood of the lamb sprinkled on the doorposts signified that the residents of that house belonged to the family of God and were therefore protected from the angel of death (Exodus 12:7 ff.). When Moses sealed the covenant between Israel and the Lord, he took the blood of sacrificed oxen. Half he dashed against the altar he'd built at the foot of Mt. Sinai, and the other half he dashed on the people, declaring, "See the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words" (Exodus 24:8). When a sin offering was made, the priest applied drops of sacrificed blood to the right ear, thumb, and big toe of the person who needed to be restored to fellowship with God and man (Exodus 29:20, Leviticus 4:1-6:7). Since blood was sacred, any loss of blood was a matter of grave moral concern, and when innocent blood was shed, the guilty party automatically incurred bloodguilt (Exodus 22:2,3; Deuteronomy 19:10). So after Abel had been murdered, the Lord confronted Cain, asking him, "What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground" (Genesis 4:10).

Given the way Matthew's Gospel constantly references the Hebrew Scriptures, we shouldn't be surprised at the way blood figures in his telling of Jesus' Passion. At the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples, he "took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant" (26:27). When Judas realized that he had betrayed "innocent blood" (27:4), he brought back to the chief priests and elders the thirty pieces of silver they'd paid him. But the religious authorities wouldn't take the coins, calling it "blood money" (v. 6). And rather than contaminate the treasury with the tainted silver, they used it to buy a potter's field in which to bury foreigners, which soon got the name "Field of Blood" (v. 8). At the so-called trial of Jesus, the governor Pilate called for a bowl of water, and washing his hands before the crowds, announced, "I am innocent of this man's blood" (v. 24). And that's when the mob shouted back, "His blood be on us and on our children" (v. 25).

I cannot say too often or too strongly that "the Jews" did not kill Jesus, and that this verse is neither a curse on Judaism nor a license for Christians to kill, maim, or otherwise persecute Jews. The irony of this verse is that this gang of Temple henchmen and Roman hangers-on is actually shouting the one prayer that should be on the lips of every believer. Although the mob may think they are calling for Jesus' death, they are really voicing the one great hope of Christian faith -- that by the blood of Jesus, on us and on our children, we may once more know full communion with God.

Remember the story from Genesis of Joseph and his brothers -- what began as attempted murder becomes by the grace of God the salvation of Israel. So here too, the mystery of the Passion is that what men intended as the elimination of a threat to their power becomes by God's marvelous grace the salvation of the world. The blood that hateful men shed cruelly and viciously is the very same blood God uses to justify the unjust, to make righteous the unrighteous, and to forgive the unforgivable.

During this Holy Week, pray with me, "His blood be on us and on our children."

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.