Blood Has A Voice

Five days ago everyone was all smiles and jokes and full of hope. Doesn’t Jesus look regal sitting on top of that little donkey. All the cute little lambies and the children dancing to Hosanna. So much joy.

Didn’t last long.

Jesus went straight into the Temple courtyard, the place where they were leading all those little lambs—He Jesus jukes the place. Turned over the tables of the money changers. Drove out the sheep and goats. Used a whip and everything. They hadn’t seen Him angry like that before. He kept saying “My Father’s house is supposed to be a house of prayer, and you’ve turned it into a den of thieves.” 

The religious leaders were like, “who does this guy think He is?” They asked Him what right He had to take control like this.

He turned the question on them, like He always did, it’s one of the things I enjoy about reading Jesus stories, the way He set verbal traps for people who were trying to get Him.

Jesus said, “You ask me by what authority I do what I do. How about this, ‘By what authority did John the Baptizer do what he did?”

They didn’t want to answer. They knew the people believed John was a prophet who came from God, but John had been killed by Herod. So they sidestepped the question, “We don’t know.” They said. So brave.

Jesus told them a story about two brothers. Their dad told the oldest boy to go work in the vineyard but he acted like a little punk and told his father “no.” But later he went and did it anyway. The father told his younger son to go work in the field and the younger son said, “Sure, no problem.” But then he went back to whatever he was doing and didn’t obey.

Jesus asked them, “which of these two sons did what their father wanted?”

They didn’t hesitate, they said the oldest son did, because he eventually did what he was told.

I have to admit, I’ve always heard this story and accepted their answer. I don’t know why. Since when do the religious leaders ever get one of Jesus’ questions right? Jesus went back to their question about John the Baptist.

He said,

“Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.” (Matthew 21:32)

Here’s the part I’ve missed all these years: They didn’t want to admit that they didn’t think John came from God, they didn’t want to admit they didn’t believe him. Jesus calls them out on it. “John came to show the way of righteousness, and you DID NOT BELIEVE HIM.” Which son is better? Between a son who is disrespectful and tells his father “no,” or a lazy good for nothing who just says what he thinks his dad wants to hear? Neither of them did what their father wanted. The answer is neither.

Then Jesus goes on to pretty much spend the next week telling stories that have the same point over and over: the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the whole Temple system is going down. 

God had chosen the Jewish people to be a kingdom of priests, To be a light in the world. To share the blessing He had given them with all nations, with all people. God called Israel His children. His son. They had not been a good son. Disrespectful. Disobedient.

So it came down to “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

That’s why Jesus, who is the only begotten Son of God, who is as much God almighty as the Father Himself, that’s why He came into His creation. He came to fix it. He came to do what they had failed to do. He’s going to be the chosen people of God, the chosen person of God, Israel reduced to one man. He came to be completely respectful, completely obedient, completely faithful, and bring righteousness and salvation—life, love, peace, hope—bring it for all people. At last. To save the world. This was the moment that the whole history of Israel had been pointing to.

You have to understand. Jesus didn’t come to do away with the law and prophets or anything that had come before Him—He came to finish all that. To fulfill it all. Now the Jews were either going to have to get with this new Jesus Christ the Lord program—that this is the way, the truth and the life from now on. They were either going to get with this new program, or they were going to be cut off. This is the new deal. The new testament. And this new situation was going to include a whole bunch of tax collectors, Samaritans, sinners, and gentiles from every nation. These are the chosen people now. From this moment on, only the ones who come to God through Jesus, who come as a child, only the poor in spirit, the meek—from this moment on, the only people of God are the people of God in Christ. The ones who believe that what God said about Jesus is true. 

This moment was a long time coming—since the beginning. Back in the garden, the devil had tempted Eve and she listened to him. Adam watched his wife eat the forbidden fruit, and when she didn’t die, he ate it, too. God gave them a promise, He said that one of Eve’s sons would crush the head of the serpent, the dragon, the devil—the one who talked them into sinning in the first place. God said that the son of Eve who crushes the dragon’s head will bruise his heel in the process of fixing what they had broken.

So, they knew from the beginning that God had promised a Savior. A second Adam. He would be the son of Eve. The Son of God.

You know, Eve was pretty sure she was going to see that day in her lifetime—obviously she was off by several thousand years. But when her first son, Cain, was born, this is what she said, ““I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” She believed what God had promised in a very personal way. In the original language it literally says, “I have gotten a man, namely the Lord.” It doesn’t say, “with the help of” that’s just translators trying to make sense of it. What she actually said was, “I have gotten a man, namely Yahweh.” She thought her first son was going to be the Savior who saves her and Adam. 

Sometimes people wonder if Adam and Eve understood the promise about Jesus that God gave them—I think this verse shows that they understood perfectly. The concept. She even understood that the promised Savior was going to have to be Yahweh Himself. They just didn’t get the timeline right. Luther called her confusion a “pious mistake.”

By the way, this would mean that they raised Cain to think he was the Messiah—something special. Might explain why he turned out to be such a monster. By contrast, there was no fanfare when Abel was born. It just says, “Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.” Whatever.

But it wasn’t Cain who was going to save the world. It was Jesus. 

And five days ago the people thought they wanted Jesus to be king. A lot had happened in five days. Things had gotten weird. The religious leaders were not impressed with Jesus and wanted Him out of the picture—He was not good for their pride. They were always the villain of His stories and they were sick of it. And Jesus did a lot of teaching that week. On Thursday night they had an early Passover dinner—it was the last supper. They ate bread, they drank wine, Jesus washed their feet and called them His friends. It was also the night when He was betrayed.

They spent that night in a garden. Jesus was praying but the boys kept falling asleep. Until Judas showed up with a small army. Peter does one last act of bravery and tries to take off the head of one of the servants—Malchus was quick, Peter only took off his ear. Jesus put the ear back where it belonged. This would be His last miracle before He died. 

All Jesus’ friends scattered into the dark like cockroaches. Except for Peter and maybe John maybe Lazarus, His friend that had been raised from the dead. There probably wasn’t much that scared him anymore.

Peter tries to see what’s going on by blending into the crowd at the High Priest’s courtyard—he gets recognized and denies that he ever knew Jesus. Three times. 

Trials that happen in the middle of the night aren’t usually on the up and up. This was a kangaroo court. Jesus was being railroaded. This was an execution. An assassination. 

Pilate didn’t really want to do the Jew’s dirty-work, but he ends up beating Jesus to within an inch of His life, and when that still didn’t satisfy the mob, he sentenced Him to be crucified. Murdered on a cross—a humiliating and excruciating painful death.

The mob cheered for the crucifixion. They yelled at Jesus, “I thought you said you were going to tear the Temple down? Looks to me like the Temple is still standing. We win. You lose.”

They strip Him of His clothes. He’s hanging up there naked. Bleeding. Everyone can see Him. Five days ago the people sang Hosanna, today they’re making fun of Him.

He says,

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Which in Aramaic is “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” It’s the first line of Psalm 22, but they pretend to misunderstand Him and in their cruelty say “Ooo, poor little Jesus calling for Elijah to come save him!” 

Psalm 22 eerily describes a crucifixion from the perspective of the person being crucified. It talks about people mocking him, gambling for his clothes, suffering in front of his enemies.

Jesus says He’s thirsty and someone thinks it would be funny to shove a sponge on a stick with sour wine and vinegar up in His face. I heard a guy talking about ancient Roman toilets one time, he said they would keep jars of old wine and vinegar with sponges on sticks to clean and disinfect themselves after. Could it really be that the last thing we forced Jesus to taste and smell before He died was that?

Psalm 22 paints a picture of a man being tortured by his enemies, but it ends up being a Psalm of deliverance. It ends with the line, “It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;

they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,

    that he has done it.”

“He has done it.” Here’s another way that last line can be translated:

“It is finished.” (John 19:30)

And with that Jesus died. It says He gave up His spirit. Nothing happens in the Gospel of Matthew unless Jesus allows it to happen. Not even this.

The sky went dark. There was an earthquake. The curtain in the Temple was torn from the top to the bottom—as if God Himself is the one who tore it. As if He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. No longer would God’s presence be hidden behind a tapestry. No longer would people be denied access to Him. No longer would the blood of animals be accepted or needed.

God had just pulled the pin on this grenade. The Temple was over. The Temple will be completely destroyed in 70 AD. Just after the New Testament is done being written. 

Jesus’ blood had paid it all. And His blood cries out from the ground.

I want to tell another story about two sons. The older son who thought he was something special, and the younger son that no one really expected much from him. They both brought a sacrifice to God—Cain brought from his garden and Abel brought from his flock. There was nothing wrong with either offering, but God wasn’t happy with Cain. God accepted Abel’s offering but it says He had no regard for Cain’s. You ever see what happens when a spoiled child doesn’t get his way? 

Cain is furious. Jealous. Envious. Murderous. As soon as he gets Abel alone, he kills him in cold blood. You’ve all heard that story before—but you probably haven’t heard this part.

God shows up and asks Cain if he’s seen his brother. Cain says the famous line “am I my brother’s keeper?” What a brat.

God says, “I know what you did. His blood is calling to me from the ground.”

Blood has a voice.

What do you think the blood of Abel was saying? I’ve always imagined that it was crying for vengeance. Revenge. Everyone loves a good revenge story.

I don’t think so. I think the blood was crying the same thing that Jesus cried from the cross when He said, “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.”

God spares Cain’s life. Even puts a mark on him so that no one will harm him. It seems that his brother’s blood was calling for God to have mercy. Abel is listed among the faithful in Hebrews. 

Here’s the thing though, We’re all Cain. We’re all disrespectful, disobedient, and murderous sons. We all murdered our brother. Our friend. Our Lord. We all deserve vengeance. 

Jesus is dead. And His blood cries from the ground. His blood has a voice, but it says, “I forgive you.”

Five days ago everyone was all smiles and joy. A lot happened in five days. They’re about to find out that even more can happen in three.