The Blood of Christ

A Lenten Reflection

All those who disagree about Mel Gibson’s movie, "The Passion of the Christ," agree it is bloody. The movie includes events that are not in the New Testament gospels, and some of these add to the violence of the story. The four gospel accounts differ, and there is no way to say that any one of them is historically accurate. Yet, every crucifixion by the Romans was bloody and brutal, and there is no reason to believe the crucifixion of Jesus was any less so.

But the blood of Jesus did not merely flow from his body during his crucifixion. The blood of "Christ crucified," to use Paul’s phrase (1 Cor. 1:23), became central to the church’s ritual remembrance and understanding of Jesus. And this has had enormous implications both for Christian scripture and for the history of the church and the world.

Paul writes that the risen Lord told him of the last supper with his disciples, when Jesus said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." (1 Cor. 11:25) Moses had made a covenant with God for the Israelites, which was sealed by throwing the blood of sacrificed oxen on the people. (Ex. 24:8) Jesus, a Jew with his Jewish disciples, now reveals to Paul, also a Jew, that the shedding of his blood on the cross marks a new covenant. But Paul will give his life as a witness that this new covenant of blood is not just for Jews, but also for Gentiles.

By the time the gospels of Matthew and John were written by Jewish authors engaged in a fierce debate with other Jews about the meaning of Jesus, the "blood of Christ" symbolized the great chasm opening up between what would become two separate religions, Judaism and Christianity.

In the gospel of Matthew the author adds to the story of the trial of Jesus before Pilate, as told in the gospel of Mark, the following statement: "Then the people as a whole answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’" (Mt. 27:25) The gospel of John relates that during an argument with "the Jews" Jesus says, "unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day." (Jn. 6:53-54)

For almost two millennia Christians have read these two passages as justifying the condemnation and often bloody persecution of Jews, for killing Jesus and for rejecting him as the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

Of the many sins of Christianity, this is the greatest. In the new covenant of Christ’s blood Christians have rejected animal sacrifice, but embraced the sacrifice of Jews on the altar of Christian faith. The death of a man for all people has been twisted into a thirst for Jewish blood.

There is no apology adequate to this crime. There is no way to undue the terror and horror of this history. There is only the possibility of actually living today a "new covenant" that discovers in the blood of Christ the end of all blood sacrifice, both animal and human.

No more scapegoats for our sin! This must be our creed. If in Jesus we know the saving love of God, then this love must be manifested through our lives. We must proclaim that God’s love embraces all people, whether they are Christians, Jews, people of other religious traditions, or people who choose to live a secular life.

In short, Christians must allow Jews, Muslims, and others as well to discover God in Jesus, in their own ways. The "blood of Christ" stories and rituals are at the heart of Christian faith, but are not the final word of God on faithful living.

We must not demand that Jews accept Christ crucified, for this bloody Jesus is the victim in a story blaming Jews rather than Romans for his death. Asking Jews to accept the New Testament is asking them to deny the religious teachings that inspired Jesus and the Jews who followed him. Many Jews find in the sayings of Jesus the God they know in scripture, and by listening to this Jewish view of Jesus we, too, might come closer to the God we know in the Bible.

Moreover, Christians should not demand that Muslims accept Christ crucified. Muslims revere Jesus as a prophet, who spoke for God and called people to repentance. But the Qur’an teaches that Jesus was not crucified and was not God. Our calling, as Christians, is not to condemn Muslims for their beliefs, because these differ with our beliefs, but to affirm that the living reality of God’s love in Christ does not depend on human agreement about religious beliefs.

Christians ought to affirm that God’s love in Christ is saving no matter what stories we tell about Jesus, and no matter what rituals we use in our religious practice. Salvation is from God, not from the church. All those who live this faith will know God’s salvation.

Ash Wednesday, 2004

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