Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Quincy, IL
Rev. Larry D. Troxel
Holy ( Maundy) Thursday
Thursday at 12 Noon and 7:00 p.m.
“The Blood of the Covenant”
(Exodus 24:8; Hebrews 9:14, 22)
Exodus 24:8 — 8And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said,
"Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these
words."
Hebrews 9:14 — … 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to
serve the living God.
Hebrews 9:22 — 22Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood,
and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
A well-known Gospel hymn says, “What can wash my sins away? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”1
An often-sung Lenten hymn says, “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s
veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”2
And in the sacred meal which Jesus instituted and commanded us to do often, He gives us His true body along
with the bread and His true blood along with the wine.
Why this emphasis on blood? In our day and age, we are warned to avoid contact with blood. In our schools and
workplaces, if blood is shed for any reason, elaborate safety precautions must be taken to clean up the blood and
to prevent contact by others with the blood that was shed. We live in reasonable fear of dangerous viruses and
bacteria. You can only imagine how horrified many people would be if we were required to repeat the ceremony
by which the Old Covenant at Mount Sinai was ratified, if pastors were required to sprinkle real blood on the
members of the congregation. Not only would we fear that blood stains would ruin our clothing and result in
xpensive and extensive cleaning procedures. We simply are not accustomed to coming into contact with the
blood of humans or animals.
Despite our twenty-first century squeamishness with regard to blood and our caution concerning blood-borne
diseases, Holy Scripture holds before us the great importance of blood being shed and of the necessity of our
personal involvement with the very real blood that was shed to restore us to a life of fellowship with the living God.
The ceremony described in Exodus chapter twenty-four was a unique event, never to be repeated. It marked a
new beginning, a beginning in which, by the grace of God, His chosen people were brought into a new and
lasting relationship with Him. Animals were sacrificed and their blood was poured on the altar of the living
God and sprinkled on God’s chosen people.
The death of sacrificial animals and the shedding of their blood was necessary because the sinfulness of
human beings had destroyed the fellowship with God that had existed at the Creation.3
Sin separated the entire human race from any fellowship with the living God. So God in His grace legislated
in great detail the sacrificial system of worship by which His Old Covenant people were able to live in relationship with Him.
The Word of God is quite plain: “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”4
Because “the wages of sin is death,”5 someone or something
had to die. God’s Law declared, “The soul who sins shall die,”6
and that left every human being subject not only to physical death but also to eternal spiritual death. The fact of
our sinfulness made necessary the shedding of blood, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
In and of themselves, those Old Covenant sacrifices and the shedding of blood associated with them were
not able to deal effectively with sin. Their great purpose was to point forward to the one great sacrifice, the
death of Christ Jesus and the shedding of His blood for our redemption. God granted forgiveness of sin
and life eternal to His Old Covenant people because the sacrifices which God demanded of them pointed
forward to the one great sacrifice of God’s Son, our Savior Christ Jesus, on the cross.
His blood was shed for us when the Roman soldiers placed a cross of thorns on His head and then hit Him
over the head, driving the thorns into His scalp.7 His blood was shed for us
when the Roman Governor gave the order for Jesus to be whipped.8
His blood was shed for us when He was nailed to the cross.9 And His blood
was shed for us when a soldier pierced His side with a spear.10
Holy Scripture says, “The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”11
What all of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament could not do, Jesus accomplished for us by His suffering
and death. By shedding His blood for us, He restored us to fellowship with the living God. He obtained for us full
and complete forgiveness of all our sins.
This is what God had promised to do. Through the prophet Jeremiah, who lived some six hundred years before
Jesus, God promised He would do this. God promised to establish a New Covenant with His people, one in which
He promised: “I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”12
His promise concluded with this great assurance: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more.”13
It was this New Covenant of which Jesus spoke at the institution of the Lord’s Supper. He said, “
This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins.”14 This is what we receive today in His
Holy Supper. We remember that it was on this Holy Thursday evening that Jesus instituted this sacred meal.
As we hear Jesus’ words, we are reminded of what both Moses and Jeremiah said to God’s
people. Moses sprinkled God’s people with blood, saying, “This is the blood of the Covenant.”
Through Jeremiah, God promised a “new covenant.”
And now we receive the blood of that New Covenant, the blood which sealed the New Covenant, putting it into effect.
We receive with the wine the true blood of Christ Jesus, the blood which does cleanse us from all sin. And as we eat
this bread, we receive the true body of Christ Jesus, the body that was sacrificed to restore us to fellowship with the
living God.
Here in this meal we receive the great benefits which Christ Jesus won for us with His perfect life, sacrificial death,
and glorious resurrection. Here we receive once again Jesus’ true body along with the bread and Jesus’
true blood along with the wine. And with them we receive the forgiveness of all our sins, assurance of life eternal, and
assurance of our salvation. All of these precious gifts are ours because Christ Jesus sacrificed Himself for all people.
The blood of Jesus purifies our consciences from dead works to serve the living God.15
The blood of Jesus transforms our lives. No longer do we attempt to appease God’s wrath by trying to be good
and to do good. We never can be good enough or do good enough. But what we cannot do, Jesus has accomplished
for us. He has broken the enslaving power that sin once held over us and has so transformed us that God remembers
forever as perfect the godly things we do. So completely does the blood that Jesus shed for us cleanse us that in
God’s sight not one stain of sin remains in us.
The blood of the covenant is given to us again today so that we may rejoice in God’s saving grace for us in Christ
Jesus. The blood of the covenant is given to us again today so that we may live with complete assurance that we have been
restored to a close, living, personal, loving relationship with the living God. We live at peace with God and He with us
because He gives to us again today the blood of the covenant. As we thank God for His grace in giving us the blood of
the covenant, we also pray: “Lord, may Your body and Your blood be for my soul the highest good!”16 Amen.
1. Robert Lowery, “Nothing But the Blood,” in the public domain
2. William Cowper, “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” in the public domain
3. Genesis 3
4. Hebrews 9:22
5. Romans 6:23
6. Ezekiel 18:20
7. Matthew 27:19–20
8. John 19:1
9. Mark 15:24
10. John 19:34
11. 1 John 1:7
12. Jeremiah 31:31
13. Jeremiah 31:34
14. Matthew 26:28
15. Hebrews 9:14
16. Friedrich Christian Heyder, I Come, O Savior, to Thy Table,” translation as in The Lutheran Hymnal,
1941, alt., copyright © 1941 by Concordia Publishing House.
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