Jump Start # 978

1 Peter 1:18-19 “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

The cost of redemption was expensive. It involved blood, and not just any blood, but the pure blood of Christ. There was no blood like His. I got to thinking about this recently. My wife and I cleaned up the Lord’s Supper after a morning worship. It’s been a long, long time since I have done that. We have a wonderful team of people who help in so many areas. But on this occasion, we filled in for them. I was emptying the cups from the Lord’s supper. For health reasons, we dumped all that were in the trays. In India, they pour everything, even what is left from what people have drunk, back into a large container for use the following week. It’s not a pretty sight in India. But as I was dumping out the juice from the cups, there were some that were not used. That’s the thought that really stuck with me. This juice represented our Lord’s blood. This juice was to remind us of that great sacrifice and the incredible freedom we have in Christ. There was some juice that was untouched. There was some that was poured down the drain. In some ways it seemed the blood was wasted.

The blood of Jesus is wasted by those who do not believe. Jesus died for all, yet not all believe. Not all even want to believe. There are some who like their life without Jesus. They like to live free from restraints and free from people telling them what to do. They like to do as they please and be accountable to no one but self. It sounds like a good life on the surface, but those that live that way are following Satan and they do not realize it. He has fooled them into thinking that they are free when they are not. They belong to him. What’s worse, is that someday that life will come to a crashing end. Thrown into eternity without God is the most horrific experience anyone can have. Wasted blood.

The blood of Jesus is wasted by those who once made a commitment to Jesus but can’t seem to keep it. They obeyed Jesus and at one time worshipped Him and followed Him. But time passes. The newness wears off. They begin chasing other things. Worship drops off. Their hearts become filled with other things. Work, shopping, sleeping all take a higher priority than Jesus. They become what Jesus talked about in the parable of the sower. The seedling is crowded out by weeds. The word doesn’t grow in the heart as it should. Christianity has had little impact in this person’s life. They have failed as a Christian. They will have excuses, such as they were too tired or no one paid attention to them, or they couldn’t connect with the sermons, but the reality is, something else became more important to them than Jesus. Wasted blood.

I expect those surrounding the cross, the blood of Jesus didn’t look any different than other blood. It was red like other blood. It poured out like other blood. But the blood of Jesus was different. It was Heaven’s sacrifice for our sins. It’s was God’s great reach down to earth to save us. It is the only thing that could change our past. We can’t go back and undo what we have done. It’s impossible for me to go back to my high school and walk the hallways as a senior and undo the dumb and wrong things I have done. Can’t do it. The blood of Jesus changes that past. Those wrongs are gone because of that blood and my faith. There is nothing else that can do that for us. The blood of Jesus changes our past, it affects our present and it gives us great hope for the future.

It is so easy for us to get used to the Lord’s supper that we go through the motions without thinking about it. Some have decided to serve the Lord’s supper less often in order to make it more special. They do that without Biblical evidence or authority. It also misses the point. No parent says, ‘I’m only going to hug my child once a month because if I hug him every day, it may not be special.’ Really? No couple says, ‘We are only going to kiss four times a year, because we want it to be special.’ Really? It’s not the frequency that’s the problem. It’s what is running through our minds.

Precious blood—there was nothing else like it. We need the blood of Jesus. We need to grasp how important that blood is. This is more than just a ‘Sunday thing.’ It’s something that changes and affects my Monday as well.

Roger