Bloghardt's Reflector

You too. Me too. No seeing God without being destroyed. No engaging Him without being the one that is totaled and wiped out.

These are not words, these are fact. We live each day as if there is no God. Treating others like we matter most and like they matter only to serve us. We live each day as if God doesn't exist and we can do what we want – as if we aren't going to get punished if we don't get caught.

And so we do what we do in secret, as if we can get away with it on the Last Day. We spread rumors, demolishing people's reputation. Or worse, we lap the rumors up like a cat drinking milk. Eager to use them against someone someday.

Then, there is the secret sins we do – lust, fornication, coveting other people's spouses, thinking evil about people, wanting them dead, or at least damaged. Skimming off the top, cheating on our taxes, stealing from our employers by not working when we are on the clock, and disobeying our parents.

And most shameful of all - we have time for everything in the world, but the Lord's gifts. When it comes to the Lord's gifts we sound like teenagers, “You don't know all that I have in my life, pastor....my kids, my house, my work”

And all the while, there is a God. A holy God who by His very presence could destroy us, who should destroy us. Contemplate that the next time you hear that rumor or have that thought.

There is a God, holy, unapproachable, a consuming fire. He not only does not have any sin, but there can be no sin before Him. No sin, means no you in the presence either.

Then, the Blood. Blood sprinkled everywhere. Half in the basins. Half sprinkled on the altar. Blood sprayed, on the people, “This is the blood of the testament which the Lord has made with you according to these words.”

Everything had to be sprinkled with that blood, with the blood of the sacrifice what was unclean was made clean. The shedding of blood was everything, for it delivered forgiveness.

So, the vessels, then the people. They were blooded... with the blood of the sacrifice, the blood of the testament. They were forgiven by the sprinkling of the blood, made clean, cleansed.

Then, the miracle: What no one in creation had done since Adam, happened. They saw God and lived. Then, they did what free men do, they ate and drank.

And if they were cleansed by the blood of bulls and goats, if they were unclean and made clean, made holy, to stand in the presence of God by the sacrifice of animals, how much more shall the blood of Christ make you clean!

All things purified. All things made clean, not by a blood of a beast on Jewish altar slain. But by the blood of the eternal Son of God – shed for you and me for the remission of our sins.

And so on this very night in which He was betrayed, Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take eat, this is my body.”

Then, He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them saying, “Drink of it, all of you. This cup is the New Testament in My Blood, shed for you for the remission of sins.”

New Testament. A testament requires something to die. A will, a testament. This night with death starring the Son of God in the face, He gives this testament to you, for you, on you.

No blood or beast shed to enact His testament. No, the New Testament is enacted by His Blood. Shed for you on Good Friday.

All things purified with blood.. all things. You, me, the world. His blood for you. His blood for me. Shed for you for remission of sins.

Forgiveness won by the shedding of the blood of Christ.

Forgiveness delivered by the same Blood, not sprinkled, but put into your mouth.

All your sins – all your blemishes, all your failures, all your secret sins, all your public sins, all the things you are scared will be exposed on the Last Day, His Blood cleanses you. His blood forgives you. His blood washes your sins away.

And tonight, witness the miracle again. It happens every Sunday. It happens tonight. Come, receive the Body and Blood of Christ. His memorial. His new testament.

Take eat His Body. Take drink His Blood of the new testament shed for you for the remission of sins. Receive His sacrifice – achieved once for all time on the Cross.

Then, with His Body and Blood in your mouth, eat and drink with not just with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, not just with your fellow baptized – both those who are here tonight and those who are seated under the throne of God, but eat and drink with God Himself.

And He will not raise His hand against you. Not because of you, but because of His Son. Whose suffering and death we will be beholding tonight and tomorrow.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went to the Mount of Olives. He's on His way to be betrayed – to suffer and die for you.

And you, eat and drink with God Himself and He will not raise His hand against you. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable, but true. In the name of Jesus. Amen.