Life & Life Again
Blood and water flowed from his side.
We’ve noted a few times now the resonation between John and the book of Genesis. Still yet here at Jesus’ death, John is making at least one allusion.
Water and blood pouring from Jesus’ dead body is a powerful image. Together, they seems to continue John’s earthy imagery. Blood, water, body, eyes, mud, spit…the incarnation is deeply important. Jesus was no spirit only, he was fully human - body and spirit. (Be careful not to separate these two things. John’s incarnational point is not the separation, but the holistic union.)
First: blood. Scripture, particularly the Hebrew scriptures, is emphatic that blood is the life of the body. Unless you’ve particularly studied it, you might be surprised just how much the Old Testament sacrificial system refers to blood. Even the New Testament speaks of Christ’s blood quite extensively. But there could be eucharistic overtones here. Christians come to the Table to receive the blood of Jesus, from the Body of Christ.
Second: water. In the beginning, water is at the center of creation. Even as we live today, we know it - no life exists without water. It has the power to both heal and destroy. It’s the fuel that makes countless essential aspects of life work. That it would pour forth from Jesus’ body at his death is a theological statement. If blood has eucharistic overtones, water takes care of the baptismal ones. We are baptized by water into the death of Jesus.
John 19:31-42
It was the Preparation Day and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath, especially since that Sabbath was an important day. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of those crucified broken and the bodies taken down. Therefore, the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men who were crucified with Jesus. When they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead so they didn’t break his legs. However, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. The one who saw this has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he speaks the truth, and he has testified so that you also can believe. These things happened to fulfill the scripture, They won’t break any of his bones. And another scripture says, They will look at him whom they have pierced.
After this Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could take away the body of Jesus. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one because he feared the Jewish authorities. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took the body away. Nicodemus, the one who at first had come to Jesus at night, was there too. He brought a mixture of myrrh and aloe, nearly seventy-five pounds in all. Following Jewish burial customs, they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it, with the spices, in linen cloths. There was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish Preparation Day and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus in it.
Prayer
God,
We humans have technofied so much. Technology is all around us. It’s helpful until it isn’t. And it too often seems more unhelpful than helpful these days. I wonder what you think about our technology?
I tend to believe you gave us brains to think and develop. I imagine you’re pleased when we put them to work in the things of creativity, the enrichment of humanity, and various powers of healing the body, soul, and mind. At the same time, you didn’t seem too pleased with such efforts as building a large tower. Does that still apply?
One thing I know technology does to me is distract me from earthy and earthly things. With every step I take, the soles of my shoes separate the soles of my feet from the earth. As much as my phone and computer can give me immediate textual, visual, and audible communication with others, they separate me from those things that happen when I’m sitting down with people in the same room at the same table or on the same couch. We haven’t yet developed the technology that can share a bowl of grapes or a drink of water with someone else.
So help me, God: Keep me earthy. Draw me to the places that immerse me in oxygen, soil, and water. Make my blood flow freely. As I drink the blood and eat the body of Jesus at his table, remind me of both life and death and life again.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.