It is quite difficult for me to write about the same topic over and over again. I think the author of Hebrews can teach me a lot about it. He writes over and over about what Jesus had done. I suspect he does it to really drive that point home. I think he was afraid that his readers would not really understand what Jesus had done for them. Perhaps she feared that his traditions were preventing the message from really getting home.

Perhaps something like the traditions we grew up with, or something else, prevents us from clearly hearing the message. So let’s look again at what Jesus had done for us, as described once again by the author of Hebrews.

13 If that animal blood and other purification rituals were effective in cleansing certain issues of our religion and behavior, 14think how much more Christ’s blood cleanses our entire lives, inside and out.

I remember something from my childhood. When we were kids, there were no water restrictions. I loved playing with the water. I placed the garden hose on an elevated part of the garden and turned it on, allowing a trickle of water to pass through. I then built rivers as the water ran down the slope. Eventually I reached the flat part where I built walls along the trickle of water to guide it.

But when I turned off the tap, the water flowed and my artificial rivers dried up. First I had to open the faucet so that my river would flow and reach further.

God keeps our rivers flowing. He uses his divine weather systems to make water evaporate over the sea. With his breath, He blows the clouds over the land and, at the right time, the rain falls on the land so that the rivers flow to the sea, competing the cycle. The system is perfect and works automatically.

People can’t make it rain like this. Human attempts to do this on a smaller scale, for example to irrigate farmland, are neither automatic nor sustainable. It is very expensive to move water, I know! I thought it was smart to plant pumpkins in the open fields on the farm. Irrigation aged me five years in one season.

Then you realize how little we can do. Our efforts are simply too small. Like the efforts to get rid of the debt we owe because of our sins. Priests sacrificing animal blood was only a short-term solution and had to be repeated over and over again.

When God intervenes, His plan is big enough that He doesn’t have to repeat it like the human priests did. And the only way He could do this was to provide the blood through Jesus as a sacrifice for people’s sin. The blood of Jesus was much thicker than water. Much thicker than animal blood.

This blood is different. he is pious It’s special. It’s enough.

Holy Scripture
Hebrews 9:11-15

Reflection
What does the blood of Jesus make possible for you?
What does it do to the way you live?
How can you convey this message to your friends?

Prayer
Father, we cannot hear this message many times. What you did for us through the blood of Jesus truly saved lives. I would never have been able to do it on my own. Please help me to live this wonderful message in the outside world. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen.