Pentecost 10 Exodus 24:3-11 Body and Blood

Exodus 24:3-11 Ephesians 4:1-7, 11-16 John 6:1-15

There can be no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood and the blood of the Messiah cleanses us from all sins. Adam knew this, Abraham knew this, Moses knew this and all of you know that you are forgiven through the work of Jesus Christ.   Through the Holy Spirit you have been called to faith in the work of Jesus Christ.  Consequently, you have the promise of eternal life; the same promise given to all since it was promised to Adam and Eve.

Two months and one day after the Israelites left Egypt, Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and received a second promise from God, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ (Exodus 19:5-6)  Moses went and told the people all the Lord’s words and law and they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.”

Certainly after seeing the powerful miracles God had done in leading them out of Egypt, the people immediately promised to keep all of God’s laws, including the 10 commandments and other laws that would help them on their journey to the Promised Land.  And Moses wrote down theses laws so they would clearly see whether they were keeping God’s words or not.

When you look at God’s law, especially the 10 Commandments, you can see the wisdom and the fairness of them.   And the benefits that would result from everyone obeying those laws become rather obvious.    Think of the family harmony if children would always honor and obey their parents and parents honored and obeyed their Father in heaven. Life here on earth would go much smoother if we all told the truth, did not steal, remained faithful to our spouses and obeyed the other Commandments.  The Hebrews said they would do just that; obey everything the Lord had commanded them.

So the people were given these two promises, the first promise can be taken as spiritual; it encourages you to have a faith that is formed within your heart and rests deep within your immortal soul.  The second promise is physical--it tells you how to live a good life here on earth and how everyone would be blessed if you all lived according to God’s word.

But we do not always remember God’s Word.  So Moses built an altar to the Lord where the people would gather to worship God and to hear His word. Moses called upon some young men to offer sacrifices for the people according to God’s word.  Half of the blood of the sacrificed animals he put aside in bowls and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.

The blood sprinkled on the altar indicated that sinful men are not fit to come into God’s presence.  As Saint Paul Reminds us in Hebrews (9:22) “There can be no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.”  The blood of animals could not atone for any of the people’s sins, nor could the blood of a sinful man, but it could remind them about the promised Savior.  The Savior would therefore have to be born and live a life free of sin.  Only then could He be sacrificed upon God’s Altar for the sins of the world.

Only through faith in the promised Messiah could they offer sacrifices and worship before God’s altar in a manner which was God pleasing.  Still sacrifices acceptable to God were not done to seek His forgiveness; rather they were done to express gratitude for God’s gracious forgiveness. 

The blood that Moses did not sprinkle on the Altar was sprinkled on the people. This blood was God’s Covenant of grace.  Moses sprinkled it upon them visibly and it sanctified all of those who had faith in the promised Savior. The blood was a visible means of grace in which God did all of the giving and the people did the receiving.

But somewhere along the line, the Hebrew people seemed to set aside the first promise and concentrated on the second. God had given the people laws through Moses that stated that if you killed your neighbor’s ox, you had to pay restitution back to your neighbor. 

That makes perfect sense and it helps keep peace here on earth.  However, there arose among the Hebrews the notion that as long as they did their best to keep God’s law, they could pay for their misdeeds by offering sacrifices. So, rather than giving thank offerings for the forgiveness God was giving them, they believed their offerings were restitution they had to pay for what they had done wrong; the bigger the sin, the bigger their offering had to be.

That idea is still around today.  You and I know that we cannot live up to the 10 commandments.  As Saint Paul tells you and me, “There is no one righteous, not one.”  (Romans 3:10) We have no more right to approach God’s Altar and present our works before Him to receive His forgiveness than the Hebrews did. But many people still believe that as long as they do more good things than bad, they will be able to approach God on the last day with their works and He will let them into heaven. Those that have this mistaken idea have either mixed up God’s worldly promise with God’s heavenly promise or they have not heard or believed that Jesus Christ has already paid for their sins.

We have a God however, that wants you to be blessed in this world and in the world to come.  Too many people however, focus just on this world.  That is what the people in our gospel lesson did as well.  Jesus did a miracle based on His compassion for the hungry people who had met Him by the Sea of Galilee.

He miraculously fed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and two fish.  The people said, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” They were right about Jesus being the Prophet but He was more than just a physical Prophet.  He was also their Spiritual Savior. When they saw this great miracle, they wanted to make Jesus their bread king, someone who would feed them and make them comfortable in this life.  Most of the crowd did not see Him as the One who would pay for their sins. After all, they felt they did not need a Savior because they could make restitution by offering their sacrifices before God’s Altar. 

So before they could make Him their bread king, Jesus left them and went upon a mountain by Himself.  

My friends please understand that Jesus does not want to be just your bread king.  He is more than willing to give you your daily bread, but if that is all that you want, He will turn away from you in sadness.  He does not want to feed just your body; He wants to feed your very soul. He does this through His New covenant given to you during His last meal with His disciples at Passover. His New covenant is really the fulfillment of the first promise and the second promise. Jesus has fulfilled them both physically and spiritually. He obeyed all of God’s Commandments perfectly and fulfilled the Law.

Then the New Covenant was sealed with His very body and Blood, given and shed for you. It is still a covenant of grace in which He does all the giving and we all the receiving.  That same blood, which He poured out for many on Calvary’s cross for the forgiveness of sins, is given to all who participate in the Lord’s Supper.   (Matthew 26:28) 

When you participate in His supper, Jesus gives you the assurance that He poured out His body and blood not only for the sins of the whole world but expressly for you.  Only when the Holy Spirit through the Word of God or the waters of Baptism has cleansed our hearts and souls, can we please God. Only when we have faith can we approach God’s altar and share in His Supper without God raising His hand against us.

That is important. God’s covenants have always been promises in which God does His part and we need only receive His promises in faith.  He did it all for us through the work of Jesus Christ, and we receive the blessings of His Covenant of grace, when He gives us the faith to believe it. 

Then and only then can we heed His call to live a life worthy of our Lord and Savior. Only when we understand God’s grace can we stand firm in our faith, rather than as Paul tells us, ‘being tossed back and forth by the waves and blown around here and there by every wind of teaching.  That is my hope and prayer for you all, that you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind.  In Jesus Name. Amen.