2024 April news-letter article

There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day,
and there may I – though vile as he – wash all my sins away.

This precious old hymn has haunted me for a few weeks now.  I write this article the Tuesday evening before Resurrection Sunday.  In my preparation for Easter, over the past month, I have studied several passages of scripture.  Some I have preached, others I haven’t.  As I have pondered the resurrection, I’ve studied its nature, its implications, and its value in making the Good News good.  I hadn’t planned to preach about the criminal upon the cross next to Jesus’, until about a week ahead.  I knew that on Palm Sunday, I would look at the cross, but about ten days prior, the Holy Spirit drew me to Luke’s account and the two criminals between whom Jesus died.

For years now, Pastor Jim has gotten a kick out of me using the expression “bloody Sunday” to describe worship services where we sing multiple blood songs.  March 24 was one of those Sundays.  I have always wondered ‘what would a person who had never been to church think if they walked in today and heard us singing all these songs about blood?’  In wisdom, we’d do well to mention the significance of this metaphor as a beautiful picture of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.  I don’t particularly want to bathe in Jesus’ blood; I certainly don’t want your blood on me.  This rather gross image is helpful for us to see more clearly what salvation is all about.  Jesus’ work, including losing blood, leading up to and during His time experiencing crucifixion, is a work of ugliness and shame.  Because of His own sinlessness, He was uniquely qualified to serve as a propitiating sacrifice, offering atonement to sinners.  For those of us that accept this atonement, God’s Word tells us that we are made clean from our own sin.  This “washing” is a beautiful picture.  We get an image of this “washing” in the practice of baptism, but to close our eyes and imagine a fountain of Jesus’ blood is a jarring thought.

From the day I decided to focus my preaching efforts upon the criminals in Luke’s narrative, the second stanza of “There Is a Fountain” simply would not get out of my mind.  I worked Sunday to make very clear how that “thief” was saved, but not because of anything he did or said.  He was saved, as we are saved, because he threw himself upon the mercy of Jesus.  The odds that these hardened criminals had committed murder are pretty good, and when we consider this, it makes sense that he deserved an eternity in hell paying for his own sin.  Before we think, however, that we are in any way better than him, let’s acknowledge that we too, deserve an eternity in hell paying for our sin too.  Aren’t you thankful that the merciful Jesus who said “verily I tell you, today you’ll be with me in paradise” to that criminal is the same Jesus who goes to prepare a place for us, pouring out the same mercy?  I am no less vile than that violent criminal who freely confessed that he deserved his crucifixion.  Just as he rejoiced to see that mercy in his day, may we experience the cleansing of that blood fountain, having our sin washed away!

I have spent the past month pondering my own sin and death.  If you’re like me, perhaps you have difficulty letting go of the shame and guilt of your own sin.  I am also increasingly aware that many of our neighbors struggle to come to faith and accept Jesus’ mercy because they somehow feel “not good enough”.  We live in a world of profound brokenness, with profoundly broken people, and we must hold fast to the Good News of salvation.  We must be the carriers of this News that our broken neighbors so desperately need us to be!  We must also be heartened by the truth that if that “thief” could be saved by Jesus, we can be too!  The message of the resurrection is this: sin and death has been conquered once and for all.  Isn’t it sweet to know that Jesus has put our sin to death, and given us eternal life in its place?  He experienced the shame so that we don’t have to.  He bore the wrath, so that our guilt might be expunged and we might be credited with His righteousness!  This truth is what makes the News good!  Do you know someone who needs this hope?  Are you carrying the Good News to them as God calls us to do?  Do you want other broken “thieves” to experience paradise along with us?  O sing hallelujah; our hope springs eternal!

When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave,
then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save!!
--A.J.