Good Friday 2026

We are both fascinated and horrified by blood.  Blood is a wonderful, powerful liquid that nourishes our bodies and keeps us alive.  It carries oxygen and nutrients to our cells, and removes wastes and toxins from our bodies.  Blood protects us from infection by its antibodies and fights disease.

We value blood highly.  Yet we are also rather squeamish about blood.  We avoid contact with it, because we feel that it somehow stains us and makes us unclean.  In the UK, they even use bloody as a swear word, as if blood made things repulsive and disgusting.

Because of this, many are put off by the whole business of sacrifices in the Old Testament, and messages of Christ’s bloody death on a cross.

However, it is by Jesus’ sacrifice in His bloody death on the cross that each of us is a recipient of God’s grace, mercy, and love.  

Our access to God does not depend on the observance of God’s Laws and Commands.  Our access to God depends fully on His forgiveness of our Sin, His purification of our hearts, and the gift of a Christ-like conscience.  

Through the blood of Jesus, shed for you, God cleanses you so thoroughly from your Sin that He no longer has any reason to remember it. 

Through the blood of Jesus, you become blameless in God’s sight.  

By His blood Jesus cleanses you from the guilt of Sin and your pollution by it.  He cleanses your conscience from the stain of all impurity, so that you can participate in the Heavenly service of worship with a pure heart so that you do not desecrate God’s holiness with your impurity.

Having atoned for our sins with His blood, Jesus now offers us the benefits of that atonement (Rom 3:24). 

By His blood Jesus pardons our sins and releases us from their effect on us; he rescues us from our guilt and its power over us; he sets us free from the accusation and condemnation of the devil (Matt 26:28; Rev 12:10–11). Jesus redeems us from our sins by forgiving us (Eph 1:7). 

By His blood Jesus justifies us before God the Father (Rom 5:9); by His blood Jesus sets us free from our sins and makes us members of God’s royal priesthood who have access to His gracious presence (Rev 1:5–6); He reconciles us with God and gives us peace through His blood (Col 1:20). 

By His blood you who were once far from God have now been brought near to Him (Eph 2:13). 

Through His blood you now have access to God the Father in one Spirit (Eph 2:18). Just as the high priest was able to enter the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement by means of the blood from the sin offerings (Lev 16:14–15), so you have the right to enter the heavenly sanctuary and approach God the Father there by the blood of Jesus (Heb 10:19–22). It qualifies  you for entry into God’s heavenly presence with bold confidence in Him and the complete assurance that He will welcome you and bless you. 

By His blood Jesus sanctifies you inwardly and completely (Heb 10:29; 13:12). By yourself you are not holy. But you are holy in Him. He shares his own holiness with you, so that you are now as holy as He is. 

By His blood, we are saints, holy people who stand before God together with his holy angels. Through the Holy Spirit Jesus sanctifies us by sprinkling us with his blood (1 Pet 1:2). We therefore depend on it for our sanctification. Like the priests in the Old Testament (Exod 29:21; Lev 8:30), our “robes” are made holy by the blood of the Lamb, so that we can stand with Jesus in the presence of His heavenly Father (Rev 7:14). 

Through His blood we are blood brothers and blood sisters with Jesus. As coheirs with Him we have a foretaste of our heavenly inheritance already in this life here on earth.

All that and much more is yours by faith in Jesus and his blood—the blood which was shed on the cross for you and which you will soon receive from Him in Holy Communion. 

Thomas Aquinas summed this up in his hymn, “Thee We Adore, O Hidden Savior,” with these lyrics: 

Fountain of goodness, Jesus, Lord and God: 

Cleanse us, unclean, with Thy most cleansing blood; 

Increase our faith and love, that we may know 

The hope and peace which from Thy presence flow.

This is the Blood of Christ for you.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

April 3, 2026 (Good Friday)

*This message has been heavily influenced by excerpts from

John W. Kleining’s, The Lord’s Supper: A Guide to the Heavenly Feast.