Because real bloodshed is so uncommon in our society, I think that the sight or the mention of blood does not have many points of contact in our actual experience. We read of the suffering and shed blood of Christ and so often, at least for me, it does not make as deep an impact as I feel it should. Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ helped us visualize it more vividly, but I still think I have a long way to go in appreciating the amazing gift Jesus gave me through his sacrifice.
I can't count how many times I have bowed in repentance and claimed the forgiveness of my sins through the washing of the blood of Christ. I think any Christian would be a liar if they did not admit that sometimes it can get very routine, familiar, even formulaic. We speak of shed blood with the same intensity with which we might ask a waitress to serve our eggs over easy.
Though I'm sure I'd recoil in horror, there is a part of me that wishes I could have experienced the slaughter of that lamb described in the devotion. I think it would have left a deep impression on my heart. The quiet surrender of the lamb would have made the scene even more disturbing than if it had thrashed in panic. To see such a thing would have reminded me in the most powerful way that my redemption was not sealed by the signing of a name on a contract. It was paid for by death.
I think if I understood the gravity of the sacrifice of Jesus, I'd approach my own call to die with more sobriety and humility. I cannot say I've died much to self or for Christ and others. When I've had the opportunity to die, even a little death, I've usually gone into it kicking and screaming. Lord, teach me to be silent as you were, and to face the necessary reality of self-death with the grace and quiet strength of Jesus the Shepherd.
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