Easter Eggs: Blood

by Leah Dummel

I have never been a person who gets “freaked out” by the sight of blood. In one of my past jobs I would draw blood almost daily; I think the most vials I drew from one person at a time was 7! After I drew the blood, the physicians would send it off to lab, for they were looking for answers. And the answers they were looking for were found in that persons’ blood. 

I find this incredible, that so many answers to medical questions are found simply in our blood. When looked at as a whole, blood seems so simple and straight forward. But when you break it down in a lab or under a microscope, it is extremely complex. And one of the most important pieces of information we know about blood, is that it is necessary for life. You can’t live without healthy blood, it’s impossible.

This concept, of blood being a necessity for life, automatically takes me to the meaning behind Easter. Plain and simple, Jesus’s perfect blood was shed during a horrific death as a sacrifice for our sins. This shedding of blood was a necessity and a part of God’s plan to redeem His people, so that we may LIVE with Him forever, rather than pay penalty for our sins.

One of the beautiful things about scripture and the way the Bible is written is that we can see glimpses, or “Easter Eggs” in the Old Testament long before Jesus ever walked the earth. One of the most significant of these regarding Jesus’s perfect blood shed is that of the Passover. Exodus 12:21-23 tells us that in order to avoid God’s death angel, blood must be shed.

            Then Moses called all the elders of Israel together and said to them, “Go, pick out a lamb or young goat for each of your families, and slaughter the Passover animal. Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood.

Brush the hyssop across the top and sides of the door-frames of your houses. And no one may go out through the door until morning. For the Lord will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the door-frame, the Lord will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down”.

The Israelites were depending on the blood of a lamb to protect their family members from certain death. And blood sacrifices like this were not uncommon in the Old Testament. It seems that God was planting the seed for when He would send His son to earth to be the final blood sacrifice.

When Jesus died on the cross; when His perfect blood was shed, that was it. God tells us He does not require any more sacrifices; for Jesus’s blood was the ultimate sacrifice. His death and resurrection had fulfilled all the prophecies. Nothing further is required of us. We are covered, protected, and given freedom under this great and final bloodshed. Christ’s blood is a necessity for us to live, and under it we are covered from all our sins.