The Christian holy days of Good Friday and Easter are marked by blood and mortal wounds in a human body. The Bible details that Jesus was spit upon, beaten, lashed, scourged, crowned with thorns, hung on a cross, and finally, pierced with a spear.
The Shroud of Turin, a burial cloth that once enwrapped a crucified corpse, has plenty of blood evidence as well. Computer enhanced analysis of its blood stains reveal wounds caused by three different instruments of torture.
The researchers counted approximately 170 stripes from a combination of whips and canes. On top of those, there are another 40 to 60 blows from a scourge - an instrument of torture with weighted barbs on the end of two or three thongs.
Whether the man wrapped in the Shroud was Jesus Himself, or one who was treated like Jesus, he was a bloody mess.
And the biblical witness, rather than downplay it, spotlights the bloodiness of Jesus’ crucifixion. From the copious amounts of animal blood that foretold it to the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ passion the emphasis is clear. “The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
All of this raises a question: Why so much focus on blood?
The answer to that question is straightforward. Human beings cannot be reduced to bloodless spirits. To be human is to be flesh and blood. Bodies matter. Sins are not merely thoughts. They are bodily acts.
Correspondingly, the rescue of souls requires the rescue of the body. Both the crucifixion of Good Friday and the resurrection of Easter Sunday are unmistakably bodily events. Look at “my hands and my feet, that it is I myself,” said Jesus. “Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39).
This week is a great opportunity to remember that to be human is to be, ineluctably, both body and soul. Whether you are watching the crucified Jesus breathe out His spirit (John 19:30) or the risen Jesus eating with His disciples (Luke 24:30-43), you see that human thriving requires attention to both body and soul.
This simple fact has enormous importance for our lives together - in families, in churches, and in communities.
Parents know, instinctively, the responsibility to care for their children means more than bodily needs but not less.
No decent parent would deprive his child of food or shelter, nor subject him to bodily harm. From the moment that a mother first feels her baby’s body growing within her, natural motherly instincts begin to stir. She knows that to love her baby is to protect and nurture its unborn body.
In addition to bodily care, children need love and guidance. They need to know how to use their bodies in ways that harmonize with their souls. So, parents also provide for a child’s spiritual needs.
No parent wants to raise a bully, an abuser, or a thief. We want to raise children who are kind, loving, generous and pure of heart.
This instinct is especially strong among those who have been raised in a good home that actively fed their souls. But even those whose homes were deficient in one way or another, want better for their children.
The Christian Church offers clear instruction and much help for parents. The Bible teaches us to raise children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). And for two millennia, Christian parents have enlisted the help of the Church in supplying the spiritual needs of their children.
But while the Church is perfectly suited to help supply the spiritual needs of all people, it does not have the power to protect people from bodily or spiritual harm. For those things, we come together as communities to protect one another.
State power is required to protect its citizens from bodily harm. We have the power of police and the justice system to protect people from theft, slander, assault and murder. Our state has also committed itself to use this same power to protect the souls of its citizens.
Article 8, Section 20 of the Wyoming Constitution says, “As the health and morality of the people are essential to their well-being, and to the peace and permanence of the state, it shall be the duty of the legislature to protect and promote these vital interests by such measures for the encouragement of temperance and virtue, and such restrictions upon vice and immorality of every sort, as are deemed necessary to the public welfare.”
As we pause to reflect on the death and resurrection of Jesus, let us be reminded that to love one another requires attention both to the body and to the soul of every citizen.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com
