I am taking a pause from the series on the Beatitudes on this weekend when we remember the gifts of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. The message is a homily that I delivered at for a Good Friday service at Loma Linda University Health, the Christian academic medical center, where I serve as general counsel. I hope that it encourages your faith.
THE TRANSFUSION
By Kent A. Hansen
The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
This text brings to my mind a newborn boy in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit who was desperately ill with meningitis. Bacteria triggered sepsis causing his tiny heart to race. His blood pressure plummeted, denying an adequate blood supply to his organs. His breathing was rapid and shallow.
That’s the way the baby was received in our NICU from another hospital a few days after his birth. Our physicians and nurses fought the horrible infection night and day, seeking to bring his fever down and stop the seizures wracking his fragile little body.
On a Friday morning, it became clear to Dr. Richard Peverini, his attending neonatologist, that the baby boy needed a transfusion to replace his toxic blood. The baby’s mother refused. Though she was ravaged by worry and grief, she sincerely believed that for her child to receive the transfused blood would deny that life comes from God alone and would jeopardize the child’s eternal salvation.
The father was out of the country on a mission in a remote location. There was no question that he would agree with the mother even if he could be reached.
Without the new blood, the baby would be dead before the day was through. Dr. Peverini called me just before noon with the story. He said, “The mother is really torn up about this, but says she cannot agree to the transfusion.”
I asked if Children’s Protective Services had been called. He said, “Yes, but they didn’t sound like they are going to do anything.”
“OK,” I said. “You know the drill. The law gives this decision to the best judgment of the physician about what needs to be done for the child. You decide what that is and I’ll back you up.”
Dr. Peverini said, “The latest I can wait is 4:00 p.m. If the mother hasn’t changed her mind by then, I am going ahead with the transfusion. I’ll keep you in the loop.”
“And I will pray,” I said.
I entered the dark hours of Friday afternoon praying that our heavenly Father’s healing grace would prevail over rigid, fearful belief and government indifference to save the life of this precious child. From long experience, I knew that Dr. Peverini was praying for the same thing.
About 3:45 p.m., with the blood ordered and on its way to the NICU, but the mother still refusing consent, a county social worker showed up. She said CPS was taking custody of the infant and would make the decision for the transfusion. At this news, the mother changed her mind and consented. She could not bear to give up her child.
The child received the transfusion and the fresh blood did its cleansing work. The infection and its effects receded. The baby’s condition improved and he lived.
We gather in memory of another Friday afternoon when the entire human race — those who had lived before, those alive then, and those yet to come including us — were desperately sick with the toxic infection of sin, facing a certain death. One Man, Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, stood for us and did not quit. He never wavered despite the pressures of pride, fear, legalistic, fearful religion and fickle government authority preoccupied with the prerogatives of its power. Even his followers who thought they knew him best were confused and terrified and doubted his cure.
It can be hard for those of us who work here to even accept our need for this cure. After all, aren’t we doing God’s work? Don’t the sick and the broken come to us for healing? Don’t we explicitly state our mission as “Continuing the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ”? Don’t we have a stated set of values including “compassion” and “excellence.” Don’t we have a system for evaluating our individual performances of those values so that we can continue improving in doing good?
If we are honest, aren’t we tempted to think in pride, “That’s really nice of you, Jesus, to give your blood for our cleansing and healing, but look, we are good people doing good things and we don’t really need it? Why not use it on that dissolute lout with congestive heart failure whose idea of daily nutrition is a large bag of “flaming hot Cheetos” washed down with a half-case of beer? Why don’t you apply it to that woman giving birth for the fourth time and each time by a different man, none of them her husband? We are doing just fine, thank you!”
Our pride and arrogance are condemned by the words of the holy Scripture that we proclaim. The Apostle Paul said, “‘There is no one who is righteous, not even one . . . ‘ All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:10,23). We do good work here, but that “All have sinned” does not grant exceptions for meritorious service.
The Apostle John, in the full context of the text with which I began, lays bare the illusions of our self-righteous denials: “The blood of Jesus [God’s] Son purifies us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:7-10).
Harsh words-tough love? Absolutely! But they are words of life. We cannot comfort ourselves with the placebos of good works, legal compliance and pride of place. Those things only mask the symptoms of our sin-sickness. We need what will cure us. We need Jesus’ blood. There are no alternative treatments.
Jesus Christ went to the cross knowing that his blood was required to cleanse the fatal sepsis of our sins and remove the barrier of sin that would deny us the eternal life that the Father and Son intended for us in love from before they laid down the foundation of this world. It was Jesus’ passion to give us his blood even though it cost him his life to do so. It was his gracious will that we be healed.
Jesus revealed this will when he transformed the traditional Jewish devotional Passover meal into the “Lord’s Supper,” a continuing expression of our eternal association with him in death and victory over the power of sin and darkness. Matthew records Jesus’ words on that occasion: “While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt 26:26-29).
The American hymn writer Robert Lowry described the unique healing power of Jesus’ blood in his classic, “Nothing But the Blood.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh! Precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
By Jesus’ blood we are cleansed, by his life lived out within us we are saved. Do you understand and accept this?
Give thanks and praise his holy name! Let us participate in our Lord’s Supper in remembrance of these gifts of his grace.
“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps 34:8).
Under the mercy of Christ,
Kent
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