Cleansing Blood

 January 10, 2021

“The blood of Jesus Christ...cleanses us from all sin.” —1John 1:7

It’s been a long day. A number of us from our church attended safety training today. In the past fifteen years, deadly force incidents in houses of worship have increased by over 6000 percent. This was one of the statistics that confronted us, and is the reason for the training. Not even a generation ago it was unthinkable that such incidents would happen, but it is almost commonplace today. The likelihood that it would occur at any given church is minute, but not negligible, so training in de-escalation and even forceful response is sadly necessary.

We watched security footage, listened to recordings, and heard stories of shootings, stabbings, assaults, learned of the physiological reaction of the human body to the adrenaline pump that makes the heart go from 60-80 bpm to 140 to 160 bpm in such situations, and practiced strategies and techniques for containing and minimizing damage.

This was one day, involved no actual weapons or real danger to anyone, but when I got home this afternoon, I felt drained. No—I felt defiled. Even though we soaked the sessions in prayer and were working from the perspective of keeping people safe, our constant focus on evil made it feel like it was seeping into my soul. I’m not depressed, but I am feeling subdued this evening, and wondered how anyone involved in law enforcement could survive for long without being affected by what they see day after day. In addition to what they see, they must deal with a society that disrespects and defunds them. It’s no wonder that more officers die by their own hand than by deadly incidents on the streets. And it’s no wonder that when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his crucifixion, he said, “Now my soul is troubled.” That was surely an understatement! The sinless Son of God was taking upon himself the sin of the whole world in all its demonic ugliness. It was a burden that drove him literally prostrate to the ground.

So I prayed. And prayed. And prayed, till this word from St. John surfaced in my mind. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” Not only my sin, but the sin of others that defiles those who must deal with it. The blood of Jesus Christ, and only the blood of Jesus Christ is adequate to cleanse from such defilement. I prayed again, claiming the blood, and calling out to the Lord for the cleansing my soul needed, and like David, I found that when my soul cried out, he was there to lift me out of the miry pit and set my feet on a solid Rock! 

Tonight, I pray as I’ve never prayed before (because I’ve never before understood) for those who daily stand in the gap. They need the prayers of those who will plead the cleansing blood of Christ on their behalf.