"Presented to God with pure and clean hearts in Jesus' Blood" Candlemas — February 2, 2025

02. February 2025

Candlemas

Luke 2:21-35

Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, “A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Lk 2:22–24)

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

From the moment sin entered the world, blood is shed. You have blood that defiles and blood the purifies. The blood that defiles is a consequence of sin, like the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. The blood that purifies are the first sacrifices slain by the LORD to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. Blood loss leads to death. Blood sprinkled or washed over atones.

This is why children still freak out at the sight of blood. Blood belongs on the inside, not the outside. Outside means dying. Despite all our attempts to sanitize and hide death, there remain constant reminders, even the drip of blood from a pinprick or splinter. We want to stop the bleeding because we know it means death. In the Scriptures, Jesus encounters a woman whose flow of blood has been uninterrupted for twelve years. Likely pale and anemic, no remedy has been found. Only Jesus and ultimately Jesus’ shed blood.

We measure our lives—what we see, think, or do—in terms of bad or good, black and white. We’re willing to call some things as gray, neither black or white. We put ourselves on a spectrum between the worst tyrant, and the best man who ever lived. We weigh ourselves out daily on the scales of human estimation, hoping to have tilted those scales towards righteousness and away from iniquity. This self esteem only works if we ignore our conscience and keep up appearances. We self-atone for things we dare not confess, and we promote what we think will cause us accolades. We’ll even give up ourselves or others in self-sacrifice to avoid the reality of our guilt and shame.

God demands that we be weighed according to His Word and its scales of justice, truth, and righteousness. According to God’s Holy Word and its standard, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one” (Ro 3:10–12).

God the LORD speaks in this way to inform your conscience. His Word also speaks with incredible specificity about the many ways we sin against Him and our neighbor. Examine your life according to the Ten Commandments thoroughly and deeply. For example, do I complain about the troubles, people, work, and suffering God lays on me? Is my heart and life in the praise of God in worship? Am I mouthing things while my heart is far away? Do I spend time complaining about the worship, the pastor, or other people? Have I been insolent, sullen, and disrespectful to my parents, teachers, employers, or other authorities over me? Mind also the fifth through eighth commandments and you’ll find that you always need Christ’s atoning blood.

The preacher to the Hebrews asserts, “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? […] Not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.” Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission” (Heb 9:13–22).

The firstborn of Hebrew and Gentile alike were killed in the final plague in Egypt. The only means of escape was the blood of the Passover lamb. With hyssop and bowl, the blood was painted on both lintel and posts, marking the house as atoned for. The Passover lamb gave its life for the firstborn son. God established this as an annual feast forever. Thus, St. John proclaimed when seeing Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away this sin of the world!” And we sing every Paschal feast, “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us keep the feast in sincerity and truth.” Jesus shed His blood for you for the forgiveness of sins.

When we come to Sinai and the giving of the Law, there’s blood shed everywhere. Anything that makes unclean before God has its appointed sacrifice for blood atonement. But the doing of the thing isn’t what atones, but rather faith in the word of promise attached to blood. They were a “shadow of the good things to come” (Heb 10:1), namely Jesus. For God’s people, everything and everyone needs to be atoned for, covered with blood. And no one is without sin but One alone. Jesus needs no atonement but sheds His blood to atone for my sins, your sins, and the sins of the whole world. He covers everything in His blood, forgiving all.

As long as you carry your sins in your conscience, you’ll never be at peace. Christ Jesus came to set your conscience free in His shed blood. His blood atones for everything that defiles you, sins against others that bring guilt and sins against you that bring shame. Confess your sins against God, His Holy Name, His Holy Word, parents and other authorities, life and body, husband or wife, property and livelihood, name and reputation, and the like. Leave all those sins in the Baptism’s saving flood or at the altar of Christ’s sacrifice for you. And the go and forgive in Jesus’ name those who sin against you, friend or foe. His blood atones for all sin, forgiving and being forgiven.

Jesus’ blood is washed over you in Holy Baptism, cleansing you of all sin. Jesus blood is give to you to drink in the Supper for forgiveness, life, and salvation. Jesus’ blood takes away your sin and the sin of the world. And with your conscience set free from sin, you can go about your day in peace. With everything covered in Jesus’ shed blood, you know that nothing can separate you from Him. Even at the moment of death, you can pray with St. Simeon his song the Nunc Dimittis, that you have learned by heart. “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel.” AMEN.

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin