Where you are living, it's pretty hard to avoid the grusome, grotesque, blood and guts parts of Christianity. In America, not so much--but basically, blood and guts IS part of Christianity...and Judiasm before that. In Hebrews it says that "without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." So, circumcision and animal sacrifice, covenants of any kind, and Jesus' death on the cross...they all involve blood-letting.
This week we remember especially just what Jesus did for us, the price He paid. This is the week we revisit all He endured--the beatings, the whippings, the barbs pressed into His head. This is when we focus on the cross--on the spikes through His hands and through His twisted feet, on His chest flung forward, slowing suffocating, on the sword through His side. This is the week when we come face to face with the blood and the gore and violence of our faith. In other words: we embrace the grossness and total weirdness of what we really believe. And we talk about it with our families.
We talked about the core of the Christian faith every time we talked about the Easter story when you were growing up. When preschoolers talk about the nails being driven and the thorns being pressed, it can make adults shudder. But when we're honest about our faith, we can’t be afraid to admit that we believe some horrifying, shocking things.... We're the folks who remember what Jesus did for us by the "eating" of His broken body and "drinking" His dripping blood.
You can't blame non-Christians who see our beliefs as gross and weird.... We ought to admit the horror of our faith if we want others to see the beauty in it. Because only then can we talk about what happens when we suspend our disgust and choose to see into and then past the grotesque and horrific. If we get stalled being weirded or grossed out, we miss a lot of good stuff--like the Grace that comes only from that weird, gross, violent, horrific and amazingly beautiful story we believe.
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