The Scandalous Blood of Christ

When an innocent person is murdered a deep cry goes out for justice, vengance and vindication.

Perhaps the most prominent example of this at the time of writing is the Indian girl who was raped and murdered on a private bus in New Delhi.

Way back at the beginning of the Bible a man called Cain murdered his brother Abel (Gen.4:8) and the Bible says that Abel's blood cried out from the ground (for justice, vengeance and vindication).

The innocent murder victims and martyrs who stand around the throne of God in Revelation cry for this same vindication (Rev 6:10)

So when the writer to the Hebrews says that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb.12:24) he means that the shedding of Christ's innocent blood is sacanalously unlike any other in history, because the cry that goes up after this murder is not one of justice, vengeance and vindication, but one of peace, reconciliation and homecoming:

For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. Col.1:19-22

Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you have done in sticking two fingers up in God's face, a scandalous and wonderful peace has been declared, if you would only hear the call and place your hand in Christ's?