Blood on the Wood (Sanctity of Life Sunday 2026)

This week I made the mistake of writing some of my notes for you all directly into the Notes app, and of course, it asked me to log in, and promptly erased those notes once I did. If you have any questions about references or any deeper dives into the Scriptural context, please feel free to ask. 

Sanctity of life comes from the Latin sanctitatem, which means “holiness” or “sacredness.” For a thing to be “sacred,” it must be connected to God. Life, of course, is intimately connected to God, as He is the source of all life. Therefore, any discussion about life must start with this as the basis. To start anywhere else would be to do the conversation a disservice.

Life is sacred because:

21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select lambs for yourselves according to your clans, and kill the Passover lamb.

• Every morning and evening, a lamb was sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people (Ex. 29.38-42).
• The Lamb of God reflects the sacrificial character of Christ’s mission.
• The word here translated “Lamb” (amnos) appears in only four places in the NT; twice in this chapter (vv. 29 and 36, once in Acts 8, and again in 1 Peter 1). In 1 Peter it is an allusion to Isaiah 53.7 – “He was led like a Lamb to the slaughter
  • Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah, God’s servant, would be led to the slaughter like a lamb. To pay the penalty for sin, a life had to be given – and God chose to provide the sacrifice himself. The sins of the world were removed when Jesus dies as the perfect sacrifice.
  • You can receive forgiveness by confessing your sin to him and asking for his forgiveness.

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22 Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

• Hyssop is a common shrub used in purification rites.

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23 For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

• God is both judge and protector.

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24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. 25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.

• In Scripture, the LORD is constantly reminding us to remember. Why? Because we often forget!! This is why He set up feasts and fasts, to help us remember, and increase our holiness unto Him.

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26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’

• For the second time in a row, the readings that I have been assigned deal with instruction to children. This should be a helpful REMINDER to all of us that we are expected to teach our (collective) children the ways of God.

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27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.

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28 Then the people of Israel went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.

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