Whose blood? The question answered by Easter
April 14, 2025
When I have a medical exam, I pay particular attention to my PSA, the blood test measuring the proteins a prostate gland produces. Though it tests a number of conditions, the PSA is mostly used for detecting cancer.
That test led doctors to spot cancer in my father when he was seventy-one. Lean, never smoking or drinking, modest in his food intake, he still got the diagnosis. His oncologist and hematologist prescribed some serious meds they assured him would arrest the disease for a while. Incurable was the word they told him. The doctor said a lot of words that morning, but that was the only word I recall. Incurable meant it was only a matter of time until these cancerous cells would come back, and when they did it would be fast and furious.
With that news, every time my father went for his blood test I held my breath. Month after month the numbers stayed low, and I would sigh with relief. After a streak of low cancer counts, a blood test ultimately came back indicating his cancer had spread. The end was in sight. All that cancer-impeding treatment had stopped working.
I remember the day he phoned me. Barry, I have some news you dont want to hear. My blood tests came back, and the doctor told me the cancer is advancing. I had to sit down.
My father, a man of abiding faith in Christ, posed a question after he told me the devastating news. Amidst his cancer battle and rising blood count, he asked, Barry, whose blood should I really be concerned about? He went on. My blood should not be my concern. My only concern is the blood of Christ.
Whose blood? As he posed this to me, I thought of that atoning hymn my father often sang with his deep voice and proclaimed in his deep life:
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuels veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
This is what he was talking about.
I had trouble working the rest of the day. I closed my office door weighted by grief at the thought he soon would die.
Yet his question, whose blood? assured me he would be raised to life eternal. The question I heard my father ask that day is truly the Good News of Easter. The death and resurrection of Christ the shed blood and the empty grave have been the hope over the centuries by which Christians have lived and died and lived again. The blood that ultimately matters is not the gallon and a half of dark red liquid that fills our bodies. The blood that forever matters is the precious flow that came from the veins of the One who knew no sin, yet became sin, so that whoever comes to him in faith will live forever. What can wash away my sin? we sing, answering, Nothing but the blood of Jesus. The final chapters of Scripture tell of a future moment in heaven when we will all sing a version of that song: For you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Whose blood? This is the question answered by Easter. Death is a passageway to the presence of our Lord for all who give their lives to Christ. There is a Fountain Filled with Blood is the anthem that came to mind after my father asked that question. The promise we have that only Jesus Saves as Biolas neon signs have long reminded us is our eternal hope as this great hymns last verse declares:
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song, Ill sing Thy power to save.
I ponder such hope as we remember as a Biola community those who we have lost since last Easter, saints who heaven has gained:
Avarie Tierney, undergraduate business major,
Philip Woodward, Crowell School of Business accounting professor,
Anna Belle Cook, former presidential spouse to Clyde Cook, and
Mary Chase, former presidential spouse to Richard Chase.
May you too be filled with the hope of our redeeming Savior this Easter.