Keeping away from blood? There is something in Christianity which for me was a baffling part of its scriptures. The original apostles commanded new Christians from non-Jewish roots to abstain from heathen idols and from blood. What did they mean? Well it helped me when I came across the word ‘blot’. Blot is a word in English from Viking origins. It is used in various ways. Mainly it used to mean a feast where blood was sprinkled from a sacrifice onto all of the attendees. It tied the attendees to the benefits of the sacrifice offered to gods or other spirits. It united those attendees to each other as common recipients of this blood. Now that Christ has offered himself and believers receive benefits of his sacrifice to God, to the Father, these Christians must no longer share in these other sacrifices. The meat offered and blood sprinkled is associated with the gods and spirits which are now to be regarded by Christian believers as idol gods and spirits, so they are to be avoided. For many through history of Christianity it has been very very hard to avoid these idol things. The feasts were (and for many still are) enforced such that participation by everyone in that community would be the only option. Leaving or distancing from such communities tied to such feasts is often the only way to avoid participation. Sometimes a fine was levied to pay for non-participation and persecution of non-participants was and still is a further price to pay to stay out of the feast meat eating and blood sprinkling. Even in churches there are ways the practices creep in and get enforced. The Christian feasts can preserve aspects of the idol sacrifices. Sometimes to practice obedience to the Apostle’s command we must even dissociate from certain aspects of church life. It is costly but part of what Christ has given as the will of God. The sacrifice of Christ overflows into our lives when we go his way.
