The Blood of Christ Outpoured

An illustrated scene depicting a heroic figure in mid-air, wielding a sword, while confronting a seated, frightened king among debris, with ethereal figures in the background.

Sir Balin stabbing the Fisher King in Lancelot Speed’s illustration for James Knowles’ The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights (1912), borrowed from Wikipedia

God Running is a place for anyone who wants to love Jesus more deeply, follow Jesus more closely, and love people the way Jesus wants us to.

Kurt has asked me to take over writing this week’s blog so he can focus on getting the manuscript for our book, The Jesus Shortcut, ready to send to the publisher. Just as a quick personal aside, I am beyond excited for this book to come out. It’s not long, and Kurt did most of the heavy lifting, but this will be the first time my name is ever on the cover of a book as a co-author. I had a lot of things I wanted to do when I was a kid, and writing books was pretty near the top. So I’m extremely grateful to Kurt for the opportunity to co-author with him; 5th grade Wes would be losing his mind!

But today’s blog post isn’t going to be about that. Instead, I wanted to talk about the Body and Blood of Christ, as many denominations celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi this week. Specifically, I want to talk about how the Blood of Christ poured out for us on the cross is the source of healing for all of us. Kurt’s next book is going to focus on following Christ for exhausted people, and seeking the healing the Blood of Christ gives us the best way to start.

This Man Truly Was the Son of God

First, I want to start with a guy named Longinus. We don’t know a ton for sure about him, but we do know that he was a Roman soldier present at the Crucifixion. In fact, he was the one who pierced Jesus’ heart with a lance. When he did that, blood and water poured from Jesus’ side, and in that moment he came to believe in Jesus. “Truly this man was the Son of God,” is what both Matthew and Mark recorded him saying. (Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39)

Legend says Longinus was partially blind, and after piercing Jesus, some of His blood fell into Longinus’ eyes, curing his blindness. After that, the story goes that he was baptized by the Apostle Peter, renounced his rank in the Roman military, and preached in Cappadocia for forty years. The Romans even had his tongue removed, but he miraculously regained his speech and kept preaching anyway.

I wonder what was going on in his heart during all of that. Obviously he had heard about Jesus, and might’ve even been going through a conversion before the Crucifixion, given how quickly he abandoned his career in the Roman military. We won’t know for sure until we meet him in Heaven, but we can get a good idea based on that. I’m also thinking about the actor who played him (or a character that included elements of him anyway) in Jesus of Nazareth, Ernest Borgnine, and what was going on in his own heart during filming. He was interviewed about his role in that show once, and when they got to filming the Crucifixion, here’s what he said happened:

“Tears as big as teacups came pouring out of my eyes… everyone’s crying.”¹

But I also found it interesting that, in His last moments, Jesus took a lance, a weapon designed to kill and do so extremely well, and in a way made it a key to the source of healing – His own Blood.

And that reminds me of another story.

The Dolorous Stroke

If you’re a huge nerd like me, you’re familiar with the stories of King Arthur. The Lance of Longinus appears quite prominently in this particular story, called the Dolorous Stroke², and is likewise tied to the healing of not only the body, but the whole of England, and reinforces the same truth revealed to Longinus: The Blood of Christ is the source of healing. I first heard this story in an interview with Malcolm Guite, an English poet and Anglican priest,³ and I just love it.

So in this story a knight named Sir Balin the Savage visits the court of King Pellehan, who also held the title of the Fisher King or the Grail King, as he is the guardian of the Holy Grail, the cup Jesus used at the last supper when He said, “This cup is the new covenant in My Blood.” Now, King Pellehan had a brother, Sir Garlon, who was infamous for killing opponents unseen as opposed to honorable combat and was called the “Invisible Knight.” Balin was sworn to avenge these kinds of injustices and was keen to take down Garlon, and so he did. In the king’s hall. In front of everybody.

King Pellehan grabbed a weapon and attacked Balin, and struck so hard that he broke Balin’s sword. So the knight ran, unarmed, through the corridors of the castle, and all the while the Fisher King pursued him in a rage. Balin found refuge in a chamber where he found a cup, and above the cup a lance. Three drops of liquid seemed to fall from the tip of the lance into the cup every so often. In his haste, he seized the lance.

The lance, of course, was the one Longinus used to pierce the side of Christ, turning it from a weapon into an instrument of healing. However, Balin was about to make it a weapon once more. The Fisher King was now upon Balin, and Balin in his fury struck the king, dealing a wound that left the king grievously maimed.

At that moment, the castle collapsed, and the land became a barren waste. Three days later, Merlin appeared and moved the rubble, freeing Balin and the King. He informed the knight that he had delivered a dolorous stroke – a grievous offense – taking a holy instrument and made it a weapon in a fight driven by revenge and intemperance, and just as he had injured the king, so the land itself would be injured until the advent of the Grail Knight (identified as either Sir Perceval or Sir Gallahad, depending on which version you read) who would take up the lance and use it to heal the king of his wound and restore the land.

But the Grail Knight himself isn’t necessarily responsible for the eventual healing of the king. It’s not about the knight, but about the grail, or rather what the grail contains.

“This cup is the new covenant in My Blood.”

The same Blood that the spear loosed onto Longinus to cure his blindness.

The same Blood that heals us of all of our wounds and lifts our burdens.

The same Blood that washes away our sin.

And so I ask our Heavenly Father to cover you in the Blood of His Son, the source of healing, to heal your wounds and recover your strength.

God bless you,

-Wes