Save Me From Blood Guilt- Original - Psalm 51:14, Luke 23:33-36

This morning before we return to Golgotha to meet Co-Laborer and Mentor when they return to that holy hill on Easter morning, I want to briefly introduce a new character, an observer-participant who reminds me of some people who come to taste the good things of God on Easter, at Christmas, weddings, and other special occasions but who have not yet entered in through the narrow gate.
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As Co-Laborer marched in and out of the gate everyday and around the pathway leading to the Barren Land, he touched the fresh turned sod in the fertile lands. He checked each day on the seedlings in the sown fields. Tasted the irrigation water on the tips of his fingers. And always lingered a few minutes, morning and evening, by the harvest fields. He was enchanted by the swaying and singing of the Kingdom workers bringing in the sheaves. Singing, even though they knew that what followed was the difficult, labor intensive task of separating the wheat from the chaff. There are no combines in the Kingdom of God.

Co-Laborer would stop at the stony fields, chat with Lug and carry one stone to the pile at the end of the field. After all it was on his own way to the Barren Land where he worked. Sometimes he would hand the stone directly to Mason. It never ceased to amaze him how the stones which weighed down the field could be turned into beautiful gleaming walls for Mentor's, I mean God's, sacred Gardens.

As Laborer rounded the knoll, just before the path dropped into the valley, he would glance back at the Narrow Gate. From the distance he could see Mentor greeting a desperate seeker or a weary pilgrim. He would always stop and whisper a prayer for the newcomer and say a blessing for the Master who met, welcomed, and escorted him into the Kingdom there.
One morning as Co-Laborer turned to go, he noticed a young pilgrim by the road sitting on a small pile of stones, gazing intently at the scene below, a look of deep satisfaction on his face. He could tell the young man was definitely a pilgrim, not a seeker. No seeker would sit that long before rushing, or, if exhausted crawling, down that slope to the long awaited Narrow Gate.
That evening, the young pilgrim was still sitting on the stones, contented, gazing at the Kingdom and sipping a little milk from his knapsack. Co-Laborer, introducing himself, asked the young man his name.

"I am Curious," the pilgrim replied. "I have been looking for the Kingdom of God and there it is beyond the field and over the walls. I have found it!"

"Yes," replied Co-Laborer. "I remember the day I found it. Desperate, I rushed down this hill to the open arms of the gate. Come! I will walk with you back to the Training House. I am sure Mentor has plenty more planned for you tomorrow."

"Oh, no," replied Curious, "I am content to stay right here. I have found the Kingdom. That is enough. I have no need to go in! I may sleep in the shadow of the wall later tonight, but this small hill has the best view. I will stay here. Thank you kindly."

And stay right there was exactly what Curious did. Co-Laborer spoke with him every morning and each evening. He grew quite fond of Curious. Curious came to expect these visits. In fact, it became clear that speaking to Co-Laborer added to Curious' contentment at finding the Kingdom. But Co-Laborer could never persuade Curious to walk down and come on in. Curious was convinced that he had all he needed. He had found the Kingdom. What more could a Pilgrim want.

Soon Curious would even spend some time each week working along side the laborers in the fields. Carrying stones, sowing a little seed, cutting a few stalks, carrying a sheaf up to the gate before handing it to a harvester, and splashing in the wonderful water of life irrigating the plots throughout the various fields.

Once Co-Laborer heard Curious directing a fellow pilgrim to the gate and telling him what to expect there, but never, never did Curious himself go there. Content to watch and assist in the work outside the walls, he always replied, "I am content to stay right here. I have found the Kingdom. That is enough. I have no need to go in!"

Once Co-Laborer asked Mentor, "Is Curious some special kind of Kingdom worker? One with an assignment to provide conversation and encouragement outside the gate? One who cannot come inside the wall because it would mean abandoning his task?"

"No," said Mentor, "He is not a Kingdom laborer. He has never come in!"

"But he does not oppose us. He joins us for worship in the field and often helps lift the load. Mentor surely he is a babe in Christ. Are you sure his heart is not in the Kingdom, just his body outside?"

"No," said Mentor clearly, "He must enter by the narrow gate. There is no other way. Only those who actually enter in through the narrow gate can be born again. He is not opposing us. He works alongside us and looks like us, but he is not one of us. I have been long-suffering and begged but he has not entered in. He must enter in through the narrow gate - for his heart, for his body, to be saved - there is no other way."

- - - -
Today, Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day, rising very early in the morning, Mentor and Co-Laborer have return to the hill called Golgotha. Again with his finger tips Mentor is tracing the blood stain on ground at Mount Calvary.

"This is the best thing I have ever done," Mentor said softly, again.

It has been an amazing week.

Laborer and Mentor have sat in Lazarus' empty tomb as Jesus wept remembering the sorrow of losing a friend to physical death and the even greater sorrow of losing a pilgrim, a seeker, like Curious, to spiritual death.

At the Upper Room, Mentor washed Laborer's feet.

On the Mount of Olives he showed Laborer where his tears carved small hollows of agony in the stone before Mentor, in the full crush of his human flesh and emotions, surrendered his fate to God the Father.

They stood in the portico where the Master of the Universe was whipped by the Trojans of the Roman prelate and in the prison near the temple where the Jews had held him in contempt.
Laborer was deeply moved as along the Via de la Rosa Jesus shared his gratitude for Simon the Cyrene, the first Laborer born of Calvary.

After stopping briefly in the empty tomb, they chatted deeply on the road to Emmaus. There they ate at the little inn where Jesus first broke bread after his Resurrection.

But early this morning Mentor seemed eager, anxious, to return to Mount Calvary as if an eternal destiny was again occurring here on this day.

Mentor looked longingly at the blood stain on the ground.

"Laborer," he queried, "Do you remember what I said to Noah after the flood?"
"Tell me Lord," Laborer responded.

"For your lifeblood I demand an accounting. From each man I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man."

"But, Master, this is your blood!"

"Your blood?"

Laborer turned in shock at this intrusion of another voice, Curious' voice, into this sacred moment of teaching.

"Curious! What are you doing here? I thought you decided not to come!"

"Well, yes," but Wednesday Collect and Wiser asked me to come share a Journey with them, and without you there to talk to everyday, I decided I come! Wow! Walking through Jesus final days with them has been amazing. So interesting! This is Mentor's blood!? Wow! Neat!"

Suddenly Laborer felt uneasy, as if something precious and sacred had been treated ... well too cheap. Turning back to Mentor he restarted the conversation.

"Master, I know this is your blood, but does this have something to do with the bloodguilt declared to Noah?"

"Yes," stated Mentor seriously, "God the Father demands an accounting from each man, every woman, every child, for my Life Blood spilled here.

"Everyone, every person who has ever sinned, from Adam to the four of you standing here, to the men, women, and children not yet born, each person is responsible for my life blood being poured upon the ground here.

"By the Law of Noah an accounting will be demanded from Kingdom Laborers, the born again and an accounting will be demanded from each man, woman, and child outside the Kingdom, from each one that refuses to come in."

"When you stand before my Father He will ask, 'Why did you treat my Son this way?' (Wouldn't you ask that question if someone treated your son this way?) and He will ask, 'How have you treated His Blood?'

"Laborer, Collect, Wiser, from Kingdom Laborers I will demand an accounting of how you have treated the blood after you came in the gate. Do not take lightly the living blood! Do not forget the blood that saves you!

"Curious, from those who remain outside the gate, I will demand an accounting. For my eternal blood, without mercy, their eternal blood will be shed.

"This is the blood of the Kingdom.

"The blood of the Way.

"The blood of the Truth.

"The blood of the Life without which no man comes unto the Father.

"The blood, Curious, which flung open the Door on the Narrow Gate by which all may come in."

As Mentor spoke, the rough wood of a cross rose from the blood stain on the ground behind him. Rose, Mentor Himself impaled upon it, high and lifted up, sweat and blood pouring down his brow, drops of crimson splashing to the ground beneath his feet, and in rivulets, with black crusts for banks, inching down the wood at his feet.

With a violent shake, to the left, to the right, the ground split open and two more crosses reached for the sky. The wail of the two crucified thieves crying out in unbearable pain beside him.
Laborer was knocked to the ground as a Roman soldier thrust from the ground at Jesus feet with a sponge and a stick in his hand.

"Curious," Jesus cried out, "Curious, I am your peace who has broken down every wall and by this broken body destroyed the barrier, divided the wall of hostility, abolished the law with its commandments and regulations, crowned the New Covenant, making peace and in this ravaged body reconciling you, Curious, to God through the cross!"

Suddenly, the Mother of Our Lord gasped and fell backward into the arms of John the Disciple as they appeared beside Collect and Wiser.

Amid the screams came yelling. A robe and dice appeared and spread upon the ground.
But, though it seemed the whole of Calvary was caught up in a vipers' nest of chaos, strangely Curious simply stood there. Nothing touched him. Nothing affected him. Nothing, not even Mentor, moved him.

"If it wasn't for the blood there would be no righteousness," cried Mentor. "If it wasn't for the cross, there would be no resurrection. If it wasn't for the resurrection there would be no power for holy living nor strength for the labor, the demands of the Harvest.

"By my Blood, Laborer, you have access to God. By my blood, Collect and Wiser, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people. By my blood you have become the Kingdom, and priests, members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and upon myself, Your Savior, Your Christ, the cornerstone, the door, the gate to the Kingdom. Oh, that all would come in!

"Curious! Curious! As long as you remain outside the gate, you are not a citizen, not a Kingdom worker, not a member of God's household. Yes, there have always been friends of the kingdom, supporters, advocates, people who seek to help and who work alongside us but who remain outside the gate. Remain people who never came in, never became one with us, never escaped the fire."

Suddenly, the Kidron Valley behind the cross exploded in a rain of molten rock. The very mouth of hell appeared flanked by pillars of salt and accompanied by the added shrieks and panicked cries of the doomed as the surging throng behind them pushed their souls and bodies over the precipice into Eternal Damnation. Searing hot lava, fire, blazing brimstone, and black amoebas of flaming pitch rained down - singeing the immature Christians watching from the fringes of Calvary where they barely escaped as the more mature rescued them from the brink of destruction.

"O Curious, Curious! Behold the price of refusal! It is time to come into the Kingdom. Come in my friend. Come in."

Staring forward Curious shrugged his shoulders. It was the first time he had moved. "No, thank you. I have seen the Kingdom. That is enough. I am content. Let me just return to my little hill beside the fields."

"Come in," called Mentor again from the cross, tears streaming down his face, "You keep coming to our worship. You keep helping in our fields. You even presume to tell others how to enter into the Kingdom, but Curious, my son, you never come in! Come in! Or today it will be too late!"
As the Christ cried out to Curious from the Cross, even the drops of blood falling from his hands, cried, "Curious! Come in!"

As the Soldier, in fear, pierced through Mentor's side, the water rushing downward cried, "Curious! Come in!"

Yes! Even as, in that dramatic last breathe of death, the Spirit left Jesus body, unfettered, unashamed, in uncontrolled agony, the Spirit cried, "Curious! Come in!"

Attentive. Unmoved. Curious simply looked down and turning toward Laborer, he calmly said, "I'd like to discuss this back at the hill," then stepped away.

Instinctively, his heart bursting, his body driven by an agony of Passion ripping out from the core of his soul, Laborer lifted his arms toward Curious. Lunging forward to catch his friend, he cried, "Curious! Wai...."

But in that instant a blast knocked Laborer's head to the side. A piece of flack vest tore in under his ribs, and piercing his lungs and heart, threw his body violently into the air as his airborne view of Golgotha turned black.
- - - - - - - - - -
Waking, Laborer could hear sweet soft music like a woman singing in her springtime garden. "Come home. Come home. Ye who are weary come home. Earnestly tenderly Jesus is calling. Calling, "O Sinner, Come Home."

Haltingly lifting his struggling eyebrows, Laborer saw Mentor kneeling beside him.
"Wh..what happened?"

"Your body was destroyed by a suicide bomb." Mentor's voice was so tender Laborer wanted to cry.

Behind and to his right, Laborer could see Calvary. Mysteriously the cross was still there. Tears on their cheeks, Collect and Wiser stood in the light of the cross crying. Their eyes fixed in Laborer's direction.

To the left Laborer glimpsed, in full panorama, the Kingdom of God on earth. His eyes paused with longing on the his field, the dry and barren land.

"Don't worry. Collect and Wiser will care for it. There will be a harvest."

Glancing at Jesus, Laborer asked, "Curious?"

But even as he asked, Laborer gasped. Behind the Cross, in the gaping mouth of Hell, his eyes stopped as Curious passed the final bend at the brink and fell headlong into God's judgment.

Instinctively Laborer's arms reached toward his falling friend and it was then that he noticed the loose sleeve of his white robe, a robe of white light, just like Mentor's.

"You mean ... I'm ..."
"Yes, Laborer. You are home.
"The cross is a call to, "Come into the Kingdom.
"And Laborer, My Precious Friend, how clearly I remember your rush to enter the narrow gate and your cry, "I Come, I Come," as you collapsed in my arms.
"But Laborer,
"The resurrection is a call to come home!
"My Dear, Dear Friend ... Welcome Home."