BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS:
THE EVANGELISM IMPERATIVE
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The title of this book BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS is being used to correlate the responsibility of individuals, as against the guilt of failure that is betrayed by Blood On (Their) Hands.
Note carefully the biblical injunctions concerning “washing of hands”. It is an external demonstration of internal innocence or purity—“clean hands AND a pure heart” (Psalm 24:4). BOTH are involved. To simply “raise hands” in isolation, as an expression accompanying the singing of a song, is somewhat naïve. There needs to be the reflection of the correct heart attitude. Pilate washed his hands in symbolic innocence—the outward action presumably proved that his heart was pure, i.e. he was not guilty.
24When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” …
Matthew 27:24, emphases added.
Jesus addressed this matter in part when He said:
18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’
19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
20These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him ‘unclean.’
Matthew 15:18-20.
Jesus shows that there is no simple mechanical connection between the heart and the hands—washed or otherwise.
In the Old Testament, Abimelech, king of Gerar, was misled into believing that he was free to co-opt Sarah, Abraham’s wife, into his harem. God graciously warned him that she was a married woman, and he protested (Genesis 20:5, emphasis added):
5Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.”
Abimelech’s innocence (clear conscience/pure heart) is demonstrated by the fact that he has done no “unclean” action with his hands. It was not a matter of “washing” but that his hands had no “blood” on them.
In regard to the lost, is my conscience clear and my hands clean? Clean hands AND a pure heart—NO BLOOD ON MY HANDS. Not guilty of having failed them.
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I will never forget an occasion when I was about 20.
I had been invited to speak to a youth group at their Tuesday night meeting. I had ridden my push-bike the 8 kilometres (5 miles) to the meeting, and was returning home at about 10 p.m. It was my practice to always carry a few tracts in my pocket for any eventuality for witness, and this obtained on this night.
As I approached a set of traffic lights, I was aware of a man standing near the side of the road adjacent to the “stop” line.
Whilst he may have just been waiting for the lights to change before walking across the road, nevertheless I had a peculiar sense that I should be ready to show this person “The Way”. As I was almost at the lights, they changed requiring me to stop. The man stepped forward and asked me where to find a certain address.
I was able to assist him, before the lights changed, and I needed to proceed across the intersection. But I had failed. I had shown him the way to his address, but I had not been ready to show him The Way—and I felt that I had been warned to be ready. Rightly or wrongly, the passage from Ezekiel burned into my heart:
18When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.
Ezekiel 3:18, emphases added.
I don’t know that man’s eternal destination. But I feel responsible for failing to at least contribute in some measure to his salvation. I trust that others may have been involved in his life, contributing to a decision to accept Christ.
I don’t want to have anybody’s Blood on My Hands.
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