The Power of the Other "Blood": the Reality of Reality

I cannot remember where I might have read it. Even before I became a Christian I read a lot of deep philosophical books, and this was early on. I remember in the book a paragraph about water, that water represented thought, potential, things which were not fully developed. Like developing opinions. Or something you might do. Something still in flow; thought, but indefinite. Water was representative of a reality that could be. There are waters Above, and waters below.

And then there was a paragraph about blood. Blood is substantive. It has life, reality. It is really there -- the nitty gritty. Blood has a genuine impact. Really being, it supports its reality. With none of water's wishy-washy potentiality, blood is actuality. It is where the rubber meets the road. Or something like that. I got the message, anyway: water is weak; blood is the real deal of the now, of Life.

So when I was a new Christian and read John 2:1-11, the water turned into wine (symbolic of blood even a newb knows) by Jesus at Cana of Galilee, I saw that the point was that Jesus was the real deal. The six pots were water mixed with the ashes of a sacrificed red heifer. These were kept for the cleansing of anyone who became ceremonially unclean. He or she could be sprinkled with the water and thus be declared clean. Symbolic fantasy. The red heifer symbolized a potential of which Jesus was the ACTUALITY.

Along comes Jesus and the pots become completed, filled. And now actualized as blood. Because Jesus is what the red heifer was about: he is the Cleansing Agent IN ACTUALITY. His shed blood (death) really does make the believer pure; for it was his death for ours. He bought us. Whether you conceive him to be a historical human, an illustration, or a value of the Field, he is IN you waiting to hit the road with the REALITY of his redemptive work. It becomes actualized, "blood," NOW.

Edit: There was something else I wanted to say about blood meaning actuality. There was on God's level a big blood event. The Ineffable became the Beginning...became the universe...to become us...to become Him. Thus It had "die" to become the End-manifestation of the Itself. "For the life of the flesh is in the Blood" (Leviticus 17:11) -- the FIRST death's Blood. That actuality, the death of God as the Beginning at the beginning, is our present life. It's the Source of everything. And it culminated in Jesus' death to establish us as him BACK AT SQUARE ONE before the fall.

Try to put THAT on a chalkboard.