Nothing but the Blood: 3 Fascinating Spiritual Themes in ‘IT’

Last updated on: November 8, 2017 at 11:52 am by Paul Asay

Nothing but the Blood: 3 Fascinating Spiritual Themes in ‘IT’ 2017-11-08T11:52:09-06:00 Paul Asay

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A Solemn Covenant

The kids from IT, photo courtesy Warner Bros.

A Solemn Covenant

Our protagonists endure. They vanquish their fears and send Pennywise far, far away. For good? Probably not. But still, through self-control and love, they found the power to conquer Pennywise and their own, haunting fears.

Given the biblical echoes in IT, perhaps it’s only fitting that the Losers’ Club seals their adventure with a covenant—a promise to come back should the evil ever return. And they seal their own covenant with blood.

Back in Old Testament times, agreements were often finalized with blood. Those entering into a “covenant,” or a promise, with one another, often cut each other’s arms, sucked some blood out with a quill and spread it on the covenant records.

Covenants between man and God followed suit.

When God promised Abraham that he’d father a whole host of nations, He and Abraham seal the promise in blood (Gen. 15). In Exodus 24, Moses sprinkles blood on an altar to finalize another covenant between God and His people. (“Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord as made with you,” Moses says.)

Jesus’ crucifixion was the sign of a new covenant coming to pass between us and God: “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He went into the Most Holy Place once and for all and secured our eternal redemption,” we read in Hebrews 9:12.

So perhaps it’s only fitting that each of them sliced open their hands and pressed their palms against each other, their blood mingling.

“For the life of every creature is its blood,” Leviticus 17:14 says.

In the opening moments of IT, blood symbolized terror and death. In its closing scene, it symbolized love and life. The movie takes us full circle.

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