The Easter Lamb

My daughter lives in Romania.  It is part of Romanian tradition to slaughter a pig at Christmas and a lamb at Easter.  It is not unusual for it to be a family activity in the village with everyone participating.  Kim was invited to join a family at one of these events.  It was quite graphic of course and memorable on many levels.  I was reminded of her experience as I was reading in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Over and over I read descriptions of the animal sacrifices that God commanded for the Israelites.  In one passage alone at a time of special remembrance they were instructed to sacrifice two hundred and nineteen animals over the period of one week.  That was above the everyday offerings and sacrifices.  Living in the land of PETA I cannot begin to comprehend this picture.  Yet a picture was exactly what God intended.

Imagine the noise, the bloody mess, the smell not to mention taking life from one of God’s innocent creatures over and over again.  How could God demand something so awful, so horribly disgusting?  Innocent life sacrificed for sinful man? 

It is exactly what our sin looks like in comparison to a Holy God; bloody, smelly, disgusting.  What better picture could He give us to get our attention?  How else could He convey the awful cost of our sin?  The animal sacrifice began in the Garden of Eden and went on and on for thousands of years and yet it still could not satisfy the debt of man’s sin.

And then...“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” said John the Baptist upon seeing Jesus, the Christ in John 1:29. God had planned even at that day in Eden to send the perfect sacrifice, the Innocent Lamb.

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”  Hebrews 9:12

I can’t think of a better time of year to reflect on the ugliness of my sin and the perfect Lamb of God that sacrificed His life for my redemption.  The good news is, He did not stay dead but rose again to life so that I too could have life eternal with God.

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  I Corinthians 15:55, 57.