The Lamb of God

[hethathathears]

The following is from a thread in sharing called "My King." It congers up the idea of having to sacrifice a lamb to rid ourselves of our sins.

Things began to play out step by step, just as I remember reading them in the scriptures. Jesus made his historic entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey. Once in Jerusalem, we went to the temple. There were several merchants selling all kinds of live stock. Many were selling sheep, but other animals were also being sold. The funny thing was, because it was the Passover time, and everyone was traveling to Jerusalem, many would take that opportunity to attend the temple and do sin offerings which would require a lamb. Because of that fact, many of the merchants jacked up the prices on the live stock. They called it supply and demand. This practice enraged the master as the merchants were taking advantage of the people who needed the sacrifices to get right with God. In what might be called a fit of righteous indignation, the master flew into the temple court yard and began overturning the merchant’s table. He bellowed out with authority, “It is written, My house is a house of Prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.” The merchants quickly scattered, which got the attention of the Scribes and Pharisees. This prompted an argument of sorts between the Savior and the Sanhedrin, neither side wanting to back down.

While this lively debate ensued, I quietly slipped away. For the life of me, I didn’t understand why they would be selling lambs in the temple in the first place, so I decided to investigate a little. I noticed at the end of the hall, a rather portly looking man carrying a very young and fragile lamb. I quickly caught up with the man as he entered the sacrificial area. Being from the 20th century, I had no concept on what to expect. The only thing I really knew for sure was that the lamb was just adorable.

When I was young, I raised sheep for a Sheep Raising Merit Badge in Boy Scouts. Every year we would have our ewes breed, and in the spring we would get little lambs prancing and dancing around our pasture. I truly have a soft spot for lambs, and this one was no exception.

The portly man walked up to one of the priests on duty and said in a cold and almost mechanical tone, “I have brought this lamb as a sin offering unto the Lord that I might become cleansed from my iniquities.”

The priest, also in a cold, business as usual kind of tone said, “Very well, follow me.”

The priest led the man over to a table of sorts. The large man, without any respect or sign of remorse, threw the lamb upon the table, and then put both hands on its fragile body. As I witnessed this, I began to feel a bit queasy in the pit of my stomach. The lamb was crying frantically as it thrashed around to get free. Oblivious to the lamb’s cries for freedom, the man bowed his head and mumbled in a cold and heartless fashion, “Oh God, I bring this lamb unto your holy temple in that I might become clean and pure before you.” He continued by making a list of transgression that he had committed over the last year. The priest handed him a knife, and to my horror and dismay, the man slit the lamb’s throat. The once crying and squirming lamb now lay lifeless on the altar. Anger began to boil up in me as this pure and helpless lamb was basically murdered for this fat slob’s sins.

The priest drained the blood from the lamb and sprinkled its blood, drop and drop onto the altar of the Most High God. Once the blood was consumed, the body of the lamb was thrown into the fire. The priest washed and dried his hands and gave the man a pat on the back. “You are now clean and pure before the Lord,” the priest stated like he had just done some major penance.

“Great,” exclaimed the man, again without showing an emotion. “I guess I’ll see you next year. By, by now.” And with that, the pig exited the sacrificial area. I wish that I was truly whole at this time. I promise you, I would have taken the man out back behind the temple and would have kicked the living….. well let me just say, it wouldn’t have been pretty.

Here this man committed the sins, and instead of him stepping up and paying for them himself, he goes and buys an innocent, docile, lamb, and it pays the price for the man’s sins.

I was just livid at the thought of the injustice of the whole thing. One of the most traumatic memories of my youth was when I had to dock off the tails of my young lambs. I didn’t realize it but lambs are born with long tails. This creates cleanliness issues, and so when they are young they need to have their tails docked off. This would require me putting a very small rubber band around their tails. The process would be excruciatingly painful for the lamb for a good ten or fifteen minutes, after that, the tail would go numb, and would fall off in about two weeks. Watching the young lambs suffer was one of the hardest things I have had to endure in my life. I’m sure if I had to kill a poor, innocent, defenseless lamb every time I sinned, I would look at sin a lot differently. And what got me was that this man didn’t really care. It was as if the whole process was cold and habitual instead of powerfully symbolic.

Still sick to my stomach from what I had just seen, I decided to go and sit down and wait for the Savior to finish debating with the Sanhedrin. He was really letting them have I, calling them white sepulchers and all. As I sat there, I was still fuming about the poor lamb. Under my breath, I muttered, “Man, if I had to kill a lamb every time I sinned, I would stop sinning.” Again, I could feel my blood boil as this worthless man showed no appreciation or remorse for the life of this animal.

But then, like a ton of bricks, the condemning of this man turned inward. Knots began tightening in my stomach as I pondered the fact that within 24 hours, my Jesus would become the infinite and eternal Lamb of God. He would freely give his life to atone for the sins of the world. He will be taken and nailed upon a cross, and like the lamb whose blood was sprinkled into the fire, so would I be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:19)

But what made me ache so much was the fact that I was just as cold and indifferent about the sacrifice of Jesus as this man had been towards the lamb he slaughtered.

I made a silent promise in my heart that I would never knowingly commit a sin in the future that my friend would have to atone for. I truly believe that that is why God gave the law of sacrifice in the first place, so that perhaps, we the people, would in some way, have a better understanding of the true cost of sin.

If you had to sacrifice a lamb every time you sinned, would you slip more or less than you do now?

Edited July 4, 2008 by hethathathears

[MrNirom]

Did you say that this happens once a year? So this means you can sin as often as you want for one lamb?

Don't tell me that!

[hethathathears]

In order for us to repent of major sins, we need to go and confess to the Bishop, and go through the steps. Before the Atonement of Jesus Christ, everytime someone sinned he would have to go to the Temple in Jerusalem and offer a lamb to remove that sin. For many that trip would be a 5 day journey one way. It got to the point during the time of Christ and before during apostate times that people would only make that trip once a year.