What's it got to do with Easter? Part 7: Lambs

 

What has it got to do with Easter? Part 7: Lambs

What did you eat this Easter Sunday? Roast lamb by any chance? The supermarkets have all their best lamb offers on at this time of year, and it’s a great time to eat what is a slightly more expensive roast dish.

But what has it got to do with Easter?

The tradition of lamb at Easter is probably the oldest of the traditions we have looked at in this series.

The story of the Passover, as described in Exodus, describes how Moses instructed all the Israelites who were enslaved in Egypt to slaughter a lamb, and to paint onto their doorways with the blood. They were to then roast the lamb and eat it, along with various other symbolic foods. This sacrifice acted as a sign for God’s judgement to ‘pass over’ their homes, whilst the homes of the Egyptians would lose a firstborn, including the Pharoah.

Moses also instructed the Israelites to follow these same instructions once they entered the promised land, as a lasting ordinance, a reminder of how God had saved his people. This ceremony has been followed throughout the past 3000 years in remembrance of that, and in the Gospels we see Jesus addressing his disciples at the last supper, the Passover meal. Add to this the fact that Jesus himself is referred to as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ in John 1 and he becomes our own Passover lamb. With a lamb we can remember Gods deliverance of the Israelites in the escape from Egypt, but as those living in the light of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, we also remember his own blood being poured out as a sacrifice for our sin.

We remember that God’s judgement will ‘pass over’ us, for those who have come to Jesus for forgiveness, and grant us eternal life not because we have earned it, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice. We've eaten some lamb this Easter and have remembered the sacrifice it reminds us of in Jesus.