The Passover Lamb

"You know, Jonathan," the white-bearded rabbi began, "that lambs are regularly sacrificed for the sins of the people.

"Then, too, your father takes his best lambs up to Jerusalem every spring for Passover. Centuries ago, boy," he said, "when God brought us out of the land of Egypt, Pharaoh didn't want to let our people go. You remember the ten plagues God brought on the Egyptians under Moses? The final plague was to be the death of the firstborn.

"So that first Passover which took place the night before the Great Exodus, a lamb was sacrificed for each family. Each father dipped a branch of hyssop into the blood of his family's sacrifice, and daubed it on the doorpost and lintel of his house."

As the rabbi continued to speak, Jonathan's mind could visualize the slaughtered lamb. And he could see the fresh blood of the lamb that had been painted onto the doorpost. He could see it drip down the post and dribble onto the ground.

"And at evening on that Day," the rabbi continued, "each father made very sure that each child -- each son, each daughter -- had been brought inside the house and accounted for. Because outside that night, the Lord struck the land of Egypt, slaying the firstborn son of every family in the entire kingdom. Every firstborn died, except for those sons of Israel whose fathers had sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood on their doorposts as a mark of faith.

" 'When I see the blood,' God had promised, 'I will pass over you.' And He did pass over us," the rabbi concluded. "Not one firstborn Israelite met death that night when death was all around us. And by morning all Israel walked free, journeying out of the land of bondage into a new day of liberty."

So the "Lamb of God" is a Passover lamb, thought Jonathan, as he thanked the rabbi and returned to his father's flocks. A Passover lamb.