Jesus - the Lamb of God

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

The Lamb of God: Talk No 5: Frank Nelson Good Friday 2011

On Monday the country will pause to remember the sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders, most of them young, most of them male, who died in the name of freedom, democracy, decency and humanity. As our grand-parents’ medals are worn, stories will be told of individual heroism. As a nation we will pause and, together, say, “We will remember them.” Among the many moving words associated with war and self-sacrifice are those found on the Kohima Epitaph in India. “When you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today.”

One of the oldest religious rituals is that of sacrifice. Within the first few chapters of the Bible we find Cain and Abel offering sacrifice to God, and the story of Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice on the altar is one that continues to disturb and puzzle readers. Among many explanations for this bizarre story is that the ancient Hebrew people did not follow the practice of their neighbours in allowing their children to be offered as sacrifices. Even though the Temple ritual in Jerusalem was based on the sacrifice of bulls, sheep and birds, there is a stream of thought that is uncomfortable with killing as a way to appease God. One such passage is found in Psalm 50: 13 – 14. “Do you think that I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the One Most High.” This particular theme is picked up in the first Eucharistic Prayer when we pray, “Accept our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving which we offer through Christ our great high priest.” ANZPB pg 423

It’s hard to get away from the concept of sacrifice in an Anglican Church where Holy Communion, the Eucharist, is usually the main form of worship. Central in our architecture is the altar and cross – both symbols of sacrifice. The great silver cross behind the altar in this Cathedral, a gift in the early 1960s from the Mothers’ Union members of the Diocese, pictures the Lamb of God. As Anglicans our spiritual leaders are called priests – a term some churches prefer not to use. Sunday by Sunday the Cathedral Choir sing the Agnus Dei – Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

We should not be surprised then to find that one of the strong metaphors involved in the mystery of salvation is that of sacrifice, with Jesus the central figure.

Among the problems for any religion built on sacrifice, is that neither the victim nor the priest, or agent, offering the sacrifice is without sin themselves. Ancient biblical texts might stipulate that an animal offered must be without spot or blemish, but even if this were so, there is still the problem of the sin, the uncleanness, unworthiness, of the person offering the sacrifice. A somewhat bizarre practice was devised in the Temple ritual to get around this problem. Once a year, the high priest symbolically transferred his own sins on to the head of a second goat which was not killed. This goat came to be called the ‘scapegoat’.

Today, Good Friday, we celebrate the pinnacle, and the end, of sacrifice. In Christian thinking Jesus is both the perfect sacrificial victim and the perfect high priest offering the victim. Without sin, he is able to be both. This is the argument put forth by the writer of the letter to the Hebrews:

But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God! For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. Hebrews 9: 11 - 15a

If sacrifice was practiced in order to put people right with God, even if this had to be done over and over again, then the Christian understanding of sacrifice is that Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate sacrifice, one which need never be repeated. As one of our hymns puts it, “Once only once, and once for all, his precious life he gave.” By his death on the cross, and by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the way has been opened for us to return to God, to live what St John refers to as ‘eternal life’.

Our liturgical language might sometimes seem to suggest that we continually offer sacrifice to God, but our understanding and teaching of Eucharist, the word means thanksgiving, is that through the once only death on the cross, God “re-establishes the channel of communication between humanity and God”. (Mark McIntosh: Divine Teaching pg 75)

Once we accept that God, in Jesus Christ, has done all that is needed, and that the door is open to us, a huge weight is lifted off our shoulders. We do not need to prove anything. God loves us. God accepts us. God welcomes us – as we are. This was the profound realization that came to Charlotte Elliott. Lying on her sick bed, feeling guilty she could not help her brother run the church fair, she penned the words for which, long after the money raised at the fair has been spent, she is still remembered.

Just as I am, without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. CP Hymn 308

• Prayer

Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us. Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us. Jesus, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us your peace.

• Hymn CP 308 Just as I am (Saffron Walden)