LAMB OF GOD
This is how John the Baptist announced Jesus in John 1:29, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ The next day he declared the same, and two of his disciples immediately left him to follow Jesus. John could have said, ‘behold the Messiah’, or ‘behold the Son of God’, but he didn’t make it that obvious. We can’t know for sure, but I wonder if those two disciples understood the description? Something made them follow after Jesus.
WITHOUT BLEMISH
For them ‘lamb’ signified sacrifice, they had grown up under a covenant where lambs were routinely offered as sacrifices for the atonement of sin, as laid down in Levitical law. John was describing Jesus as a sacrifice for the whole world’s sin. They would also know of the importance of the ‘lamb without blemish’. Before even the law of sacrifices was established, God had told His people to take and kill a lamb without blemish and paint its blood on the doorposts of their homes, to protect themselves from the Angel of death, at the first Passover ( Exodus 12:3-5 ). The blood of the lamb was their protection and salvation.
ETERNALLY WORSHIPPED
Jesus offered His blood as the price for our redemption, ‘as a lamb without blemish and spot’ (1Peter 1:18-19). He that ‘knew no sin’ (2 Corinthians 5 : 21) sacrificed Himself to make atonement for our sins. His blood was spilt and stained on the uprights and crossbeam of a wooden cross, so that the punishment of death would pass over us. We don’t see this description of Jesus anywhere else in the Gospels, but it is an eternal theme. In Heaven that is how Jesus appears – as a Lamb that had been slain (Revelation 5 : 6), and it is as the Lamb of God that He is eternally worshipped: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour, and glory and blessing’! (Revelation 5 :12)
Let’s worship along with heaven today!
Here all was simplicity, and as the service progressed, so the simplicity of worship also became evident. There were no written words of liturgy, no formality, no separate area for monks and lay people, male or female, as Hywel was used to. All came together with one purpose, to praise their Creator together. The priest began to recite, and the words were from a psalm. The people in the congregation added their voices. They knew these words by heart, and they were spoken with conviction. One by one voices began to sing along with the responses, until there sounded the most beautiful of symphonies, voices coming together in sweet harmonies, rising and falling together. Their worship filled the space, until it felt as if heaven itself had leant a choir of angels to the realm of humans.
Hywel looked about him in wonder. All around him faces were lifted in adoration, bathed in peace and joy. Some knelt and spread their hands in devotion. One or two lay prostrate on the floor. It was a deeply moving experience and Hywel wished for it not to end. Could it be that God Himself had presenced Himself there, as a response to their praise, as He had in Solomon’s great Temple?[1] Hywel found himself on his knees, overcome by the heavy sense of the Holy in that simple place, among those simple people. He could not even pray, but where he knelt he was aware of tears coursing down his cheeks and falling to the cool stone floor beneath him.
THE PILGRIM p 214
Joy Margetts is a published author and blogger. Her books are works of Christian Historical fiction. Set in medieval Wales against the backdrop of Cistercian abbey life, they tell stories of faith, hope and God’s redemptive power. Her debut novel ‘The Healing‘ was published by Instant Apostle on 19 March 2021. Joy has also self- published a short novella, ‘The Beloved‘ as both a companion to ‘The Healing‘, and as an easy to read standalone story, which is available to buy on Amazon Kindle.
‘The Pilgrim‘, her second full length novel, was published by Instant Apostle on 22 July 2022
More information on Joy, and her books can be found here www.joymargetts.com
[1] See 2 Chronicles 5:13-14.
