Good Friday of the
Passion of the Lord
(Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John
18:1-19:42)
We tend to think of lambs as vulnerable animals. Do you remember watching cartoons in which
the wolf seeing a lamb imagines lamb chops?
But there is at least one instance when the lamb is strong enough to
protect all his subjects from harm. In the
Book of Revelation the Lamb of God sits on the throne surrounded by those he
has saved. The Passion of St. John which
we just heard features this same lamb in a subtle but telling way.
At the beginning of the Gospel John the Baptist calls
Jesus the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29).” He has in mind, of course, Jesus sacrificing
himself on the cross to atone for human sin.
The Passion account does not speak directly of Jesus as the lamb but gives
at least three hints that he is the Passover lamb of the Old Testament
tradition that needed to be sacrificed for human freedom from the bondage of
sin. In the first place, Jesus is said
to be crucified at noon on the preparation day for the Passover, the exact time
when the Passover lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple (19:14). Then while Jesus is hanging on the cross, the
people “put a sponge soaked in wine on a spring of hyssop…up to (Jesus’) mouth
(19:29).” The hyssop is a slender plant
that could not possibly bear the weight of a soaked sponge.
It is used here to remind the reader of the hyssop that the Israelites
used to sprinkle their doorposts with the blood of the Passover lamb. The blood saved them from the Angel of Death
who destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians when the Israelites were fleeing
captivity (Ex 12:22). The last hint of
Jesus as the Lamb of God comes as Jesus dies on the cross. A soldier comes to break his legs so that he
can no longer support breathing. The
text says that the soldier, seeing that Jesus had died, sticks a lance in his
side perhaps to save himself the trouble of breaking a large bone (19:36). In any case, no bone of the Passover lamb was
to be broken (Ex 12:46).
Was it necessary for Jesus to be sacrificed as a lamb to
free us from sin? we may want to ask. And,
could God have forgiven us our sins without the cross? No, it was not absolutely necessary and, yes,
God might have forgiven our sins without Jesus’ bloody death. However, without knowing the terrible price that
Jesus had to pay for our salvation, we would be less inclined to follow his
ways. Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice on the
cross gives us both courage and example to give of ourselves for the love of
God and the good of others.
