Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29
Picture: Agnus Dei Lamb, Parish Church of Saint Paternianus
Still yourself
Sit and take in your environment. Be present to it - the flaking paint on the wall, the folds in the curtain, the shiny buttons on your monitor. Allow your breathing to slow you down by noticing its gentle rhythms. You may choose to play the sound file to start and end your time of reflection.
An awful truth dawns
I wonder what Jesus’ reaction was to being hailed as the Lamb of God? I’m taken aback by how early this phrase appears in the gospel account. It's even earlier than his baptism and temptation where the major issues of self-identity were to the fore. Did he expect it? Was he surprised or even jolted? Oh, another inkling, another pang! Personal plans to be put aside and frustrated. A slow dawning of an awful truth, of danger? Things are turning on their head here, a quiet and almost hidden seismic shift in the revelation of God. He comes. The sacrifices Israel brought to their God in respect of their own sins is now brought to them, to us, by our God. It is himself. Is this not stunning?
An essential truth avoided?
Maybe I view it (crucifixion, resurrection, ascension) as now done and dusted. I now quickly move on to, or recover, a more strident and invulnerable God and I miss a true and enduring expression of God’s essential character? Through the events, the series of epic action scenes, of Lent and Easter, I wonder if I end up dodging the motivation and the emotion which are held up to me in this Lamb of God.
I recall a fragment of a lost prayer, Eternal Word, you humbled yourself even to death on a cross, because this is eternally your nature.
Andrew Hook