Good afternoon, Internet. Sorry for the absence these past couple of days, but I've been adjusting to having the summer off.
Turning again to the Revelation to St. John, at one point John sees a
scroll in the right hand of the One who was sitting on the throne. A
"strong angel" puts forth the challenge, "Who is worthy to open the
scroll and break its seals?" Then, between the throne and the elders,
the Lamb comes into view. Undoubtedly the most significant feature in
John's description of this Lamb is that it is a lamb who appears to have
been slain.
When we sing the Agnus Dei, "Lamb of God, you take
away the sin of the world, have mercy on us," we are preaching and
praying all at once. It was, after all, with these very words that John
the Baptizer pointed his disciples to Jesus (John 1:29, 36). As we
prepare to feast on the Lamb of our salvation, we do indeed proclaim him
who gave his life for us. Here is the Lamb of God! Yet we also pray to
him who is now present in his body and blood. We pray for mercy, mercy
from the One who showed the true depths of mercy and compassion as he
was silently led to slaughter, dying like a lamb shorn of all its honor.
Returning
one more time to the apostle John's vision of heaven, we later hear his
description of the saints in white robes. "Who are they?" John is
asked. The answer: "These are the ones coming out of the great
tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 7:13-14). This is the blood of our redemption,
the propitiatory sacrifice that was foreshadowed at the first Passover
when the blood of the year-old lambs was sprinkled on the doorpost as a
sign that blood had already been shed in that house. In his Easter hymn,
Martin Luther applies that incident to us, thus revealing our standing
before the Father: "See, his blood now marks our door; Faith points to it; Death passes o'er, And Satan cannot harm us" (Lutheran Service Book #458).
So it is at every celebration of the Lord's Supper. The blood of the
Lamb is poured out for our drinking and his flesh for our eating.
Clearly, God's mercy is shown, and his peace rests on us.
Blessed Eastertide,
Manny
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