The first Christians quickly connected the Passover Lamb and the Suffering Servant with Jesus. We see this clearly in today’s passages. John the Baptist exclaimed over his cousin at the Jordan River, “Look, there is the Lamb of God. There’s the one who takes away the sins of the world.” In encouraging love and purity among the Corinthians, Paul uses a term about Jesus as if it were already commonly understood: “For Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” The lamb whose blood turns away the angel of death is Jesus. Now God passes over our sins by the atoning blood of Jesus marked on our hearts through the Spirit in faith. 

 

Peter makes the connection between the blood of Jesus the Lamb and the motivation and means of our changed lives. He urges his readers to consider ever more deeply the price Christ paid so that we do not take our forgiveness lightly. Something has happened that changes everything. It propels us into a renewed future.

 

Peter reminds us that once we did not know better than to follow our passions. We were clueless about the way of life that flows from sacrificial love. We did not know who God truly is, and so we were ignorant of how to live as created image bearers for the glory of God. He speaks of  “the passions of your former ignorance.” We used to act on our first impulse on base desire, only making a bigger mess of our lives. Indeed, our whole way of life before Christ was “futile.” We were in bondage to lies about what makes for fulfillment and meaning. We couldn’t help ourselves. Appetites and pride locked us into an endless cycle. Consumption then regret. Offended then angry. Spending sprees then debt collectors. Revenge then wounds that remain. Greed then emptiness. Taking not giving and afterwards feeling like we had even less. Habits, addictions and compulsions in the name of our freedom to do what we want that left us more enslaved than ever.

 

But Christ ransomed us from bondage. A person taken as a slave might be redeemed, that is bought back, by a friend or relative who would pay the price of freedom. It took more than money to set us free. It took the precious blood of the unblemished lamb. A Passover lamb that was the eternal Son of God in human flesh. The only man who ever lived in full faithfulness, perfect obedience and consistent love. His holiness was condemned by human malice, but that was the plan. To take sin upon himself. To ransom us from ourselves. To buy us out of bondage to our own corrupt hearts. The price was Jesus’ precious flesh and blood. He who so loved his Father had to experience the horrifying hell of God-forsakenness. Only by that searing sacrifice can we be regathered into the Father’s everlasting arms.

Peter reveals that Jesus as the Lamb of God is not just a lovely theological concept. The Lamb who sheds blood has redeemed us for a purpose. Our freedom from sin’s consequence and power brings about a life of renewed relationship. Now we can live out our creational calling to walk in the image of our just, loving, sacrificing God. Jesus did not pay such a ransom so that we could keep trying to live the life of our own selfish dreams. No, he has something much better for us.

 

Now in gratitude for our freedom, we can love others the way Jesus loved us. Pope John Paul II loved this insight, “Man cannot fully find himself except in a sincere gift of self.” (3 Pope John Paul II, Gaudium et Spes, 24.) We find the meaning of our lives only by giving ourselves away in service to our Redeemer. This service takes the form of loving one another. We expend sweat, tears, and sometimes even blood to care for those God gives us to love. 

 

To put it more pointedly, did Christ the Lamb of God ransom me from slavery so I could stay glued comfortably to the couch for one more episode? Did people give their lives to preserve the Bible so I could know more football statistics than Scriptures? Or rather, did Jesus pay such a price to free me so that I could join him in gathering lost lambs back to the fold? Did he not reveal the futile ways of life offered by a consumer culture precisely so I could expend more time, money, effort, attention, humor and kindness to share his love?

Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God 

Who takes away the sins of the world,

Have mercy on me.

 

Christ our Passover, sacrificed for us,

I will keep the feast of remembering

Your mighty acts of redemption.

All you did for the world of lost people,

All you did for me.

 

Your dying frees me from sin,

Your rising frees me from death,

Your return frees me from fear. 

Your rule frees me from falling back

Into the chaos of self.

 

You are the new and living way,

You are the better path forward.

 

Jesus the Lamb of God,

Christ our Passover,

I will keep the feast of love

To which you call me.

Sincerity, initiative, true speech, 

Earnestness, obedience, purity,

Affection and welcome,

These I offer you today,

 

With the heartfelt request that you

Continue to free me, cleanse me,

Restore me and send me.