I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s childlike faith, the familiarity of the story, or just exhaustion at the end of the year, but at Advent I tend to stop asking questions. The story of Jesus\u2019s conception and birth has become as normal to me as my own Christmas traditions. I don\u2019t really think much about the details because…I know this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the New Testament, John identified Jesus as \u201cthe Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d (John 1:29). Why is it that calling Jesus \u201cthe Lamb of God\u201d can feel so normal?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Advent, words and phrases like garland, virgin birth, Christmas trees, conceived by the Spirit, cinnamon rolls,<\/em> and the Lamb of God<\/em> all seem to fit seamlessly into the same paragraphs with ease. Some of these things really are not like the others, but don\u2019t they feel that way at this time of year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Lamb of God\u201d has become just another one of Jesus\u2019s names to me. It\u2019s all too easy to say, \u201cthat\u2019s just who He is!\u201d without asking many questions, especially at Advent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s tempting to think that reading about Jesus as our Passover Lamb matters more for our Easter reflections than our Advent ones. And in the chaos of December, it feels easier to push my theological reflections to the Lenten season when I have new-year energy. But this Advent, I\u2019m going to take advantage of the perspective this season brings. We can look backward through the story, from end to beginning. And then we can marvel in belief that Jesus would still come, knowing all He would endure as the one and only Lamb of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prophet, priest, and king. Those are some of the main roles we tend to think of Jesus coming to fulfill at Advent. It\u2019s not hard to imagine someone wanting to come as king. I can even conceive of someone wanting to come as a prophet or a priest. But to imagine someone coming as a sacrificial lamb? Who chooses to come for that? Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And as we reflect on the passover event in Exodus, we\u2019re reminded of where the language originated. But the lambs in the passover didn\u2019t sign up for it. A birth and death not in their will or power. But Jesus, our Passover Lamb, wasn\u2019t surprised by humanity\u2019s need when He put on flesh and came to earth. This was the plan all along. Who comes for that? Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past, when I\u2019ve thought about Jesus as the Lamb of God, I\u2019ve been caught up in what it means for me. But this year, through the lens of Advent, I\u2019m seeing instead what it shows me about the heart of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike a lamb led to the slaughter,\u201d He still came (Isaiah 53:7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s childlike faith, the familiarity of the story, or just exhaustion at the end of the year, but at Advent I tend to stop asking questions. The story of Jesus\u2019s conception and birth has become as normal to me as my own Christmas traditions. I don\u2019t really think much about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":72672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72991],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"THE PASSOVER LAMB WILL COME<\/b> I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s childlike faith, the familiarity of the story, or just exhaustion at the end of the year, but at Advent I tend to stop asking questions. The story of Jesus\u2019s conception and birth has become as normal to me as my own Christmas traditions. I don\u2019t really think much about the details because...I know this one.<\/p> In the New Testament, John identified Jesus as \u201cthe Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!\u201d (John 1:29). Why is it that calling Jesus \u201cthe Lamb of God\u201d can feel so normal?<\/p> At Advent, words and phrases like garland, virgin birth, Christmas trees, conceived by the Spirit, cinnamon rolls,<\/em> and the Lamb of God<\/em> all seem to fit seamlessly into the same paragraphs with ease. Some of these things really are not like the others, but don\u2019t they feel that way at this time of year?<\/p> \u201cThe Lamb of God\u201d has become just another one of Jesus\u2019s names to me. It\u2019s all too easy to say, \u201cthat\u2019s just who He is!\u201d without asking many questions, especially at Advent.<\/p> It\u2019s tempting to think that reading about Jesus as our Passover Lamb matters more for our Easter reflections than our Advent ones. And in the chaos of December, it feels easier to push my theological reflections to the Lenten season when I have new-year energy. But this Advent, I\u2019m going to take advantage of the perspective this season brings. We can look backward through the story, from end to beginning. And then we can marvel in belief that Jesus would still come, knowing all He would endure as the one and only Lamb of God.<\/p> Prophet, priest, and king. Those are some of the main roles we tend to think of Jesus coming to fulfill at Advent. It\u2019s not hard to imagine someone wanting to come as king. I can even conceive of someone wanting to come as a prophet or a priest. But to imagine someone coming as a sacrificial lamb? Who chooses to come for that? Jesus.<\/p> And as we reflect on the passover event in Exodus, we\u2019re reminded of where the language originated. But the lambs in the passover didn\u2019t sign up for it. A birth and death not in their will or power. But Jesus, our Passover Lamb, wasn\u2019t surprised by humanity\u2019s need when He put on flesh and came to earth. This was the plan all along. Who comes for that? Jesus.<\/p> In the past, when I\u2019ve thought about Jesus as the Lamb of God, I\u2019ve been caught up in what it means for me. But this year, through the lens of Advent, I\u2019m seeing instead what it shows me about the heart of Jesus.<\/p> \u201cLike a lamb led to the slaughter,\u201d He still came (Isaiah 53:7).<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"5","scripture":"Exodus 2:23-25, Exodus 6:13, Exodus 12:1-3, Exodus 12:6-14, Exodus 12:21-27, Exodus 12:50-51, Psalm 40:17, 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, John 1:29","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Hannah Little<\/i>
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