From The Desk Of Pastor Paul Viggiano: Resurrection Sunday Edition

Sacrifice and a reason to rejoice

Churches will be full Sunday as congregants share the Good News of the Bible.
By Paul Viggiano

It was a haunting event in Egypt those many years ago when the angel of destruction brought death to all the firstborn, both of man and beast. Of course, it was not all the firstborn. There was a way of escape; the application of the blood of the Passover lamb upon the door posts and lintel of the house. When the Lord saw the blood, he would pass over them. The Passover would ever be celebrated by God's people.

The blood of the Passover was not the first blood ever shed in a sacrificial manner. Sacrifices go back to the beginning. Directly following the fall of man, Adam became aware of his own nakedness and was, for the first time, ashamed. He sought to hide his own shame by tying together garments of fig leaves. It was a feeble attempt. Men have been making feeble attempts ever since. There simply aren't enough fig leaves on Earth to hide our guilt before the searching eyes of a holy God.

But God is gracious as well as holy. He did not leave Adam in his shame but covered him with tunics of skin. Animals had to be sacrificed in order for these tunics to be made. They were God's animals and they were sacrificed by God. From that point until the time of Christ, animals would be sacrificed (mainly by priests) as a sign of God's promise (covenant) to cover man's shame; this would include the Passover.

Fifteen hundred years would come and go from the time the Hebrews were delivered from the slavery of Egypt. In the wilderness of Judea, a Hebrew prophet named John was baptizing those who had remained faithful to that covenant promise made by God. Seeing Jesus coming toward him, John proclaimed, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."

The faithful Israelite recognized that the Passover lamb served merely to foreshadow the true Lamb of God. It would be the height of missing the point to think that the shedding of an animal's blood could somehow deliver men from judgment and death. The slaughtering of every animal on the Serengeti in springtime would provide no appeasement -- not a wink of approval from the Creator/Judge. Shedding the blood of the lamb during the Passover was an act of faith in what the lamb represented.

It was faith that God had made a promise to wipe clean the slate of sin and shame in which men found themselves. We might seek to convince others we have no sin; we may seek to redefine sin and call it a disorder; we may seek to rationalize our sin and justify it because of our unfortunate past or dysfunctional household -- mere fig leaves.

The Passover lamb did not represent men's efforts to justify, or even overcome, their own sin; the Passover lamb pointed to Christ. It was his blood that would be shed. The cross of Christ would satisfy the justice of a holy God and bring everlasting life to those who trust, not in themselves but in Christ alone. This is why the Apostle Paul called Christ our Passover.

It was during the Passover that Jesus would be betrayed, handed over to sinful men, go through a kangaroo court and then be sacrificed. Today we call it Easter, but the Greek word is Pascha, which means Passover.

The shame, the guilt and the condemnation that men deserved would fall upon the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, the true Passover. But Jesus, unlike all the priests and lambs who preceded him, would rise again in a display of power and success over men's greatest enemies, death and judgment.

Churches will be at maximum capacity this Sunday. What is the message? That Jesus, the Lamb of God was sacrificed on the cross of Calvary. That the wrath and condemnation that men deserved was poured out upon the Lamb. That the Lamb of God rose victorious and grants his victory to all who call upon his name in sincere faith. This is what the Bible calls the Good News.

Could there be a happier Easter?