Easter: Lambs vs. Bunnies

What is Easter to you? Is it chocolate easter bunnies? Is it extravagant egg hunts? Is it giant family dinners? Or is it something more? Maybe it's something way more. Something that doesn't melt in your mouth then go away for ever. Something that instead enables you to live forever. Maybe it's not a bunny, but ... a Lamb.

"The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" ~ John 1:29

Jesus is the Perfect Lamb. The Perfect Lamb that has no sin of any kind.

Long ago, before Christ, God's people celebrated a meal called the Passover. The Passover was a reminder that God saved the Israelites from the death of their firstborns in Egypt. To save their families, the Israelites had to take a lamb without blemish or spot and sacrifice it to the Lord. They then had to paint their door posts with the lamb's blood. Then, the Lord would pass over their household (hence, the name, "Passover"), and no one would die.

Jesus saves those who believe in Him. Because of the blood He shed for us, God's wrath passes over us (Romans 5:9). The punishment for our sins is death (Romans 6:23), but "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Christ was our sacrificial lamb. His blood saved us. Only by His blood are we saved. Robert Lowry knew what he was talking about when he said,

"What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus."