April 2025

 

A few days ago I drove past a farmer’s field and was much delighted to see a herald of spring – lambs curled up with their mother ewe – and my mind turned to John the Baptist’s acclamation of Jesus ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’.

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Sunday by Sunday we hear the choir singing Ecce Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi ‘Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world’ as bread and wine, the sacramental body and blood of the Easter lamb, are prepared on the altar before we share holy communion.

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Why ‘Lamb of God’? The concept goes back to the first Passover meal (Exodus) when a lamb was sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the doorposts of the Israelite’s houses as a peace offering to God and to indicate that they should be spared: however, the presentation of a sacrificial lamb was abolished in Jewish cultic practice after the destruction of the temple in A.D.70. Curiously, however, Christian tradition has it that Jesus has been hailed as the sacrificial lamb who died to take away the sins of the world, becoming a sacrifice for sin lamb rather than being a peace offering to God.

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As we listen to the Agnus Dei we can reflect on role of Christ as he yielded up his life as a sacrificial offering ‘to take away the sins of the world’ as indeed John the Baptist foretold. The closing words of the Agnus Dei ‘Dona nobis pacem’  (grant us peace) surely link us in spirit with the captive Israelites of old: may the peace of God pervade our fractured world not only in the Holy Land but in the hearts and minds of  all people of goodwill as they rejoice over the lambs in our fields, longer days and spring flowers to celebrate the holy days  ̶  and holiday  ̶  of Easter.

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Deacon Douglas MacMillan

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The Collect

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Almighty Father,

you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:

grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness

that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth;

through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.