What’s So Special About the Lamb?

Why a lamb? Of all the animals on earth, why did God choose a lamb to describe His Son and represent the payment for our sin? And when John the Baptist proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29), he specifically called Jesus the Lamb of God. Not a lamb, but the lamb.

So how does the Lamb connect with our salvation?

When we commemorate Palm Sunday, we celebrate the day of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Crowds cut palm branches and spread garments on the road before Him. They declared Him to be not just a good teacher, but the King—the Son of David—who came in the name of the Lord.

King. Son of David. And it’s not a coincidence that the Lamb of God entered Jerusalem to the acclaim of crowds who were there to celebrate the Passover.

The Passover Lamb

Approximately 1400 years before the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God fulfilled His promise to rescue the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. A series of ten plagues accompanied appeals made to soften Pharaoh’s hardened heart. Those plagues culminated in the death of all firstborns in Egypt. But God had a plan to protect His people. Death would occur across the land, but for the Israelites, a lamb would die as a substitute. A helpless, spotless lamb whose blood was applied to the doorway of each home. Shed blood that protected each family member from the plague of death.

Fast-forward 1400 years to Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. This was the week in which Passover lambs would once again be selected for sacrifice. And the selection process needed to be followed exactly as God had instructed Moses:

On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a lamb for each householdv. . . You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight. ~ Exodus 12:3, 6 (NASB)

Lamb Selection Day

The people cheered for Jesus, not realizing their cries of “Hosanna!” indicated the selection of their Lamb—the Lamb who would be sacrificed a few days later. A sacrifice that would do more than save them from physical death. This Lamb of God would pay the purchase price to redeem believers from the slave market of sin into His eternal kingdom.

So this week, as we commemorate Palm Sunday, we join our voices with the crowd in Jerusalem all those years ago. Thankful for His sacrifice on our behalf, we cry out:

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!

How does knowing Palm Sunday is about more than waving palm branches help you prepare for Good Friday and Easter Sunday?