Lamb Selection Day
Americans love parades. We tune in to watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, the Plymouth Parade, Bowl Game Parades, and Ticker Tape parades. I have participated in several parades in my life. My social club in high school put together a kazoo band for our Homecoming float in my senior year. I also represented the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Sons of Union Veterans in numerous parades as a Civil War reenactor. Maybe you have heard this story about a WWII parade.
One day in 1943, thousands of our military were preparing to leave for Europe. The Army, the Navy, and the Marines prepared to load on the ships. The General decided to have a massive parade through New York City to seek prayer and honor for the men. Many of these brave men would never return home.
A little old lady was sweeping off her sidewalk, and she heard the crowd's commotion. She looked up, hearing the cadence of the soldiers.
She stood at attention and watched as the men marched by her.
She cried and put her shoulders back as she saw the red, white, and blue flag go by.
After a few minutes, the old lady put her broomstick on her shoulder and marched alongside the troops.
Someone yelled out of the crowd: OLD LADY! OLD LADY, GET OUT OF THE WAY! WHAT CAN YOU DO, OLD LADY?
The old lady yelled proudly back: I CAN SHOW ON WHOSE SIDE I AM! She kept on marching!
The Sunday before Easter is called “Palm Sunday” and commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem a few days before Passover and His crucifixion. We call this His “triumphal entry” because He was about to fulfill the will of His Father in His death, burial, and resurrection. According to Josephus, there were THREE MILLION people in Jerusalem. In many ways, His entrance into Jerusalem had a parade atmosphere, but Jesus showed whose side He was on.
Leviticus 23 contains the seven feasts of the Lord that His people celebrated throughout their history. The year Jesus died, the feasts of Passover, unleavened bread, and first fruits occurred three days in a row. He was crucified on Passover, in the grave on unleavened bread, and resurrected on first fruits as God’s first fruits from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23).
Passover recalled the momentous event of God saving the Hebrews’ firstborns in Egypt by “passing over” the houses with the lambs’ blood on their doorposts and lintels. Following this tenth plague, Pharaoh permitted Moses to lead the people out of his country. The king changed his mind after the children of Israel departed and caught up to them at the Red Sea. God rescued them by parting the water and creating dry ground on which they walked. When the Egyptian army pursued, God closed the water, and they drowned.
The three feasts symbolize the events of the week of Jesus’ death (Passover), burial (unleavened bread), and resurrection (first fruits). Each of the feasts of God points to some aspect of Jesus. With that in mind, I want to look at Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem a week before His resurrection. Please remember that Jesus knew what He was facing as He approached the city.
Matthew 21.1-9 (NKJV):
Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your King is coming to you,
Lowly, and sitting on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
Passover occurs on the fourteenth day of the Jews’ first month, according to Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. On the tenth day of the first month, Jews were to select their lambs for Passover. Listen to Exodus 12:3, 6 (NKJV):
3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.
6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.
The family examined and selected the lamb and then cared for it for the five days before its sacrifice, ensuring it was not blemished. Imagine how hard it would be for the family to care for this innocent animal, treat it like a pet, kill it, and then eat it. One of the lessons Passover teaches us is that sin is serious and costly.
God always requires the best for His purposes. Jesus was the best He had to offer for the world’s sake. Nothing less would do. In the Passover feast, God wanted the people to understand that He wanted them to give the best, not the least. The lamb, and the families, selected had to be unique. In Exodus 12:5 (NKJV), Moses described the sacrificial lambs, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.”
Offering the best was an act of faith on the part of the people. Logic says to keep the best and give what you can afford, and God says, “Give the best in your sacrifices, and I will provide even more than for you.”
In Jesus’ day, the Jews developed the custom of taking the lambs from the flocks of Bethlehem for temple sacrifices, including the Passover. In using the Bethlehem flocks, the priests honored King David, who had watched his father’s flocks there. They also financially supported the Sadducees who owned the sheep.
In the Passover meal, there were to be no leftovers, and the people would share with their neighbors and burn whatever was left the next day. Listen to Exodus 12:10-11 (NKJV).
10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover.
God maneuvered the first-century census events so that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy and symbolically show His Messiah (see Micah 5:2 and Luke 2). John the Baptist identified Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” in John 1:29. He came to be God’s sacrificial lamb and sin offering on our behalf.
Jesus entered the city from Bethany and the way of the wilderness, which fulfilled Isaiah 40. The Jewish people consider themselves “Wilderness People” because God led them there for forty years until the faithless generation died. Under their new leader, Joshua, the new generation entered the “land that flowed with milk and honey,” containing desert and farmland. The herds grazed in the wilderness and produced milk, while the farmers produced kinds of honey or fruit jams in the farmlands.
Jesus and His disciples walked from Galilee to Bethany so that He could ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling another prophecy. In that culture, riding a donkey was like driving a Lexus, and this was a “loaner” animal that His disciples secured for Him and His ride into the City. Zechariah 9:9 (NKJV) reads:
9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
The people understood the symbolism of Jesus as Messiah in His entrance into the city.
9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
The people expected a warrior messiah to drive out the Roman oppressors like the Maccabees had done with the Seleucids centuries earlier. The people adopted palm branches as patriotic symbols in honor of the Maccabees, and now they brought them before Jesus when they heard He was coming, as John describes in John 12:12-13 (NKJV):
12 The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’
The King of Israel!” (CF. Psalm 118:25)
While Jesus is the Messiah, He was not coming to Jerusalem to overthrow the Romans and judge the nation. He will return in His next visit to judge all nations (Matthew 25) and determine eternal destinies and rewards. He came the first time to save us as God’s sacrificial lamb at Passover. Listen to Jesus in John 12:47 (NKJV):
And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
You will remember that Jesus wept over Jerusalem as He entered the City. He knew what was coming regarding His death, burial, resurrection, and the city of Jerusalem. The Romans would destroy the holy city like the Babylonians did in 587 BC. The Jewish people could have avoided the Roman onslaught if they had repented and embraced the Messiah. Jesus knew they would not and wept for them in the catastrophe that was coming a few decades into the future. Listen to Luke 19:41-44 (NKJV):
41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
This week of Passover included the time of examination. After He came into the city, Jesus examined the people, especially the religious leaders, and found them wanting. He drove the money changers out of the temple courts for their many violations of God’s intentions for the temple. No wonder the Jewish leaders were after Him. Listen to Luke 19:45-46 (NKJV):
45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”
In the meantime, families examined their lambs and kept them for five days. They would take the lambs to the priests and examine them. Following the priestly examination, the people sacrificed the lambs as God ordained. All of this signified the examinations of Jesus before His sacrificial death on the cross.
I will let you track down the texts, but some Pharisees challenged Jesus to quiet the crowd when He made His triumphal entry. They examined the situation and felt sure the Romans would be on edge because of the potential chaos a riot would produce.
Once Jesus was in the City, the Sadducees and Pharisees began eliminating Him. They sent a detachment of soldiers to Gethsemane, arrested Him, and started their examination in an unscriptural court. They sent Him to Pilate who could find no fault with Him. Pilate sent Him to Herod, where Jesus remained silent. Herod sent Him back to Pilate, who scourged and crucified Him.
I am sure you know the story and Jesus’ unjust crucifixion. The leading players examined and unfairly judged Him guilty of blasphemy. Jesus examined them in their judgment, and they judged themselves. Jesus said in John 12:48-50 (NKJV):
48 He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. 49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. 50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.
I read a story once from Readers Digest about a mother who would listen with her young children to an instructional program on the radio each morning. She particularly enjoyed the exercise class.
One day she tuned in late, only to hear an energetic instructor urging pupils along quickly: “Up…down…circle round…up…down…circle round…up…down…circle round.” She quickly joined in, only to find that the instructor would continue the pace for quite some time. Finally, when she was exhausted, she heard the voice say, “Okay, you can stop now, and everybody put your paintbrushes back in the water jar.”
People have misunderstood Jesus for years. Some have thought He was a “good man,” a “prophet,” and even a madman. The Jewish people celebrating Passover, the year Jesus died, first thought He was the warrior Messiah, and then, disappointed, they renounced Him as a criminal.
One more matter of examination this Passover Lamb Selection Day: your analysis of God’s lamb. How do you see Him? It matters not what others think or say. What do you say about Jesus? Recall His conversation with the disciples in Matthew 16:13-19 (NKJV):
13 When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14 So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Our forefathers and mothers understood who Jesus is – the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is our savior as God’s sacrificial lamb. He offers salvation through our complete faith in Him displayed by our actions (James 2:18).
Samuel Adams stated in his last will and testament:
Principally, and first of all, I resign my soul to the Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying on the merits of Jesus Christ for the pardon of my sins.
Benjamin Franklin wrote:
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, is the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see;
Patrick Henry:
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."
Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumball:
"If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ.
Our “Patriot Patriarchs” examined the scriptures and understood the importance of Jesus. Regardless of what others think, we need to examine Him for ourselves and make our own decisions about Him. The writer quotes Psalm 95:7 in Hebrews 3:7-8 (NKJV) and says:
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
Keep The Light of Studying Jesus Burning!
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