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Jesus is the lamb who takes away the sins of the world. That’s the central piece in the Christian notion of salvation. It has a variety of expressions, but always the same meaning: Jesus’ suffering takes away our sins. Scripture expresses this in metaphors and we must be careful, precisely, to not turn metaphor into literal understanding here. God didn’t need to see Jesus suffer horrific pain and humiliation in order to forgive us for sin, God doesn’t have to be appeased; though, granted, that’s what the metaphor ‘lamb of God’ can suggest. Jesus took away sin by absorbing and transforming sin. How?
Perhaps an image might be helpful: Jesus took away our sins in the same way a filter purifies water. A filter takes in impure water, holds the impurities inside of itself, and gives back only the pure water. It transforms rather than transmits. We see this in Jesus. Like the ultimate cleansing filter he purifies life itself. He takes in hatred, holds it, transforms it, and gives back love; he takes in chaos, holds it, transforms it, and gives back order; he takes in fear, holds it, transforms it, and gives back freedom; he takes in jealousy, holds it, transforms it, and gives back affirmation; he takes in Satan and murder, holds them, transforms them, and gives back only God and forgiveness.
And, in doing this, Jesus doesn’t want admirers, but followers. The Garden of Gethsemane invites us, every one of us, to step in, and to step up. It invites us to sweat a lover’s blood so as to help absorb, purify, and transform tension and sin rather than simply transmit them.
Jesus took away our sins
in the same way
a filter purifies water.
From Daybreaks : Daily Reflections For Lent and Easter, Ron Rolheiser, 2005, Liguori Publications, Liguori, ISBN: 0764812343 RRP: $2.50. Avialable from Rainbow Books http://www.rainbowbooks.com.au/ 303 Arthur Street Fairfield Vic. 3078 Australia 03 9481 6611 Used with permission.
