Today David and JoAnn Seely presented an amazing lecture on the
metaphor of the lamb of god. They showed amazing art work and quotes
from the bible and other literature.
The poem "The Lamb" by William Blake illustrates many of the qualities
we view lambs as having. They devided the lecure into 3 parts, three
ways we can view the metaphor. The sacraficial lamb, the Suffering
Servant, and the Apocalyptic lamb.
They showed some amazing christian art work, a couple had melchezidek
portrayed, which I have not seen before. Abel had his sacrifice,
Melchedek had bread and wine (symbol of the sacrament) and Abraham was
sacrificing Issac in one mosaic.
Akedah is the greek word for Binding, which is what the jews call
Genesis 22 (When Abraham sacrifices Issac). There is an interesting
Jewish artwork (which is rare to find because the Jews did not make
much art because of the graven images problem) that illustrates this
event. There are two very different paintings by Carravaggio that
portray this event in two very distinct ways.
A group in Israel, the smaritans still practice animal sacrifice, but
it is culturally acceptable and a form a worship, unlike what it is
for us westerners. The children bring the lambs which they have raised
to the gathering, were people are happy, right at sundown the lambs
are sacrificed, and the people rejoice (in a good way).
We often think of death when we think of blood, but it would be more
proper to think of life. When Jesus gave his blood for us, he gave us
life. This is illustrated in Exodus 24:8 and Matt 26:28.
The image of the cross is often seen as a sad thing, when it can be
seen as a glorious thing. It is a symbol of triumph and vctory, often
the lamb (in paintings) is close to a banner, a banner uses a cross to
support the fabric of the banner. The metaphor of the lamb of god is
powerful and can change our lives.
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