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The Easter Lamb

By Rebekah Hoorn

Since moving to Romania over a year ago, shopping at the piata has become a regular part of my life. The sights, sounds, and smells, which were once foreign, have become routine. However, one week the routine was broken as God used shopping at the piata to remind me of an important truth from Scripture.

It was a Saturday morning, the day before Catholic Easter. Before I even entered the piata, I encountered an unfamiliar sight: men carrying lambs, not cuddled close to their chests (as we Americans tend to picture a lamb being carried), but lambs whose feet had been bound together and whose bindings then became the handle by which they were carried. For a moment, I thought the lambs had been slaughtered and were being sold at the piata. It wasn’t long, though, before I heard the first sounds of protest coming from a lamb being carried upside down, his head dangling toward the ground. These lambs were alive, but not for long. Fresh lamb is the centerpiece of the traditional Romanian Easter feast, and these lambs, cute and innocent as they seemed, were born to die. By the time I left the piata, some of the men had returned, this time carrying empty, bloody sheepskins to be resold to someone who would process the wool. The meat from the lambs was already being prepared for the coming feast.

I left the piata feeling a bit sad. I had sympathy for the lambs, I suppose. To be honest, I found the whole idea somewhat distasteful. I enjoy a good piece of meat as much as anyone else, but I prefer not to see it alive before I eat it! But on the walk home, as I thought about the lambs and Easter, I realized that this season is really all about the unfair slaughter of a Lamb who, though completely blameless and without sin, died that you and I might be redeemed. Easter is an opportunity for believers and unbelievers alike to say along with the apostle John, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Since that day in the piata, I have spent several hours looking at the word lamb in Scripture and have found that in sixty-three of the ninety-eight references, the lamb referred to was required as a sacrifice. All throughout the Old Testament, the people of God were required to sacrifice lambs for burnt offerings, Passover offerings, and sin offerings, as a part of the cleansing ritual. A lamb in Israel (like a lamb in Romania) was born to die.

One striking difference between the lambs I saw in the piata and the Lamb whose sacrifice we commemorate during the Easter season is that of disposition. The lambs at the piata looked docile (who wouldn’t with all limbs out of commission?), but they sounded just the opposite. I don’t think lambs have the capacity to understand their future, but they certainly weren’t willing participants in their present circumstance! In contrast, Jesus approached His ultimate sacrifice with full understanding and a willingness to pay whatever cost was necessary so that His Father would receive the most glory possible. Truly, “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13b) Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing! (Revelation 5:12)