Lamb Selection Day

LAMB SELECTION DAY

When you go to church this Sunday, Palm Sunday, the Sunday of the Passion, you can give it another name…it is Lamb Selection Day…consider Exodus 12:3.

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.

This verse does not seem like anything specific until you read Exodus 12:6

 you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

If you think about Holy Week, and killing the lamb, then this coming Sunday, Palm Sunday, is Lamb Selection Day…it is the day that you and I, as we wave branches of palm in the air, select Jesus to die.

Read through the story and then I will offer a few closing thoughts.

The Triumphal Entry

²⁸ And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹ When he drew near to Bethpage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, “Go into the village in front of you, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’” ³² So those who were sent went away and found it just as he had told them. ³³ And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” ³⁵ And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶ And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, ³⁸ saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” ³⁹ And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” ⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade round you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

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.”

⁴⁷ And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him,⁴⁸ but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

An interesting set of events. Jesus’ entry fulfils Zechariah’s prophecy (9.9). Jesus’ cleansing the Temple shows his claim of authority. Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem shows his foreknowledge of what awaits the city.

Chapters ago, Jesus set his face to Jerusalem, and now he has arrived. Sometimes we look forward to an event, but then when it happens, we realize all too quickly what it means…for me this text thrusts me into what I have supposedly been preparing for all Lent…but can anything really prepare to experience it again.