Questions

Question first appeared on March 9, 2002
What do Protestants mean by the ABlood of the Lamb@ and do Orthodox use that phrase? If not, why?

Many a time in my former Protestant life, I sang the old Gospel chorus, AAre you washed in the blood, in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless, are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?@

Reference is to the Old Testament story recorded in Exodus, chapter 12, in which the People of Israel were liberated from slavery in Egypt. By sacrificing a spotless lamb, a yearling, and sprinkling the blood on the two doorposts and lintels of their house, each Jewish family would be spared the last plague, the death of the first-born in Egypt, both man and beast. While they waited through the night, they ate the flesh of the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And they ate in haste and dressed to leave quickly. This is the Passover.

The Passover of the Jews is a foretaste of the New Passover (Pascha in Greek) of Jesus Christ. As John the Baptist said, ABehold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!@ (John 1:29) Jesus is the Lamb, the yearling (a young age of 33 years), spotless (without sin), whose sacrifice on the cross with the accompanying shedding of blood, saves us from death.

The term is scriptural and perfectly Orthodox. We may not sing the Protestant hymn above, or preach excessively on being Awashed in the blood,@ but our Orthodox hymns and prayers have many references to Jesus as the Lamb who is sacrificed.