{"id":561,"date":"2025-03-08T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ytmatrimony.com\/blog\/?p=561"},"modified":"2024-12-22T14:18:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T14:18:06","slug":"mary-had-a-little-lamb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ytmatrimony.com\/blog\/mary-had-a-little-lamb\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary had a little Lamb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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One of the earliest poems I recollect memorizing as a child was: \u2018Mary had a little lamb; its fleece was white as snow\u2026 \u2018 In a real sense the whole Bible and its offer of salvation is about Mary\u2019s Lamb \u2013 God\u2019s Son, the world\u2019s Savior. Christmas celebrates Mary\u2019s boy child Jesus Christ whose birthday was anticipated in the Old Testament, announced by angels, attended by poor shepherds and wealthy magi and adorned by the Star of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This Lamb was prophesied at the first mention of the gospel (proto evangelion; Gen.3:15), remarkably typified at every Jewish Passover feast (Ex.12f), personified in God\u2019s promise of the Messiah (Isa.9:53), identified by John the Baptist on earth, magnified by thousands in heaven\u2019s choirs (Rev.2:12) and glorified by Almighty God for all time and eternity (Rev.22:11). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shudder to think that all this once depended on the yieldedness of a peasant teenager. Mary was \u2018expecting Jesus\u2019 but little did she expect to find God in her womb and soon see God in a cradle, God among sinners and God on a cross! The Bible has more to say about Jesus the Lamb who in the fullness of time God sent forth and Mary brought forth. The Expectation of the Lamb: Where is the lamb? (Gen.22:7). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone has aptly pointed out regarding the Bible in two testaments that the New is in the Old concealed; and the Old in the New revealed. For me, the Old Testament may be summed up in one question Isaac asked Abraham when taken to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah: \u201cWhere is the lamb?\u201d Abraham\u2019s answers became Israel\u2019s consolation and the hope of all the earth: \u201cGod will provide himself a Lamb\u201d. God\u2019s people sacrificed countless lambs that at best covered sins, but they eagerly awaited God\u2019s spotless Lamb. The Exposition of the Lamb: Watch the lamb take sins away! (Jn.1:29). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God had prepared John the Baptist as a forerunner to identify to Israel and declare that Jesus born of Mary by the Holy Spirit was indeed God\u2019s Lamb, who once-and-for-all would take away the sins of the whole world. Jesus\u2019 incarnation was a necessity and precisely how our Creator could be among his creatures and the Infinite One became an infant. God the Son as a sacrificial lamb laid aside his majesty to share in our misery, exchanged his riches for ridicule, left his throne to die on a tree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behold the lamb! The Exaltation of the Lamb: Worthy is the lamb once slain! (Rev.5:12). We can only celebrate Christmas because we already know about Good Friday and Easter. Unlike other lambs, Jesus the Lord of life, willing laid down his life therefore God raise him and has highly exalted him that at his name every knee will one day bow and every tongue confess: Jesus Christ is Lord. All heaven will declare this enthroned Lamb as worthy to take all power, wealth, wisdom, honor, glory and blessing! The miracle of Christmas is that God\u2019s Lamb offers himself not as God-Above-Us but as God-Among-Us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mystery of Christmas is that the exalted lamb is God-With-Us and, by his Spirit, God-Within-Us! Come, let us worship the Lamb of glory! Mary had a Little lamb, He came on Christmas Night She laid him in a manger bed this king of light and life He ate with poor and sinful folk; he claimed he was God\u2019s Son This made the leaders plot the death of this holy sinless One He came to give us Joy and Peace, to take away our sin He heals the sick and clams the storm and ushers justice in What makes the lamb love Mary so and all the world beside? By grace alone he chose his own, for them he lived and died. We too must love the lamb you know, his blood will wash us clean Our words must show that we are his for our lives by all are seen One day this lamb will come again more lion than a lamb Defeat his foes, reward his own, Oh praise the day he came! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Author: Rev. Dr. Chris Gnanakan is Professor & HOD of Pastoral Theology & Counseling and the Dean of Chapel at SAIACS, Bangalore.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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