Jesus said to them,
–John 6:53
“What I’m about to tell you is true.
You must eat the Son of Man’s body and drink his blood.
If you don’t, you have no life in you.
The early Christians were said to be cannibals, because it was reported they ate and drank the body and blood of their Christ.
From the beginning of Genesis and throughout the Old Testament, there is typology and foreshadowing of the substitutionary death for all mankind to cover sin, that would come through the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)
In Genesis 3:21, “The Lord God made clothes from animal skins for the man and his wife and dressed them.”
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This past year, I consider myself richly blessed to have partaken of an experience that in part, helped deepen my understanding of what it was like for the Old Testament Israelites to yearly sacrifice the Passover lamb, and some thoughts about Jesus, the Lamb of God.
It is easy to love and welcome a little baby, a sign of new life–an experience that leaves us in awe and wonder over God’s creative processes.
I remember back in early July when I was anticipating my two female sheep to give birth. It was late one Friday night I sat out in my nighttime sit-spot (a chair under the pine trees way out back, near the main area where the sheep stay). I got some grain treats and put them in a pan for them in front of my feet, and used a light to observe/study their fattened-figures for any of the signs they might be close to birth.
I was (and still am) a newbie to all that, and I was told/read I would see a sunken triangle area between the sheep’s stomach and hip bone that would signal the baby lamb(s) had dropped into birthing position. On one of the sheep, I could see this pronounced change…
The next morning–Saturday July 6–I heard one of the sheep calling (maaah…..maaahhh….maaaaahhhh) and could see her from my window standing way out back. I went outside and started walking toward her. She was alone and no sooner did I wonder where the other sheep might be I had turned around and looked to my left and there she was–standing up on a steep incline with her little baby sheep next to her.
I couldn’t believe my eyes–it had actually happened!
She had sought this high ground probably feeling it was a safe place to give birth, and the baby was still partially covered in blood and mucous and she had the afterbirth hanging out of her.
I called my neighbor right away, and she came over and we got chairs a little ways back and watched in awe (about an hour) as the mama sheep cleaned the little baby ram up and eventually passed the afterbirth. We didn’t know if there could be a second baby, and I later learned that with first birth’s, sheep tend to have only one baby, and twins were only likely on subsequent pregnancies.
When I got my two ewes in May 2022, I named them Natalie and Elizabeth. Now, it is hard for me to know which one is which unless I study the size of their faces for very slight differences. When you have farm animals, you generally don’t give affectionate names to ones you plan to later slaughter (or to sell).
When I brought in the ram last February, I knew that he wouldn’t be there long term. He had one mission, and once I knew that was accomplished, I would be sending him to a butcher.
I was chatting with the woman from whom I purchased him about not planning to name him, and she kinda joked and said all her rams had the same name: Rammy. So I began to refer to this creature as Mr. Rammy. And I suppose there was some sense of personalizing him and his presence by adding the “Mr.” part. (I have a cat who was taken in as a stray whose name is “Mr. Lost.”)
Back in January when I was considering whether to breed my two female Katahdins, I was discussing a number of things with the man I got them from who regularly breeds many Katahdins each year. He told me they did butcher one per year for their family.
We talked about what that felt like, and he said, “We look at it like this: We give our girls a lot of good days. Every day for a couple of years, they have plenty of green pasture and sunshine and have good days. And then, they have just one really bad day…”
As a society where most of us are fairly removed from the process by which we eat meat–simply selecting from tons of plastic-wrapped nameless, faceless animal parts and often casually disposing of or allowing this meat to go beyond its edibility–the idea of slaughtering a baby lamb we watched come to life and that we held can be quite jarring.
Many reading this may even think something about it all is just not right, and they would never have done such a thing.
In John 1:1 we read: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”
At Christmas, we celebrate and think about the birth of a baby. Even before He was born into this world, we are told in scripture He was to be named. Yes, the “Lamb of God” was to be given the name Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” From the beginning, this child who was born for one mission–to give His life and die on the cross on our behalf–was a child who would dwell with humans in a very present way.
As a child and into His adulthood, He would surely experience many good days and partake in the physicality and the beauty of His own creation.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
–Matthew 1:23
and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Back in June, the Mennonite neighbor/Pastor and his son came here to help round up Mr. Rammy to be taken to slaughter. While it produced various thoughts/emotions as I watched and participated in the situation, I was kind of glad to get him out of here as he was a nuisance in some ways. He was old enough that I had to always be cautious around him, and he always inserted himself between me and the two female sheep which I considered my personal “pets.”
I was actually told not to get friendly and personal with Mr. Rammy because he would consider me “one of them” and be more likely to turn on me in aggression. I was told not to feed him out of my hands, like I intentionally had done to bond with the females and to be social with them.
I found that tidbit of advice interesting.
As I write this, a maxim comes into my mind:
“Familiarity breeds contempt.”
I’m not quite sure how that idea might apply to interactions with a ram whose inclinations are to dominate and protect (and procreate), but I suppose there might be a little something there…
Isn’t it interesting if we think for a moment about Jesus Lamb of God becoming incarnate as “one of us” and “we humans” turning in aggression upon Him…even though He did not come as dominating…and then to think about the reversal of the idea that if I became too close and “like one of the sheep/part of the pack” that it would increase the possibility of the dominating male ram to turn upon me?
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When the first baby lamb (a male) was born, he also was not going to get a name. I had hoped to eventually sell him (along with the second lamb, another male, that was born July 25) but I did not have luck with that this time. Males are harder to sell, and this year the prices for sheep are down. Plus, I need to research more how to sell them.
This sweet, soft, adorable little baby lamb which I saw with my eyes and looked at so much, and touched with my hands became “Rammy Junior.” And of course, the next one that came was “Rammy Junior Junior.”
I enjoyed a lot of days with these little lambs who were pretty hard to catch from the very beginning! They ran fast and stuck close to their mamas.
One of the most memorable days was when I heard the two mamas repeatedly vocalizing for awhile and I went out by the chicken coop to find them standing there alone without the two babies in sight.
They were calling to me and sounded distressed.
Where were the babies?!
A moment later I looked off to the right and the two little ones had gone through a tiny door hatch (big enough for chickens to come and go from), and were playfully running around inside the chicken run! The baby lambs loved the chickens. And it was funny because the mamas couldn’t get to them through the little door nor make them come back out!
I closed the little hatch door and went inside, glad for an opportunity to corner-and-cuddle the sweet little lambs, as the mamas watched on!
Eventually, the little rams grew into “teenage” rams and their voices began to change. When little, they actually sounded almost like a human baby. Mr. Rammy the older ram had a deep and different sound to his voice. The younger rams as they grew had a kind of crackling, half-breaking (almost wimpy-sounding) “maa–AHH-aaah.”
They had beautiful faces and tender, trusting eyes. And as they grew older and I began to consider what to do with them and when, I thought more about Jesus the lamb of God.
I thought about what that was like for His disciples and others, especially His mother, to have been with Him in so many human situations. People looked into His eyes and touched Him, and in every way He was (though fully God) found fully in human likeness. I also thought about Jesus growing up and yearly participating in the entire process of the Passover with its slaughtered lamb, and Him knowing one day He would be that lamb.
I thought about what it was like for Him to be like a lamb led to slaughter.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
–Isaiah 53:7
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
About two weeks ago, the day came that the older little ram was to be taken away to slaughter/butchering. Again, the Mennonite Pastor and his son came up to help me get him into a cage.
I had the four sheep together, gaited off in a smaller area.
As soon as these two men showed up, the sheep stood still and slowly backed away, showed various responses. The men did what they did earlier in June, as they approached the area, they began to gently talk to the sheep, even making some soft, friendly kind of “click-clacking” sounds/calls.
This time, I noticed, strangely, that the specific ram that was to be taken stared right at the Mennonite Pastor/farmer and had The Flehmen response. At the time, I was thinking that somehow he knew/sensed in some way that they were there to approach/take him and it was a sign of fear. But also, he was the oldest of the two male rams and even though still young, only five months old, perhaps he was the dominant/protector.
Sheep will make this response as part of mating behavior or also to increase their sense of smell at something new; and these two men were new to their surroundings.
The process was not very difficult with this young ram; he did not put up the fight nor display the loud resistance while caged on the car ride that his “father” had shown. (That was one of the longest 25 minute drives I ever made, with the ram inside a cage loudly upset. He rolled the cage all the way up behind my passenger seat and I was worried he might somehow break out from the bungy-corded enclosure and get loose in the van. I was actually thinking of a “plan B” if that were to happen!)
I took this young ram to a homesteading couple I had met that lived in Keedysville, MD, whose father is a butcher, and they took care of the entire process and in exchange, gave me half of the packaged meat.
I don’t want to get too far into the weeds here about why I let him go so young, but basically, it was the best practical decision with winter coming, for several reasons.
When the Mennonites were here I “thought” I heard one of them in their gentle, calming “talking” to him say something along the lines of “little pet” but I wasn’t quite sure.
Indeed, I had once heard that the Passover Lamb was taken into the family’s home as a “pet” during the process, so that there would be a personal love and familial relationship with the selected sacrificial lamb. This article, “Bring the Lamb into your House,” written by a Messianic Jewish believer, is an interesting look into the personal identification the family cultivated with the lamb, and of course, is an image of our personal handling/relationship not only of “baby Jesus” the “Lamb of God”–but also an image of our personal handling/relationship with the man Jesus who suffered a sacrificial death on the cross as our “Passover Lamb.”
“Exodus 12:3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.”
“Bring the Lamb into your House,”
Can you imagine the excitement of the children as the father searched for the perfect lamb for their family? He would bring in a live, sweet lamb, one-year-old and they would love it, pet it, feed it, really get to know this lamb on a personal basis. Then this lamb would become the sacrifice four days later.
This Christmas, I will be preparing (for the first time) a leg of lamb, along with cornish game hens and lasagne, for my Saturday’s celebration with my son and his girlfriend. They were here in the summer and also enjoyed watching little baby lambs leap and bounce around, playfully chasing each other and the chickens and enjoying being alive, and experiencing the wonder of being part of God’s good creation.
Each one of us has a purpose in our lives, but none so specifically destined to death as that of baby Jesus.
That baby was BORN to die.
As I reflect on this past year and also this Christmas, I suppose there is an amount of anthropomorphism. We humans tend to want to ascribe human traits/thoughts/emotions/experiences to non-humans (animals). If I were to do this, I would ascribe to Rammy Junior that he was happy to have lived his life and served his purpose, allowing himself for our nourishment and celebration, as well as being a temporal expression of the wonders of God’s creation and new life.
And I would ascribe an imaginary thankfulness to this creature for having been able to see, hear, touch, smell, and even taste him, and to contemplate a little more about Our Creator God and His Son, Jesus–Lamb of God–who took away my sins and yours, through His sacrificial death.
Merry Christmas.
(Above) Me with baby lamb #2
(Below) Me with one of the babies, not sure which!
(Below) Pictures from the birth of the first lamb
(Below) When I first went up on the hill after the birth and caught the baby lamb to see if it was male or female.
(Below) My neighbor Kay with baby lamb #1
Isaiah 53
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e];
by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h]
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
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