The Blood of the Lamb
Excerpt from Revelation 7:13-17
"They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
Reflection by Christina Villa
How do you wash something in blood and have it come out white? Well, you can if it's symbolic. It's not real blood. Or a real lamb. Or even a real robe. And it's not literally "white" either. The blood, the lamb, the robe, and the color white symbolize other things. Once we're taught what those other things are, we can think about them. We can think about the ideas of suffering, sacrifice, innocence, and redemption.
We are not fundamentalists; we don't take the Bible literally. This leaves us, sometimes, not quite knowing what to do with robes washed in the blood of the lamb. We usually rush straight to the meaning of the symbols, so we can think, discuss, and move on. Next idea, please! Ideas are great because, unlike real things, they go away if you stop thinking about them.
There is so much real blood of so many real innocents flowing in the world. Literally flowing in the gutter, soaking into the ground, and collecting on the floor in emergency rooms. Surely the blood of the Lamb is a real thing.
At the beginning of the Iraq war, a widely-printed photo showed an American soldier with a stricken look on his face carrying the dead body of a very small child, her head hanging back at an unnatural angle. Such a picture always has the last word, I think, on the subject of bloodshed. People often say they don't need the graphic detail to understand these things. Maybe not. But why should we be spared them? Who are we to avoid dipping our robes in the blood of the Lamb?
Prayer
Keep me from turning away, from turning real things into ideas, from thinking the world into harmlessness. Amen.
Excerpt from Revelation 7:13-17
"They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
Reflection by Christina Villa
How do you wash something in blood and have it come out white? Well, you can if it's symbolic. It's not real blood. Or a real lamb. Or even a real robe. And it's not literally "white" either. The blood, the lamb, the robe, and the color white symbolize other things. Once we're taught what those other things are, we can think about them. We can think about the ideas of suffering, sacrifice, innocence, and redemption.
We are not fundamentalists; we don't take the Bible literally. This leaves us, sometimes, not quite knowing what to do with robes washed in the blood of the lamb. We usually rush straight to the meaning of the symbols, so we can think, discuss, and move on. Next idea, please! Ideas are great because, unlike real things, they go away if you stop thinking about them.
There is so much real blood of so many real innocents flowing in the world. Literally flowing in the gutter, soaking into the ground, and collecting on the floor in emergency rooms. Surely the blood of the Lamb is a real thing.
At the beginning of the Iraq war, a widely-printed photo showed an American soldier with a stricken look on his face carrying the dead body of a very small child, her head hanging back at an unnatural angle. Such a picture always has the last word, I think, on the subject of bloodshed. People often say they don't need the graphic detail to understand these things. Maybe not. But why should we be spared them? Who are we to avoid dipping our robes in the blood of the Lamb?
Prayer
Keep me from turning away, from turning real things into ideas, from thinking the world into harmlessness. Amen.
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