Reflection: Lamb of God
By Jane Lee Wolfe
A young woman from a sheep farm in Wales was going on last month about missing lambing season. “It’s the best time,” she said; “all those babies, helping them on their way.”
“We keep the sick ones in the house with us, in little cardboard flats. They don’t get out.”
Then she said, “Once there was a little one who was not going to make it. I took it to bed with me, and the lamb and my dog and I cuddled together. I didn’t want her to be alone when she died.”
How lucky that sick little lamb of God was to have Stephanie holding her close and the pet dog snuggling too. How blessed we are when we are some place where we’re “not going to make it” and someone or some creature is simply there to be with us.
When we think of Jesus and his dying hours, we a bit focus on his aloneness. But actually, God kept him company in many different ways. Because we think of ourselves as not being there, we miss the ministry to the lamb of God that God did indeed provide.
Once out of Pilate’s compound, where he was condemned to death, Jesus encounters his mother, Mary. His mother, the eternal minister for the human race: Mom.
Simon of Cyrene is pushed forward to help Jesus carry his crossbar. The minister thrust in our life unexpectedly to help us out.
Veronica wipes Jesus’ face with a cloth – the lamb of God is ministered to by a woman who loves us spontaneously and with her whole heart.
The Women of Jerusalem, the mourners who attend deaths and funerals. Always women, always there, always tradition. The lamb of God soothed by the women of Jerusalem, by their grief, their compassion, their crying.
Mom is there again when the lamb of God dies on the cross. Mom and a few friends hanging around after the crowds are gone.
Joseph of Aramathea uses his power and influence to get the lamb’s body, attend to it, and bury it safely.
Stephanie took the little lamb to bed so she wouldn’t die alone. Stephanie was there, her doggie was there, and her care and love for the little lamb was both thrust upon her because of the situation and came right from her heart. There are always lambs that will die. There are the mourners always there. There is Joseph to take care of things.
That little lamb in Wales had a short life, but she was ministered by someone just like us – you and me taking care, doing as best we can wherever we are. Normal people attending to the lamb of God, wherever that lamb is, in whatever condition, ready for pasture and play, or dying quietly beside us.
Jane Lee Wolfe is a parishioner of St. James-Woodstock, Vt. and Director of Bog Chapel, Inc., an educational not-for-profit organization that focuses on the spiritual health and spiritual fitness of human beings, from youth through old age.