lastlamb.

What is this curious name that adorns this website? What does it mean? There really is quite a bit behind it, so if you're curious, you'll get the whole story here.

In order to explain lastlamb, a bit of history needs to be included. In a Jewish religious tradition that began on the eve of the Israelites' departure from slavery in Egypt, each family killed a "perfect" male lamb and put some of its blood over their doorposts, so that the final plague, the plague of death of the firstborn, would pass over the Israelites. This became the Jewish religious celebration of Passover (known formally as the Feast of Unleavened Bread).

In later years, when Jewish ceremonial worship took place in their temple, all the Israelites would gather in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and they continued the tradition of sacrificing the "perfect" lamb as a reminder of God's deliverance from Egypt and slavery. The blood of this sacrificed lamb, and the people's simple faith in appropriating it, had protected them from the otherwise unavoidable judgment of God.

Around 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ grew up in Israel and, at the beginning of his public ministry, was declared the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" by John the Baptist. A couple years later, a small group of devotees finally understood what John had meant. Jesus Christ, in living a perfect, sinless life, became the truly perfect sacrifice. Executed during the Passover, Jesus spilled his blood, so that it could cover over the sins of those who, like the Israelites in Egypt, would simply put their trust in Him, give Him control over their lives, and believe that His sacrifice would cover their wrongs so that God's judgment would pass over them.

Actual, original scrolls (obtained and translated in the Vatican library in 1883), the records of the Jewish Sanhedrin (the religious ruling body), provide an incredible story: the report of Caiaphas concerning the resurrection of Jesus. Caiaphas was the Jewish high priest who presided over Jesus' religious trial and who sent him to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, with the firm request for his execution.

Caiaphas, after hearing firsthand reports of Jesus' ministry and resurrection from Peter and John, locked himself away in his room, unsure of what to think or believe. Then the risen Jesus appeared to him and explained the plan of God to him:

Be not afraid, it is I. You condemned me that you might go free. This is the work of my Father. Your only wrong is, you have a wicked heart; this you must repent of. This last lamb you have slain is the one that was appointed before the foundation; this sacrifice is made for all men. Your other lambs were for those who offered them; this is for all, this is the last; it is for you if you will accept it. I died that you and all mankind might be saved.*

2000 years later, Jesus Christ remains the only sacrifice that can pay the debt we owe God for our falling short of His holy standard. The last lamb is for you, if you will accept it. Will you?

* McIntosh and Twyman, translators. The Archko Volume. New Canaan: Keats Publishing, Inc., 1975.