The Last Sacrifice
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More than 2000 years ago...
The incessant bleating of the lamb made Nih restless as he
lay awake staring at a bleak blank sky. Neither the hard earth beneath nor the
dry winds above bothered him. Night had fallen, enveloping the entire hills in
a misty shroud. Far down the hills, the tiny village of Judea was in celebration
of Yom Kippur, the holy festival for the Atonement of Sins. Nih thought about
the miserable fate of his flocks. That morning, 'Pearl', his dearly tended ewe
was offered as a burnt sacrifice for the festival. In another two days, the
crying little lamb will become the next offering. He felt overwhelmed. Images
of his tender Pearl at the altar flooded his mind – its lifeless figure
in blood pool with limbs tied, skin peeled off and vitals revealed – Nih closed
his eyes. The winds brushing past his nose coquettishly kindled the pain
of his grieving heart. He felt it had the smell of his loving Pearl.
Pearl is reduced to a heap of burnt meat now, he wept bitterly.
Shepherds are meant to protect their flock. But he was a hopeless Shepherd who
had no power to protect his sheep. He wished he had never
been a shepherd… He wished the tradition of sacrifices ended… He
wished the Mosaic Law had been some other way…
Nih was born into a family of shepherds. His father was a
Shepherd at Migdal Eder, a tower where lambs exclusively meant for sacrifices
were raised. After his father's death, Nih inherited the position. Being a
Shepherd at Migdel Eder was indeed covetous, for they were no ordinary
Shepherds. But for Nih, what remained after years of service was a heart full
of regrets and sorrows. He lost his carefully tended rams and ewes one after
another to the never-ending sacrifices. He felt like running away. But
the Jewish blood in his veins tethered him to the deep-rooted traditions from
which there was no escape. Besides, he had nowhere to go and didn't know what he
would do if he ran away, for he had no one except his dear flock and knew no other
job, other than being a Shepherd.
The gloomy fields stretched outbound and amid the
murmur of his flock, Nih could distinctly hear the cry of one particular lamb,
apart from the rest. It is said that animals can sense danger; the little one
might have sensed its impending doom. He sighed a breath of exasperation, rose
to his feet and dawdled his way towards the fields, wandering along the
deserted pathways that led to the city of Judea. Lost in thoughts, he lost
track of how long he had been walking. He realised he had reached a
foothill, for the fairy lights and music of celebrations began to be felt in
the walkways. The streets were adorned with decorations and twinkling lights
fluttered on either side. The world is so blind to the pain of others!
With a poignant heart, he moved through the streets.
A few yards away, Nih spotted a small crowd. Several
people were gathered around a robed man, who seemed to be a preacher. Nih
approached the crowd. The man in the robe was speaking about a spiritual
teacher named Jesus, who had recently been put to death. Nih knew of Jesus and
despised him. Jesus was a prophet who had gone around claiming to be God. When
Judea could no longer tolerate him, the Church captured him and crucified him.
His death had caused a stir throughout Judea, as he had many followers. But his
story ended with his crucifixion. Nih never liked Jesus and was personally in
favour of his crucifixion—Jewish blood never tolerates heresy. But what is
this man trying to prove in the middle of the night? Nih
pulled his cape tighter around him and drew closer to the robed man, listening
intently. The man was describing Jesus' birth, years ago, on a humble night in
a manger in the village of Bethlehem. He was discerning old prophetic books to
show how this birth had been foretold centuries earlier. The man continued,
recounting how a peculiar star had appeared in the sky that night and how a
host of heavenly angels had appeared to a group of shepherds in the fields to
announce the ‘divine birth.’
Nih felt a strange unease in his stomach. He felt as if he
had heard this story before. It was not a story though...
Chapter 2
Nih's mind wandered back many years to when his father,
Mehud, was the head Shepherd at Migdal Eder. He had heard him recount the story
of a “special night” numerous times that he had little difficulty in recalling the
happenings of that night at Bethlehem. Nih harked back to that night in a wink.
**********************************************
Day was drawing to a close, and warm winds ruffled the air
as summer flies buzzed busily. Evening fell. Mehud stood at the top of the
tower, surveying the skies and the fields surrounding it. Summer was just
setting in, and the animal shelters were hot and humid. He stood for a moment,
uncertain, but then decided to let the cattle out in the fields that night.
Confining the animals to their humid shelters during the summer could put them
at risk of falling sick. As the head shepherd at Migdal Eder, Mehud was
responsible for ensuring that the flock remained healthy and fit for sacrifice.
Soon, under Mehud’s orders, the flocks were herded from
their shelters down into the open fields. Rapturous murmur of the cattle filled
the air; they cherished the smell of fresh air! The shepherds at Eder prepared
their tents and bedding, ready to sleep in their temporary shelters out in the
fields.
It was a moderately warm and very starry night. Mehud
shoved himself under a jutting rock and spread his rug. He let out a yawn and
sprawled across it on his back. As he
was gazing at the sky, a lone star attracted his attention. In all his years of
sleeping out, he had done star gazing numerous times but had never seen one
like this before. It was very different
and distinctly bright from the rest of the stars. It shone up above in a
curious way. Was it moving?? He felt so.
Mehud rose and staggered across the fields to reach his
fellow Shepherds who were sleeping scattered across the fields. Some of them
were already half asleep but Mehud nudged them awake one by one to show them
the peculiar star. Soon, all of them were speculating and discussing probable
reasons for the appearance of the star. Mehud felt it was kind of a sign. But
of what? They pondered. In an instance, a streak of dazzling lights from the
sky left them blindfolded.
All of them sprang up, startled. Mehud strained his eyes.
An angel? In the middle of the night? He was confused about whether
he was dreaming it all. But what he heard, he heard it straight and
clear. And thus, it spoke:
“Do not be afraid. I bring you
good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of
David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be
a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
That was awesome news. Years of service in
Migdel Eder had endowed Mehud with the understanding of what the angel
meant. The arrival of a Messiah has been prophesied by various prophets
throughout the ages. But... In a manger? Wrapped in swaddling clothes? That
confused him. Newly born lambs are nursed in Eder that way, but that isn’t how
a Messiah is supposed to arrive.
Messaihas and Kings should be born in palaces, not in mangers. While
Mehud was pondering, a Heavenly Host suddenly appeared, singing choruses that
were the sweetest Mehud had ever heard on earth.
"Glory to God in the highest
heaven,
and on earth peace to those on
whom his favour rests"
It was as if the Heavens were celebrating something of
which the earth was totally unaware of.
Mehud trembled. Was it a trance? He pinched
himself to make sure he was not dreaming. He already had a weary day and
suddenly out of the blue, he was seeing in front of his eyes what mortal minds
can never comprehend.
The Heavenly host faded away, but Mehud could still feel
the warmth of the dazzling lights underneath his skin and the echoes of their
songs at the back of his head. It seemed to resonate the whole field.
"Glory to God in the highest
heaven,
and on earth peace to those on
whom his favour rests"
Mehud came back to his senses. He looked around to find equally
dazed friends who were yet to recover from what they saw. Soon they were
arguing and discussing the supernatural occurrences they had witnessed. Though
they could not reach a consensus on everything they had heard, all were certain
about one thing: they had heard of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes in a
manger. Their discussions concluded with their resolve to walk up to the
city of David, Bethlehem, in search of a manger, where they hoped to find a
baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
The lone star shone brilliantly above. They mazed
through moonlit paths and the bright star stood witness. It seemed as if the
star guided them. It moved roughly a thousand paces towards the west as they
entered the nearest city of Bethlehem. They walked indecisively through
the city walkways seeking a manger and a new-born. At times, the star stood
still when they made wrong turns. Other times, it moved. Bethlehem was a
city they were well acquainted with, and soon came up on a dimly lit barn,
brimming with the joy of a new birth. There inside the cozy barn, just as the
angel had said, was a new-born baby, in a crib, wrapped in swaddling clothes,
sleeping peacefully; unaware of what was going around.
Mehud knelt beside the crib, feeling a mix of awe and
uncertainty. The angels had spoken the truth: here lay a baby wrapped in
swaddling clothes—the Messiah, just as they had proclaimed. The birth the
Jewish people had been waiting for centuries. Yet, as he gazed upon the infant,
he couldn't shake the feeling that he was looking at a new-born lamb at Eder.
The baby in the manger reminded him of the new birth of a lamb at Eder. Little
did he realize that the baby in the crib was the unblemished lamb, destined to
be the ultimate sacrificial lamb—born to replace countless sacrificial lambs at
the Tower of Eder.
Chapter 3
Nih regained his senses. His father's story felt like a
fairy tale then. He looked around. It had started snowing. A chilly breeze
brushed past him. The robed man had finished a lengthy lecture and was leaving,
and so were the crowd. Nih was so caught up in his own thoughts that he
couldn't listen to the robed man's entire lecture. But the extent that he had
heard was enough to leave him dumbfounded. He sat on a stile in brooding
silence at that odd hour of the night, trying to reconnect the story of his
father and the words of this robed man until the penny dropped. The strange
Messianic birth his father had witnessed years back at Bethlehem was indeed
that of Jesus. In his very younger years, Nih believed his father's story, but
as he grew older, he thought that his father had some fallacies that
night. After his father's death, no one ever spoke of it again and
the special night was forgotten. He never imagined that the same baby, grown up
as Jesus, was the Messiah walking in and around Judea right before them.
For him, Jesus was a sick prophet, a despised prophet, someone who deserved
nothing but scorn. He had no home, he hungered and thirsted, trod on
foot for miles and miles, made friends with the outcasts, associated
himself with the lowest of society, and was a pain in the neck for the
Church. No one during his time held him in any esteem, he even washed the feet
of his own disciples!
But Nih recalled the stories he had heard about him from
his fellow Shepherds at Eder - that he performed miracles, healed the sick and
delivered the possessed. But he had dismissed all those tales as the antics of
a madman. He desperately wanted to see the end of that man. The
realization that the baby in the crib was the one who was crucified as Jesus
filled him with remorse. A sharp pang of guilt ran through him as he remembered
himself shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!" alongside the crowd who
was there to witness his punishment. How could anyone possibly guess him as the
Messiah? His picture of Messiah as a knight on a horseback slowly faded and a
brutally bruised and beaten figure of a human body flooded his vision.
Nih remembered his final moments. His hands were tied to
the back, and he was stripped and beaten badly. He stood just as a lamb
brought to the altar for slaughter, just as his dear Pearl stood at the altar
at the time of its execution. The cross was laid flat on the ground and his
hands and legs were nailed to it. Amidst the agonizing death pain, Nih
heard those words uttered through his lips, " Father, forgive them, for
they know not what they are doing". When the cross was raised
from the ground, Nih saw a beaten, naked, striped and thorn-pierced body soaked
in blood. His head was adorned with a thorn crown, blood gushed down from his
temples through his face, his entire body was covered in blood stripes, his
hands and feet were nailed to the cross, his head hung low...
Nih felt a shiver down his spine. The hanging body on the
cross didn't look human anymore; it resembled his bleeding Pearl at the altar.
The slain Pearl. The sacrificed Pearl. The Pearl soaked in blood. The
Pearl whose skin was torn off from its body. Nih suddenly realized why Jesus
was born in a manger instead of a palace. His sacrifice was to replace the
innumerable sacrifices of countless flocks at Eder. The spite with which
he had viewed him until then dissolved into remorse, trickling down as hot
tears from his eyes. His lips shivered. As he lay dying on the cross, the
veil of the Holy Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. Mosaic Law based
on sacrifice was torn apart, and a new law, founded on love, evolved. The sacrifice to end Mosaic Law is made on
the cross. The sacrifice for the redemption of humanity's sins is made in
eternity.
Nih suddenly remembered his crying little lamb, the next
sacrificial object. Yes, it could be saved, but he had to act quickly. The era
of sacrifices ended on the cross, and his own pain was coming to an end. The
man he so despised paid with his life to end his pain. Tears streamed down his
cheeks as he was running all the way uphill. The gloomy shadow of the mighty
Migdel towering over the fields didn't matter anymore. He is finally
free, free to escape, to run away to a far distant place where he can lead an
ordinary Shepherd life, with all his flock. Soon, he would have more rams and
ewes, all to himself. He would not have to give them away for sacrifices ever
again. He was already weaving dreams of his new life as an ordinary Shepherd in
leisurely hills and distant pastures.
As Nih reached uphill and was walking towards his flock
shelter, he noticed that the little lamb that had been crying continuously had
already fallen asleep and the flock had become silent...
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"For you know that it was not with perishable things
such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed
down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Messiah, a lamb
without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18-19)
Story by Solin Stanling
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