Here's some random thoughts for you, which will hopefully explain why I'm not comfortable with the imagery of Jesus as the paschal lamb:
Just last week, at Torah study (which, at my synagogue, takes place just before Saturday morning services begin) we mentioned the paschal lamb. Here's how it came about.
Some how or other we got on the subject of the Temple, and one fellow mentioned that he'd like to see it rebuilt. "Do you agree?" he asked me.
"Ah, that would start World War III," I said at once. (There is, after all, a rather important mosque on the site right now.)
"Not necessarily!" he said. "Actually, we could rebuild it without disturbing the mosque. The two could exist side by side."
*Insert long discussion on the precise location of the Holy of Holies.*
"But what would you do with it?" I asked. "What do we need the Temple for? Does anyone seriously want to go back to animal sacrifice?" (That was pretty much what the Temple was used for. Animal sacrifices ended after the Romans destroyed the Temple.)
"Yeah," someone else agreed. "It'd just be a glorified synagogue. And we've already got Temple Emanu-el for that." (She was referring to the famous synagogue in Manhattan.)
"Oh, I don't know," the first man said. "We could have grain offerings."
I considered the idea of grain offerings. "Well," I said thoughtfully, "I suppose that would give the Kohanim something to do." (The hereditary priests of Judaism, that is. They used to be responsible for performing the sacrifices at the Temple.)
"Yeah," someone else laughed. "Otherwise they just hang out on street corners and cause trouble."
"I can't imagine having animal sacrifices," someone else put in. "Although some of those sacrifices were sin offerings, weren't they? That must have been convenient."
Another woman shrugged. "I suppose that's where Christianity got the idea of Jesus dying as a sacrifice for sins. Although I think they identify him with the paschal lamb."
"They do," I said, making a face. "I don't want Jesus dying for my sins--yuck! That's human sacrifice."
"Oh, we don't hold with human sacrifice," one of the others said soothingly. "I think that's the whole point of the Abraham-Isaac story. Didn't they just sacrifice a dove or something for a sin offering?"
I shrugged. "Well, I don't want a dove dying for my sins either. I don't want Jesus dying for my sins, I don't want a dove dying for my sins--I don't want any person or any animal dying for my sins!"
"Well, that still leaves grain offerings," the first man noted. "And, as you said, we really ought to give the Kohanim something to do."
"Yup," someone else agreed with a wink. "We've got to keep them off the streets."
The conversation turned from there, but I thought about it later. Most of my family is Irish Catholic, so I grew up surrounded by the Catholic mythos. I know that it's powerful and I know that it can transform lives--but I also know that it's not for me.
I find the notion of Jesus as paschal lamb repulsive--he's wasn't a lamb, he was a nice Jewish boy. And Judaism has no place for human sacrifice.
It doesn't make it any better to have people insist that Jesus was somehow God. No orthodox Christian denies that he was still also human.
I've attended many, many Masses and I've listened to the priest say, "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast." I understand why Christians use that imagery and why it's powerful.
Most Christians, after all, believe that humans are born corrupt--this is what original sin means. Jesus, as the lamb of God, gives himself as a perfect sacrifice so that people can be crucified with him and reborn with his nature. ("I have been crucified with Christ and now it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me," says Paul.)
As I mentioned, that's a powerful mythos and I can understand how it can transform a person's life. However, I have serious issues with it.
Judaism has no concept of orginal sin--most Jews believe in original goodness. God created us good. You don't need to die and be reborn because you weren't born corrupt--there's nothing wrong with your fundamental nature. We may be in the habit of sinning--but that's all it is, habit. And habits can be broken. One of the ways to break the bad habit of sin is by following the mitzvot (the commandments.)
(Which is not to say that I'm personally successful in following all the mitzvot--witness the fact that I'm posting on Shabbat!
I doubt I'll ever be fully observant, but I'm getting better at it.)
At any event, since Judaism doesn't have this concept of orginal sin, the concept of sacrifice is quite different in Judaism than it is in Christianity. It never had the same significance for Judaism--which is why, even after the Romans destroyed the Temple, Judaism continued to thrive.
So there are my reasons for not regarding Jesus in light of a paschal lamb. Let me add that I'm speaking just for myself--I'm not telling Christians to abandon the notion.
Shabbat shalom (Have a peaceful Sabbath),
~Rosemary
(Oh, btw, Kohanim is pronounced ko-hah-NEEM; mitzvot is pronounced mitz-VOTE; and Shabbat is pronounced sha-BAHT. This is just a rough idea, of course
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