Station Thirteen: Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross

From the first inkling of God’s intent to bring the Messiah through Jewish lineage, the lamb was a symbol of grace. Way back in Genesis, God intervenes in Abraham’s potential sacrifice of his young son with a male ram. His fidelity proven, Abraham is no longer beholden to sacrifice, but instead receives mercy and the promise of “more descendants than can be counted.”

In Exodus, the Jewish people prepare the Passover Lamb so that the Angel of Death will pass them by. This lamb must be a specific one set aside for sacrifice: an “unblemished” year-old male. At Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, we learn that he is wrapped in swaddling clothes, just like a lamb destined for sacrifice would have been. The shepherds would have understood the meaning. 

Jesus is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

At the Last Supper, a Passover supper, Jesus tells his disciples that He is now the body and blood to be sacrificed. And now Jesus’ body is taken down from the cross by his friends and family, after being sacrificed in his prime without a bone broken, as foretold in scripture. The Pascal Lamb is wrapped, cared for and buried according to Jewish custom. He is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

Color is symbolic in each of my Stations pieces: Red = Points of pain; White = Movement of the Holy Spirit; Blue = God’s presence; Black = the weight of the cross; Neutrals = Humanity.