BUT when ‘the Lamb without blemish’* came, thinking it good to be sacrificed for us, he gave his blood as the price of our salvation: briefly accepting death, he passed sentence upon Death’s dominion forever and played out that long-desired, wonderful drama: the Lamb, slain in his innocence, trampled to dust* the powers of the lion* that had slain him.
The Lamb ‘that taketh away the sins of the world’* tore apart the lion that brought sin into the world: the Lamb who, lest we perish, refreshes us with the altar-gift of his flesh and blood,* slew the roaring lion ‘who walketh about, seeking one of us to ruin’,* and marked the sign of his death upon our brows* to turn aside the weapons of the death-dealing Enemy.*
Just as the blood of the lamb was by law daubed on the threshold, lintel and both doorposts of houses where it was eaten, so this fourfold daubing of the blood corresponds to the four-limbed Banner of the Lord’s Passion* by which we, who have been marked with its sign, are set at liberty, throwing down the Adversary of our freedom and peace* who had lain hidden in wait for us like a lion in his den.
freely translated
* To be ‘without blemish’ was a prerequisite for use in sacrifice. According to St John Chrysostom (?347-407), Archbishop of Constantinople, the error of Cain lay in allocating for sacrifice crops that were not of the best quality: they were blemished. The passage is found in the ancient Greek translation of Genesis 4:7: “Have you not sinned, if you offered it rightly, but did not allocate (διέλῃς) it rightly?” See the story of Cain and Abel. Christ was an unblemished lamb, because alone of all mankind he was without sin: see Hebrews 4:15.
* Latin: potenter attrivit, literally, ‘powerfully ground down’. But ‘trampled’ recalls the Easter acclamation: “Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down death, and unto them that are in the tombs granting life”. See also Psalm 91:13: “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet”.
* Bede is preparing to portray the devil as a lion in enmity towards the Lamb, drawing on 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”
* See John 1:29: “The next day John [the Baptist] seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”.
* A reference to the eucharist, the service of holy communion.
* A slightly modified form of 1 Peter 5:8.
* If this is another reference to holy communion, the mark of the cross upon our brows is figurative; but it may be a reference to the rite of baptism, in which the baptised person is literally marked with the sign of the cross, traced in holy chrism (oil) on the forehead. It may, of course, be both.
* For ‘the fiery darts of the enemy’ and ‘the armour of the Spirit’, see Ephesians 6:10-20.
* That is, the Cross with its four parts: two arms, a head piece and a main body.
* Bede picks up on the Song of Moses in Exodus 15, which he sang after the hosts of Pharaoh were swallowed up by the Red Sea: “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” He develops his reflections on Passover and the Christian year further with Passover to Pentecost.