The highlight of the feast of Passover was the sacrifice of the lamb. As messianic believers, we celebrate the Passover feast in faith that Yahshua Messiah who is our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us (1st Cor. 5:7).

In the former days when the Temple of Jerusalem stood, the men that were lawfully required to offer sacrifices were called priests or in Hebrew, the kohanim. They were all descended directly from Aaron, the brother of Moses. The main role of the kohen or the priest was to identify and offer lambs in the Temple. This means that their role was to reconcile people back to God through the sacrifices.

But when Yahshua Messiah came as the final sacrifice, he would be the one to reconcile all people back to God. Yet, he came at a time when the temple was still standing and the Levitical Priesthood was still in effect. The sons of Aaron were in charge of the sacrifices. They were the ones to certify if a sacrifice was right to be offered up.

Well, in a way could there have been a 'Priest' that approved and gave certification that the Lamb of God, Messiah was right to be sacrificed? The answer is an emphatic yes. There was a man that approved the Lamb of God, Messiah. He was born of miraculous birth just like Messiah to an aged Jewish couple. The man was a priest, he was descended from Aaron not only from his father but also from his mother (Luke 1:5). He was a pure-blooded priest, even more pure-blooded than the High Priest of Israel. When he was born, he was given the Hebrew name Yochanan which means God has been gracious, but because of the translations most people know him as John the Baptist.

The name John the Baptist could be associated with the denomination of Christians who today are known as Baptists. Hence, for a natural born Jew, it would be impossible for them to understand that John was a Jew. The fact is that he was a priest. The work of the priest was to present the lambs for sacrifice. That is why it was John himself that presented Messiah by making this famous declaration, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

More importantly, it was John that baptized Messiah in the Jordan. The scriptures symbolize baptism with death and resurrection (Rom. 6:4). Without his realization, by baptizing Messiah John was foreshadowing the death of Messiah because baptism is death and resurrection. Symbolically, John was killing or sacrificing the Messiah, the Lamb of God. When other priests killed the Passover Lamb, they were sacrificing a mere representation of the ultimate lamb but in the baptism of Yahshua, John symbolically sacrificed the true Lamb of God.

Therefore, John did what the work of the priest was, to identify the sacrifice and certify that it could take away sin. He was the first to discover and pinpoint that Messiah is an acceptable sacrificial lamb. God in his infinite and unsearchable ways made it possible for there to be a priest to certify that Messiah is sufficient to take away our sins and guarantee our salvation forever.

In the same way, as John’s life had more to it than maybe he probably realized, our lives too in Messiah have more too them than we could possibly realize.

By Felix Wainaina