December 27, 2010 – Leviticus 8
We see here over and over that before the sacrifice is offered, the priest “laid their hands” on the animal. This is a symbol of transferring sin or guilt or whatever the sacrifice was for from the person or community to the animal. That got me thinking about the Passion of Christ and whether that specific language was used when Christ was arrested or given to the Romans. Here is what I found.
Matthew 26:50 - Then stepping forward they laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.
Mark 14:46 - At this they laid hands on him and arrested him
So we see similar language used with Christ before He is sacrificed. I thought there might be language like this when Jesus is taken from Pilot to be crucified, but the language is that He is handed over. Just a connection between our understanding of Christ death and the Old Testament sacrifices that I had never thought about before. Humanity laid hands on Christ and transferred our sins to Him, then slaughtered Him, and He allowed it because it was the necessary way to bring about the forgiveness of our sins.