As I sat in the Easter service at our church, I heard the all too familiar bell chime of someone who had misplaced their cellular phone and was paging it from their watch. When one is in a reflective or quiet place such as a church service or a classroom or a movie and you hear someone’s cell phone ring, there is a collective turn of attention and a fair amount of the “evil eye” cast toward the offending party.

However, the pager on your phone going off in the middle of such a room probably means that the owner of the offending phone is not in the room. Therefore, it is likely to keep paging until said person gives up – or realizes where it is. As expected, the phone chimed again. People looked around, and those unfamiliar with Apple products probably weren’t sure what the cause of the intrusive sound was, but to those suckered into having that company’s digital watch and phone, we knew. We wished we could have said to the seeker, “What you are looking for is right here in this church service,” and it would have been true on two levels.

On this Easter Sunday, I was reminded of a song by Ray Boltz called “Watch the Lamb.” It is about a father who took his two young sons with him to Jerusalem back in Jesus’s day. They were there for their annual trip to celebrate Passover. While there they would offer a pure, spotless lamb as their family’s sacrifice to cleanse them of their sins so that they could be righteous in God’s eyes. The boys’ job was to watch the lamb to make sure it didn’t get injured or lost.

The song talks about things being different in Jerusalem on that trip. The city was in an uproar and people were calling for the crucifixion of a man called Jesus. This father and two sons watched as two criminals were marched through the street. One criminal hurled insults and curses; the other seemed drawn to the third man walking through the streets. This third man took your breath away to see His mottled body, ripped to shreds and pouring blood. Yet He was quiet. Purposed – although weak and in obvious agony. As this bloody man fell under the weight of a cross he was being forced to bear, the father of the children was grabbed by a soldier and told to carry this man’s cross.

When they got to Golgotha, the hill of crucifixion, the father was dismissed, and our blood-covered Jesus was nailed to that cross. As the father watched in horror, he felt two little hands grab his. The older son was crying and said “Daddy, we are so sorry, the lamb ran away!”

The father pointed both boys to the cross and said, “Children, watch THIS lamb.”

Jesus is called the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It is difficult to grasp that Jesus’s sacrifice was for every sin of every human who ever lived …especially the fact that it covered each “you and me” in the universe! Subsequently, no more lamb sacrifice was needed!

“We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which
can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice
for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. For by a single offering He has perfected
for all time those who are being sanctified. The Holy Spirit, the Lord, declares.
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Hebrews 10:10-12,14, 15,16,17.

BUT THAT WASN’T ALL!!! Jesus was a visible representation of God’s love while on earth, but He showed His POWER when He got up out of that grave! Not even DEATH had a hold on Him!! He had more than 500 witnesses who SAW the RISEN JESUS CHRIST ALIVE!!

THAT is the lamb we keep our eyes on. JESUS was the lamb that died for our sins – now, He is ALIVE FOREVER! For those who follow Him, we are alive forever too.

“Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:20-22

For the person who was seeking their phone, what they were looking for was indeed in the church – their phone, yes, but also the message of HOPE through a risen Savior!