For me, and I think for many others, the image of Jesus as a sacrificial lamb is no longer meaningful. My understanding of a loving God does not fit with the need to appease the Almighty with a sacrificial offering. Indeed, Jesus never referred to himself as the lamb of God. He did, however, use the image of the bridegroom. He employed the metaphor of marriage to describe our relationship with God. A marriage covenant that is never broken...at least not by the bridegroom. With just such an image, I look to the cross not as the means of appeasing an angry God but as a vivid witness to this unending love.

Nothing, Jesus is proclaiming, will separate us from God. Not threats, not injustice, not even death will break the covenant God has made with each of us. The Lamb of God takes away all that separates us from God. That is the promise of Jesus. That is the Good News.