With Passover coming up the end of this week, I wanted to share a very personal and life changing story that happened to me one Passover Eve many decades ago. This is another shortened and condensed excerpt story taken from my new 342 page book called, The Art of Religion.
“The Unexpected Visitor” By Dennis Mitchell
My first full time ministry position, was working as a counselor at a locally run Teen Ministry program. Our program was set up to operate like a small version of a Teen Challenge Program.
I had spoken to Al, the program administrator, about the possibility of us putting on a Passover Seder for all of the students, staff members and volunteers who had helped us out during the previous year. Al said that he liked the idea, but would have to think and pray about it.
A week or two later, Al approached me and said that, “Yes, we could sponsor the Passover Seder, but there was a special requirement necessary. Al said that he could purchase a year old lamb from a neighbor, if I was willing to take on the responsibility of butchering the live animal.”
I was not overly thrilled about being in charge of the whole slaughtering process, but agreed to do it, if Al could find a volunteer to help me. He did find a young college student named Andy, who volunteered to help when nobody else would.
My father had trained me when I was young to become a skillful fisherman and hunter. I had previously killed and processed several deer and there is not a huge difference between the two animals. My father had also taught me the value of life, which included not killing anything that I was not going to eat.
Shooting a deer in the wild at a distance was one thing, but killing an innocent sheep while standing face to face with it, was another issue. That concept was making me feel uneasy, but I had already given my word to do it.
What made it feel even harder, was that I believed the Holy Spirit was telling me to kill the lamb in what is referred to as a “Kosher Kill” method. Back in the days of Jesus, (Yeshua) the people took their live Passover Lambs to the Temple
and the Temple Priests sacrificially killed the animals for the people.
Technically, the only data that I could find about a kosher type kill back then, referred to taking an extra sharp knife and quickly cutting both juggler veins of the animal from the inside of the neck outward. Then allowing the animal quietly bleed out. The Torah tells us “Do not eat/drink the blood of an animal, because the life of the animal is in its blood.”
I must admit, slicing the juggler veins of an innocent lamb with a hand held knife, did seem very barbaric to me. I had never done anything like that before, or since that particular Passover.
Man’s temptation, when facing an uncomfortable situation, is to grab the reins away from God and handle things our own way. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget that “God’s ways are higher (pre planned to be better) than our ways.”
When Andy showed up that morning, I had already been busy cleaning and preparing a safe and sanitary workspace in the hay mow of Al’s old barn. I took some time to explain to Andy what we were about to do and then we said a prayer. Then I quickly stepped forward and proceeded with my kosher kill.
Watching the blood of that innocent animal pump out onto the plastic covered floor boards, because of something that I had just done, suddenly made me feel terrible. The lamb had never once flinched, tried to escape, or made a sound. It just stood there silently, staring at Andy and me like it had already known and accepted its fate.
My eyes quickly pooled up and tears started to leak down my cheeks like an overfull reservoir dam. Then I looked over at Andy to see how he was doing, he was practically undone. As soon as we made eye contact, he started to sob out loud. That caused me to lose it myself for several minutes. The supernatural reality of that experience became a defining moment that has not been forgotten.
After several minutes I asked Andy if he was okay, his long awaited response was, “I never knew.” Then I asked him, “You never knew what Andy?” His response to that question caused both of us to lose it again for several more minutes. With dead serious resolve, Andy said “I never knew until just now, how much He really loves me.”
My perspective of watching the lamb physically die, stirred up emotions of guilt inside of me, for the part that I played in causing the lambs death. Andy however, was taken to a whole new spiritual level and given a supernatural gift which changed his life forever. In a matter of minutes, he was transformed from being a perpetual class clown, to a dedicated servant of God.
Andy had been given a unique spiritual revelation that day. He was carried back in time to a previous Passover day, allowed to stand at the foot of the Cross, then shown first-hand exactly how much his Messiah did and still does love him. While I watched the neighbors lamb die, Andy watched the “True Lamb of God” die.
Suddenly, the spiritual atmosphere in the top of Al’s barn changed dramatically. The lamb still laid dead on the floor before us, but the feelings of sadness and remorse that we had previously felt, suddenly morphed into “Feelings of joy unspeakable and full of Glory!” The glory of Yeshua began to fill the old barn and our young hearts. What a testimony Andy and I had to share later that evening!
The Art Of Religion Book 