Bits from Vigil -- Bound on the Altar

In Genesis 22, when Abraham is about to sacrifice his son, he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.

In Psalm 118, the passover psalm, the psalm the pilgrims sang on Palm Sunday as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, we hear: Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.

Sometimes we see crucifixes or paintings that show cords binding Jesus to the cross. This is a bad thing if the nails have been left out so that people don't get the heebie-jeebies over Jesus' being nailed to the cross. But if the wounds and the nails are there, the rope isn't a bad thing. We hear both in Genesis 22 and in Psalm 118 that the sacrifice is bound. And Jesus is the sacrifice.