While working on a sermon, I found myself wrestling with the imagery and suddenly noticed something striking: the Old Testament is full of mixed metaphors about Jesus.

Jesus is the sacrificial lamb offered on the Day of Atonement. He is the ram whose blood is sprinkled on the mercy seat. He is the scapegoat who carries our sins away. He is the high priest who passes beyond the veil, and yet he is the veil, torn so we can enter the Most Holy Place. He becomes sin itself, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

These images don’t fit neatly together. But that’s the point. No single metaphor is big enough to capture what Jesus did on the cross. So God gave us many, each illuminating a different facet of our salvation.