The Lamb of God
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
January 16, 2005
Isaiah 49:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42
Isaiah 49 1 ¶ Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. 2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. 3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 4 But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the LORD, and my reward with my God.”
5 ¶ And now the LORD says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God has become my strength — 6 he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
7 ¶ Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers, “Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
1 Corinthians 1 1 ¶ Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 ¶ To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
3 ¶ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4 ¶ I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind — 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you — 7 so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 1 29 ¶ The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
35 ¶ The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
I. INTRODUCTION
I once visited a friend of mine who lived in England. England was a fascinating place, because it was more different than you might expect. Because they speak English, and because the United States got its start as British Colonies, you would expect there to be great cultural similarities. And of course, there are. But there are also great differences, not the least of which are in the language, and there are all kinds of pitfalls for the American traveler in Britain.
My friend and her family lived out in the countryside, and there I really began to see some differences. I grew up not far from the country and my family on my mother’s side are all farmers, so I had experience with farmland. And it struck me how different the English countryside is. And the primary difference is: sheep.
There are sheep everywhere. I never saw so many sheep in my life. They’re in the fields. They’re clogging the roadways. They’re all over the place.
I got thinking about this because it occurred to me that very few of us in this country are likely to have had much experience with sheep. It’s yet another one of those cultural barriers that separates us from the people who wrote the Bible. Because time and time again they use symbols with which most of us are unfamiliar. We don’t have a lot of shepherds in this country—not compared to dairy farmers, anyway—and the average American’s encounter with sheep is through Serta mattress commercials.
II. TEXT
I bring this up because one of the titles that Jesus is referred to in the Gospel of John, and in the Book of Revelation, too, is “the lamb of God.” In tonight’s Gospel lesson, we read of Jesus’ encounter with John the Baptist. In John’s Gospel it’s a different scene than we encounter in the others—there is no actual mention of John baptizing Jesus. Instead, John announces Jesus’ spiritual baptism by proclaiming to his followers: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
The image of the lamb is not John’s alone, however, and is found elsewhere in the New Testament:
Paul writes: “Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed.” 1Cor. 5:7
In the epistle of 1 Peter we read: “but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.” 1Pet. 1:19
And in Revelation we find a number of references:
Rev. 5:6 ¶ Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Rev. 5:12 singing with full voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
Rev. 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Rev. 7:10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
III. SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT
Why a lamb?
To us it seems a strange symbol. Especially of a Messianic deliverer. We expect terms like “Lion of Judah” or something with a little more power to it. Instead we have a lamb.
Because most of us are so unfamiliar with sheep, we may not realize how odd a symbol this is. Sheep are generally considered to be really stupid. And easily controlled. Apparently, sheep shearers know of a spot on a sheep’s leg that they can press while shearing and the sheep will lay perfectly motionless and be completely silent. This is a very strange image for the Son of God, to be sure.
Now, certainly, there was an allusion to be made. In the book of Acts, Philip encounters an Ethiopian eunuch who is perplexed about a passage of Isaiah he was reading, which was: “ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” Is. 53:7 Acts 8:32
Philip is able to tell the Ethiopian about Jesus as a result. The image was seen as referring to the fact that at his trial, Jesus speaks not a word in his own defense. And that he silently goes to the cross.
But that doesn’t necessarily explain the use here. In John’s gospel, Jesus is very talkative at his trial. He and Pilate have a very enigmatic and involved conversation. So when John’s gospel refers to Jesus as “the lamb of God” it has to mean more than ‘a person who accepts his fate silently.’
Indeed, it appears that the reference is to something very common in Jewish religious life. There is an entire system being referred to—a system with which we are entirely unfamiliar is the sacrificial system of worship. In the Temple, animals were sacrificed to make atonement for sin. They were slaughtered and their blood was sprinkled upon the altar, before they were placed on the fire of the altar. This was the way in which ancient peoples worshipped. For these burnt offerings, a ‘lamb without blemish’ was often required.
Now, the early church had a lot of interpreting to do. They were surprised by Jesus’ crucifixion. They were even more surprised by his resurrection. But his resurrection left them with something of a quandary. For the resurrection vindicated their hopes that Jesus was in fact the chosen one of God, God’s anointed messiah. But they were left with the question of what the crucifixion was for. Had Jesus not been raised from the dead, they might have simply believed that they had backed the wrong guy. This had happened often enough in the first century, where all kinds of ‘messiahs’ were running around. Most of them came to nothing.
But because they had experienced Easter, they had to struggle with what the crucifixion had been about. And they turned to the symbols prevalent in their culture. They began to see Jesus as the sacrificial lamb. As the lamb without blemish, sacrificed for the good of the people, as the Passover Lamb was. The echoes of this are still felt in the church. During the Mass, the priest will say “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
The designation of Jesus as the Lamb of God, who, like the Passover Lamb, is sacrificed for the deliverance of the entire people, such that, by claiming the blood of the lamb—like putting it on your doorpost—the people can participate in that salvation. We can see how out of their Jewish experience, they came to this understanding.
IV. DEPTH OF LOVE
And yet, for many of us today, we are not comfortable with that image. We don’t sacrifice animals to atone for sin. And even more so, we find the idea of God requiring Jesus’ death in order to placate his fury over human sin somewhat distasteful. Even the idea that it is God himself suffering upon the cross doesn’t make this easier for us. Because we have a hard time with a God who requires killing and suffering no matter who has to pay the price. This ‘sacrificial atonement theology’ as it is referred to by theologians, does not always sit well with us.
Is there some other way to think of Jesus as the Lamb of God without having to buy into the idea that Jesus was sacrificed to appease an angry God who demanded death for human sin?
It all depends, of course, on where you look for the saving act. If salvation comes through the cross, then there is very little you can do about it. If you and I are saved because Jesus was crucified, it becomes very difficult to get around this sacrificial theology.
However, if you and I are saved not because Jesus was crucified—but because he was raised from the dead, then a whole host of possibilities opens up. If the saving act is not in the dying but in the living again, then the particular form of death takes on less importance than the truth that it points to: that God redeems our lives, even from the place of uttermost brokenness and despair. There are few worse ways to die than by crucifixion. Crucifixion was often viewed in the Jewish tradition as a cursed way to die—that’s probably why the Romans liked to use it to crucify Jews and other non-Romans. And yet the resurrection says—not even such a death can separate us from the grace and love of God. Not even a humiliating, painful, unjust, cruel, and accursed death can prevent God from fulfilling his promise to give us all eternal life.
In this way, Jesus the Lamb is not the sacrificial lamb who dies to appease a vindictive God, but is the Son of God who demonstrates the depths that God’s love goes for his sheep. He shows us what faith in the Lord—who is our shepherd—looks like. Knowing that there is no depth that we can sink to that God cannot redeem. He shows us, too, the depths that God is willing to go to redeem us. In Christ we understand the Word of God is made flesh, the Son of God incarnate and it is this Son, who is willing to suffer pain and death—not to appease a vicious God—but in order to demonstrate to us the depths of God’s love and how that love can conquer even death itself.
V. MLK
I find that an empowering symbol. The Lamb not as sacrificial dupe, but as Witness to the love of the Shepherd. Many others have been inspired by that example, because it is a message of hope and not of fear of wrath.
Tomorrow we commemorate the life of one who understood the depth of God’s love. We commemorate the example of Martin Luther King, Jr., who, in the end, gave his life to witness to something greater than himself.
He was a man who understood that the way of God lay not in violence or retribution, but in the way of peace and faithful witness to a God of liberation and a God of grace. It was his firm conviction in the love and grace of God that gave him the courage to look death in the eye and to press on. For he knew that the power of the Resurrection meant that there was always hope—that no life was beyond redemption, that no death was to great to overcome. That crucifixion is triumphed over by resurrection. And it was with that conviction that he could say these words at Memphis, Tennessee the day before he was assassinated:
And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
When John’s disciples heard that Jesus was the Lamb of God, they followed him immediately. Jesus invites us to follow him. To follow the example of the disciples, the saints, of Martin Luther King, Jr. To follow in a way that demonstrates our faith in a loving God, a God of grace. To live our lives confident in the saving power of God. To live our lives free of fear, free of worry about the punishment of a vengeful and angry God. We don’t need to be familiar with sheep or shepherding to live our lives as Lambs of God, constantly testifying to the love of our Shepherd.
