The Gospel of John
Matthew Philip
The Lamb of God: 1:29-31
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Try Googling ‘images of John the Baptist.’ Hundreds, like those below, are displayed in seconds.
Notice the lamb? Or the casual, directional intent of John’s hands?
Artists through the centuries have recognized and depicted the Baptizer’s unique role in pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God in the fourth gospel. The phrase ‘Lamb of God,’ while quite common to present-day readers, occurs only twice in the entire Bible – both times here in the first chapter of John.
The Baptizer’s listeners, familiar with the Passover lamb of Exodus 12, and the lamb provided by God for Abraham in Genesis 22, would have recognized John’s effort to connect their history and religion with the unfolding drama on the banks of the
But this new phrase ‘Lamb of God’ was loaded.
Familiar with the goat that bore away the sins of the people on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:21-22), John’s listeners would have been startled that the bearer of sin was not an animal, but a person!
The raw boldness of John’s declaration that this person was ‘of God’ would have caught the attention of even the most jaded Jewish scholar. Four hundred years of perceived God-silence was being shattered by a prophetic voice in the wilderness instead of on hallowed temple streets.
The rationale for divine intervention is compelling: the sin of the world. The sin problem – the single factor separating humankind from its Creator is to be addressed, once and for all.
The specter of sin haunts us. Thoughts flit through our minds: “It really can’t be that wrong,” “Everyone does it,” or “There is no Bible verse against that, is there?”
The sins of commission, especially those of selfish disobedience, often overshadow the equally serious ones of passive omission. Listen to these statements: “I am not part of that problem,” and “What can I do?” Or how about the leave-me-alone response: “I’ll pray for that ___ (fill in any issue of injustice).”
Over years of personal reflection (remember Socrates’ words, “the unexamined life is not worth living”), the question is less about “what is sin?” but more about “what is my response to known sin in and around me?”
There are three indicators, I was taught, to discern sin: the state of my conscience (influenced by the Holy Spirit), comparison with a standard (Scripture), and the input from fellow sojourners (campus small group, friends, family, local or church).
Yesterday, I talked with a missions leader in
The sin question is serious. Effective missions, vibrant churches, transformed communities, and abundant life are all at stake if you and I take sin lightly. Too much hangs in the balance for us not to pause, examine ourselves, and look at the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Print
Email
Comments
Be the first one to add a comment.
To post a comment, please login or register