The Testimony of John the Baptist: 2

The Testimony of John the Baptist: 2
The Period of Consideration: Behold the Lamb of God
John 1:19-34

Let’s pick up where we left off last week in Johns Gospel (Read 1:24-34)

What a great proclamation for us this Sunday before Christmas… “Behold the Lamb of God”

Many of us may take for granted that we know what John the Baptist meant when he called Jesus the Lamb of God. We’ve been Christians for so long that the statement may not have the same impact that it does for someone who hears it for the first time. How did we understand it when we read it with fresh eyes?

Looking back on my own experience, living in a garage at the age of 22, I opened the bible to this passage and read John’s proclamation. How did I understand it? Maybe the best way to find out is to show it to someone who has never heard of this Jesus guy, or if they have, they have never heard of him referred to as a Lamb.

The other day, Gerda and I were driving home and put on the Country music channel and the song that was playing was about the man who was singing it. I don’t remember the words, but it was about how he was working two jobs to pay child support and living in a tent while his children were being raised by another man.

One of the jobs that the singer had was working at McDonald’s restaurant where he just happened to be serving happy meals to the man who was raising his children and asking him is he wanted his chicken nuggets super-sized.

As pathetic as that man’s life may seem, that is a picture of the emptiness of many Canadian people- not just because their lives have fallen apart- all of us can relate to that- but because they live out those broken lives without any sense of hope. Maybe “Behold the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world” has as much meaning to them as “Merry Christmas.” This Christmas people are eating happy meals while all the while they are most miserable.

What would they think if they actually heard John say, “Behold the Lamb of God?”

Probably they would assume that John was speaking metaphorically. That Jesus was not really a lamb, but like a lamb- just some a quaint but irrelevant religious concept- insignificant to their modern world.

To them a lamb is a white fluffy little farm animal; timid, and children love to pet them because they are so innocent looking. There is nothing hostile or objectionable in this image. Actually, when you think of it, that idea of a lamb is a good metaphor for modern view of Christmas isn’t it? Innocuous, cute, an excuse to self indulge- but otherwise meaningless.

When we should be celebrating the birth of God who emptied himself of the riches of heaven to become a helpless child in order to rescue us from the clutches of hells flames. We moderns have turned it into the most materialistic and hedonistic event ever seen. So why not make Jesus into some irrelevant little furry pet? It’s probably more marketable and it would be a step up from the place he now holds in society.

Maybe it would more be helpful for to understand John if we investigate how his Jewish audience might have understood his proclamation, “Behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” Ha! Try selling the world on the Jewish understanding that the lamb was a sacrificial lamb and that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.

God instituted animal sacrifices in the Old Testament to show the people of Israel their need for redemption because of the vileness of their sin. But those animal sacrifices had no power! Otherwise they would not have been continual sacrifices- one sacrifice would have been enough.

That’s how John the Baptist’s original audience would have understood his proclamation “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

In the book of Genesis chapter 22 there is a story of the Father of our faith, Abraham, who was tested by God and told to take his son Isaac to Mt Moriah and there sacrifice him on a fiery altar.

As they drew near the place of sacrifice you can imagine the tension becoming intolerable for Isaac. At last he broke the silence; listen to the distress in their conversation:
-“My Father!”
-“Here I am my son” replied Abraham
-“Look the fire and the wood,” Isaac continued “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
-Abraham heart must have wrenched, but he was the man of faith so he could reply none other then, “My son, God will supply for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:6-8).

In their dialogue we hear echoes of a conversation that may have occurred in eternity past between God the Father and God the Son. Only Jesus would be that lamb that Abraham expected God to provide; the lamb slain before the foundations of the world (Revelation 13:8).

Behold the Lamb Isaac! Behold your substitute Israel. His suffering gives you life.

To recap, I guess there are a lot of different perspectives for understanding John’s proclamation, “Behold the Lamb”: there is the perspective of the seasoned Christian who has read the gospels and knows what the book of Hebrews teaches about Jesus faultless sacrifice- that he is the effectual sacrifice who was slaughtered to atone for our sins once and for all.

Then there is the perspective of the unbeliever who has little knowledge of the bible. For him or her, the Lamb is an inoffensive little farm animal.

And for the Jew, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world would call to mind images of the Levitical practice of animal sacrifice and perhaps the promise of Abraham that God would provide a lamb.

But how would John the Baptist, under the inspiration of God, understand this proclamation “Behold the Lamb”? More importantly, how would God not just understand it, but intend it to be understood?

Like all good mysteries, the answers are at the back of the book. Here we find a picture of the Lamb which would shock the unbeliever and Jew alike, at the same time bring overwhelming comfort to the Christian.

Turn to Revelation 5… a picture of coming judgment: (Read 5:1-14)

Hardly the kind of timid lamb envisioned by the unbeliever. Nor is he the sacrificial lamb that the Jews would have imagined.

I wonder if that is what John the Baptist and none other saw when he said “Behold the Lamb”? After all, he was privy to the apocalyptic appearance of Christ’s Holy Spirit baptism and the rending of heaven to hear the Father proclaim Jesus as his pleasing Son. What else did he have eyes to see and ears to hear that other may have been blind and deaf to?

Behold the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world! What do you see?

One day you will see this (Read Rev. 7:9-17).

Conclusion:
Let’s apply this because that’s what John wanted us to do. After all, what use is it to draw such a grand picture of Christ and then to walk away and do nothing? John gives us a command- he says behold….

There are a few ways to interpret “Behold”. There is the less intensive meaning of behold like in Genesis 3:22 where God says, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.” Behold means look at this, see it.

The other way to understand is that it actually means something more vigorous then to just “look at this” as in Genesis 3:22. It means take hold of this. Reach for it and cling to it.

How do we do that? By believing in Jesus. But not a passive belief, an active one where we actually throw ourselves on him because our very life depends upon us behold him. When we behold him, he beholds us and takes us unto himself so that he will never leave us nor forsake us.

Behold the Lamb!