Reflection on John 1:29-42

 

John 1:29-42

29 [John the Baptist] 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 Chosen One.”

  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).

Reflection

John the Baptist saw Jesus walking toward him, and he shouted out for everyone to hear, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Again, the next day, Jesus was just walking along, minding his own business, and John shouted again, pointing Jesus out to two of John’s own disciples, “Look, here is the Lamb of God” (John 1:36).

It is almost as if John wanted us to understand that Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  But John the Baptist is not alone.  Twenty-nine times Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God in the Bible.  And, beyond the Bible, tens of thousands of churches in the United States sing these words to Jesus nearly every single Sunday: “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world; have mercy on us.”  They sing it over and over again, in a repetitive fashion, allowing the words to soak into their souls. 

“Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.”

“Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.”

“Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world.”

It was my favorite song in church when I was a child.  It reminded me every single Sunday that no matter how rotten I had been the previous week; no matter the number of times I tried shooting my younger brother in the face with the nerf gun, and no matter the number of times I just guessed on my homework rather than actually trying to figure it out, and no matter the number of times I snuck into my older brother’s room and secretly played with his LEGOs (that was a huge no-no in our household…LEGOs were sacred), no matter all that I had done, I could always come to church, I could always come to Jesus, and he would take away all of my sins and make me right again.

And, no, I did not use Jesus as some sort of “get out of jail free” card that just allowed me to sin and do whatever I wanted over and over again.  I was too sober of a child for that.  Instead, I truly struggled to remember to be good and choose the right thing in the heat of the moment.  After all, pinning your younger brother against the wall and trying to see how close you could shoot those toy bullets toward his face without hitting him was just so challenging and so much fun!

I just could not choose the right thing in the excitement of the moment.  I knew that I needed Jesus to be my “Lamb of God.”  I needed Jesus to take away my sins.  I have known this for most of my life, and for most of my life I have just sung those words of promise, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world” in a personal and heartfelt way.

I have to tell you that it was not all that long ago that I was singing those words and I suddenly wondered out of the blue, “How do lambs take away sin?”  It just popped right into my head.  I had never thought to ask that simple question before.

I had always assumed that the ancient Israelites sort of, metaphorically, laid all their sins on an innocent lamb, had it slaughtered and burned, and that God smelled the pure smoke and was somehow pleased by that act of sacrifice and was so pleased that God forgave their sins.  I assumed that Jesus was that lamb for us, taking our sin, dying on the cross, pleasing God, and convincing God to forgive us.  All of this was such a huge assumption that I never actually sat down and searched the Bible to read about it.

So, when I actually sat down and searched through the Old Testament, searching for this lamb that takes away sin, guess what I found?  Nothing.  I could not find it.  I could find lambs being sacrificed, but I could not find one that took away sin.  I found a goat that was let loose so that it could take sin into the wilderness, but I found no lamb that is slaughtered to take away sin.

Instead, I found that unblemished, innocent lambs were slaughtered and their blood splattered around because the innocent blood was thought to contain life.  The ancient people of God knew that death and destruction seeped into every part of life and that in order to make holy places and holy people clean again, some of this essential life blood needed to be splattered around to do the job.  As gross as it may seen to us, the innocent blood infused things with life once again, and made it possible to connect with God once again.

So, the holy of holies in the temple, God’s apartment right here on the earth, was splattered with blood to wash away the death that had crept in.  The blood made it a place where our God of life and love could come and meet with us once again. 

It is as if your disgusting and dirty college roommate kept trashing the apartment over and over again, and you periodically needed to just clean up the joint and splatter around some fresh smelling Pine-Sol so that your parents and friends might be able to actually come over and pay a visit.  These sacrifices were a way to bring life to the place once again so that we could be close to God once again.

And that reminded me of the single, most mind-blowing revelation that was taught to me in college.  It was taught to me in my freshman religion class.  The freshman religion class was a required class at my college, and for the most part students just tried to endure it.  The class usually served as a sleeping agent and passing it was test of basic human endurance.  But I was transformed from someone who endured into someone who actively learned when my college religion professor taught this one simple concept.

Sin is not the rotten things you do.  Sin is the state of being separated and turned away from God.  You do rotten things because you are separated from God.  You do rotten things because you forget to trust God.  Sin is separation from God.  Sin is being turned away from God.

That simple revelation just blew my young mind.  After I understood that, everything; life; struggles; trusting Jesus; it all started to just make so much sense.

And my professor did not just make up this idea.  It comes right from the gospel of John.  In John 3:18 Jesus teaches, “Those who trust in him are not condemned, but those who do not trust are condemned already” (John 3:18).  If you are turned away from God, life is not going to go well.  However, if you have been turned toward Jesus, and you have the opportunity to trust him, you will have life.

Again, we read in John 3:36, “Whoever trusts in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not trust the Son will not see life” (John 3:36).  Sin is the state of being separated and turned away from God.  When Jesus walks with you, you have life.  Those who are turned away from Jesus, walking away from him, literally cannot see true life.  They are turned away.  They are far from God and cannot experience true life.

Which leads me back to John the Baptist obsessively pointing at Jesus and saying that he is “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).  Because, if sin is being separated from God, and Jesus is God’s Son choosing to come so that he can walk and talk with us on this earth, then whenever Jesus is with us, sin is gone.  He is the lamb whose blood gives life back to the temple, God’s apartment on earth, so that people can come over and party with God once again.  He is the Lamb of God who allows us to walk and talk with God.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. 

And that explains the problem I had with sin when I was young and thoughtless, playing with my brother’s LEGOs again and again.  Because if sin is simply the things you do wrong, then the spiritual life is just this repeating pattern of sinning, saying “Sorry!” being forgiven and sinning again over and over and over.

How many of you identify with that?  How many of you are just caught in the loop of sin, sorry, forgiveness, and sinning once again?  I cannot be alone!

But if Jesus, the hands and feet of life and love has come to take me by the shoulders and turn me toward him so that I can see him and trust him, then my life has suddenly been given a direction and purpose.  Life is no longer about sin, sorry, forgive, sin, sorry, forgive, sin, sorry, forgive over and over.  Rather, life is looking at the one who found me, Jesus, and then following him in his ways of life and love.

And I wonder if that is not the problem in this crazy world.  It is a world that does not truly see Jesus.  It is a world that just tries to do its best, say sorry when it fails, and tries again only to fail again.  Or maybe it is a world that simply does not even try in the first place.  It only cares about the self.  It only cares about being right.  It only cares about getting stuff.  It only cares about glorifying oneself.  It is a world turned away from God. 

But John is standing out there saying, “Look! The one who is the way, the truth, and the life is right here.  Just look at him!  God’s life and love is right here!” (John 14:6).

And when people look his way, Jesus says, “Come and see” (John 1:39).  When John’s disciples asked Jesus were he was staying, Jesus said, “Come and see.”  And the Bible says that they “Came and saw” and that they then “remained with him” (John 1:38-39). 

Join with those first disciples.  Come and be a part of life.  Come see what love is all about.  “Come and see.”

Jesus is the Lamb of God who draws us all together to live a life of purpose.  He is the one who Isaiah hoped for when he yearned that “that Israel might be gathered to him” (Isaiah 49:5).  He is the one who promised us that “when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32).  Jesus is the one who gathers us to truly live life as God intended. 

So, come and see what true life is all about.  Come and see what it looks like when love has hands and feet.  Come and see the Lamb of God who desires to be with us.  Come and see the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.