John 1: 29-34 February 22, 2021
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and
declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks
ahead of me because he was before me.” 31I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water
for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ 32And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven
like a dove, and it remained on him. 33I 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.” 34And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the
Son of God.’
An important consideration in Scripture is understanding
when one part ends and another begins.
This is particularly important for sermons, since one of the
presuppositions is that it is based on a unified portion of Scripture. Using an un-unified, or a select bit can
create a situation where the truth of Scripture can be manipulated, something
done far too often across Christian history.
In this case, our passage today is divided between what
comes before and what comes after by the passing of days. Vss. 29 and 35 both mark the passing of
days. But where are they? The common assumption is Jerusalem, but we
have not been given that information in the text. The only geographic mark we’ve been given so
far is “Bethany, across the Jordan from where John the baptizer was baptizing.”
It makes sense that they are still there. That Jesus would be in proximity after John
spent the last verses being grilled by priests, Levites, and Pharisees. Maybe they are still hanging about, and here
is John, in Bethany, when he sees the man that is the subject of his prophetic
utterances. Imagine a Pharisee walking
next to John the baptizer, trying to dig a little deeper into the theological
mind of this itinerant (wandering) baptizer.
Even preachers run out of things to say (hard as that is to believe)
and, in the moment, John sees Jesus walking toward him. A picture is worth a thousand words so he
holds out his hand and
HERE is the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sins
of the world! In other words, maybe,
here is the man you should be talking to.
The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world. I hear that line most often when
I have the privilege of attending a Catholic Mass (usually weddings and
funerals) in their call and response.
The Lamb of God is a recurring metaphor of Jesus in John’s writing. It shows up fairly often in Revelations. (Yes,
I am taking it as a presupposition that John the gospel writer wrote
both).
The lamb is powerful symbolically in the Old Testament as
a sacrifice to God. But its particular
significance (as opposed to all the other animals that were ‘legally’
sacrificed at the Temple), the Lamb’s particular significance comes at
Passover. It is at Passover when Jesus
will be sacrificed on the Cross.
Passover was the moment when the Angel of Death passed over the houses
of the Israelite slaves in Egypt while it went about killing the first born of
the Egyptians in the Tenth plague. It
passed over their houses because of the blood of the Lamb painted on the lintel
and doorposts.
Which is really a gruesome image by our modern sensibilities. But we have lost touch in a powerful way with
where our food, particularly our meat, comes from.
The Lamb takes on a combined meaning from the Law of
Moses. It is the Passover lamb, as just
described, but it is also the sin offering, a sacrifice made on a recurring basis
so that the sins of the Israelite would be forgiven by God.
None of that has yet taken place in the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus, but John the gospel writer lays down these truths from
the very beginning of his writing.
Pastor Pete
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