Lamb of God

Jesus is the Lamb of God! This may seem to be an odd title for Him. John the Baptist, who had baptized Jesus in the Jordan refers to Jesus shortly after as the Lamb of God. The gospel of John recounts that “John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.’” (John 1:29)

The Christmas season has officially ended, yet in no way is it time to return to life as it was. We saw the Wise Men come to Bethlehem to give homage to the new born king. We saw also that once they had encountered Jesus, they were warned not to go back to Herod, but rather to return to their country by another route. After encountering Jesus how could they go back the same? They went back changed, different and walked in a new way. Just so, after the Christmas season, and after our own encounter with Christ, we cannot help but be changed. Thus, keeping our eyes on Him we shift from the manger scene to the beginning of His mission.

Jesus was baptized by John and anointed by the Holy Spirit as we said this past week. He was anointed to begin his mission, but now we begin to unfold what that mission really is all about. So John, the one who was sent ahead of Jesus to prepare His way, proclaims that Jesus is the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). I think that most of us realize that Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth with the goal of taking away our sins, but why, specifically, is he referred to as the “Lamb of God?”

Remember how we saw

Jesus in the manger wrapped in swaddling clothes? And remember how the first people told about the arrival of the Messiah were shepherds? As we said before, the swaddling clothes were used for new-born lambs to keep them protected and unblemished. This was particularly true for the lambs that were born and raised in Bethlehem, because they were being prepared and kept for the temple sacrifices. When the lambs were ready, they would be taken to the Kidron valley outside the city of Jerusalem near the Temple where they would be sold for the Temple sacrifices.

Reading the Exodus account of the Passover, when the Hebrew people first were freed from Egypt, we discover that an unblemished lamb was to be taken by each household and slaughtered, they had to put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses, they had to boil the meat and then they had to eat it in order that the angel of death might pass over them and not kill their first born. Every year after, on the feast of the Passover, the Hebrew people would offer year-old unblemished lambs (See Exodus 12).

The slavery the Hebrew people were suffering in the land of Egypt symbolically represents sin that burdens every human being. In order for them to be set free from slavery, the people needed the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. Not only did this set them free from Egypt, but it also saved the first born from death. These prefigure the blood of the true Lamb, Jesus, who, as we will see, will be sold to the priests by Judas and captured in the Kidron valley, in the Garden of Gethsemane, by the temple guard. All the lambs that had gone this road before him set the stage for the real freedom that God desires to give us, and that is freedom from sin so we can be filled with His Spirit and adopted as His children.

We will have to dive more deeply into this another time, but for now I think the words of the Prophet Isaiah will help us to make the connection when he prophesies about the Messiah. He states “We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all. Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he submitted and opened not his mouth,” (Isaiah 53:6-7).

Jesus begins his mission, and John already points out how that mission will be accomplished. The offering of the lambs freed the Hebrew people from slavery and physical death. Jesus, the Lamb of God, came to accomplish a mission, which was to save us from our slavery to sin and eternal death. He fulfills therefore all of the Old Testament and prepares us for the New Testament, or New Covenant in His blood. My prayer is that we would all allow him to accomplish his mission of salvation and freedom in our hearts.