Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world. John 1:29
Last
year, we as a family were at a village called Seatoller in Lake District, and
as we were waiting for the bus, we were admiring the flock of sheep on the
lovely green pastures in the field. It was an sight to watch. We then saw two
farmers rushing and catching hold of a sheep, and to our surprise we saw the sheep
delivering a lamb, to which the farmers were assisting her. It was so precious
for us to see a lamb born out of a sheep, so cute and so wonderful. “A lamb is
born” exclaimed my sons and from then on they went on telling so many people
“that they saw a lamb being born.” The memory is so fresh on our mind and we
cherish it to see a lamb being born.
Today,
in the gospel reading from John chapter 1, we see another kind of introduction
to a lamb, for John testifies to his disciples on seeing Jesus, “Behold the
lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” which he mentions twice in
the text 29v and 36v. Time again this metaphor ‘lamb of God’ has been used to
describe the death of Jesus on the cross, for from his blood our sins are
cleansed. There have been several images drawn on the lamb of God Christology,
for most of the pictures depict a lamb along with Jesus to show on the one hand
his meekness and to describe that he is the good shepherd to the flock of
sheep. To many in our post-modern contexts, the symbol ‘Lamb of God’ has not
been appealing thinking it is too naïve and too old a metaphor assuming it as
something irrelevant to the existential needs of our times. Allow me this morning to bring in three pointers
in rediscovering the significance of the ‘lamb of God’ Christology, for this
metaphor is the first of the introductions of Jesus Christ to the Johannine
community.
The
introduction of title ‘Lamb of God’ to Jesus needs to be understood as a
witness of both John the Baptist who utters this title to his disciples and as
a testimony of John the Gospel writer who introduces this title to his readers
of the early Church. This therefore, helps us to reflect this morning on three
things from the text,
1.
What is the
importance of this title to the immediate context, the disciples of John the
Baptist?
2.
What is the
importance of this title to the larger context, the disciples of the early
Church, to whom John the Gospel writer writes this gospel to, the Johannine
community?
3.
What is the
importance of this title to the public context, the disciples of Christ today
in 21st century?
By
this way we can rediscover the importance of this Christological title, which
has an immense potential and relevance for our times today.
1.
‘Lamb of God’ – Disciples of John the Baptist:
John
the Baptist who has been living in wilderness, and who has come to prepare the
way for the arrival of the Messiah has been waiting for the right time and
opportunity to introduce Messiah to the world, as he has experienced. John the
Baptist in the text confesses that he himself did not know him twice, only to
say there has been a lots of debate and discussion of who the messiah is. But
eventually in that unknowing and partial knowing we see the divine intervention
in his life, for he was compelled by the Spirit to hear the voice coming from
heavens, and to acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah, in whom God is well
pleased. In that context, the title ‘lamb of God’ for Jesus is a recognition of
the messianic significance for their context. So it is a messianic title for
Jesus.
Secondly
we recognise that John the Baptist, having spent most of his life in
wilderness, eating locusts and honey should have encountered several strong
animals in his time, and leaving aside of them why did he chose ‘lamb of God’
to introduce Jesus. He could have called Jesus, ‘ lion of God’ or ‘an elephant
of God’ or ‘a rhino of God’ or to stretch it to our times, ‘a dinosaur of God’
or a ‘tyrannosaurus of God’ which are really big, strong, ferocious and grand. On
the contrary he picked up a ‘lamb’ for Jesus Christ, which was an animal most
of his community people have seen and known of. This is to show forth to his
disciples that this title is a ‘title from the margins’, a local well known
animal of their times, for the revolution of establishing the messiahship in
bringing down the Empire comes from a local, known, meek, which is the ‘lamb of
God.’ The princes and the emperors tames animals like lions and played with
them to symbolize their power and might. Here is a ‘lamb of God’ who comes as
powerless, situates among the powerless and yet will bring in a revolution
called reign of God here on earth.
On
hearing this introduction of Jesus by John the Baptist, two of his disciples
became the followers of the lamb of God. The messianic title and the marginal
title impressed them about Jesus and therefore went on to receive the
hospitality of Jesus as he said ‘come and see.’ Little did John the Baptist
knew that this title ‘lamb of God’ will make him lose two of his disciples from
his team, yet as a team leader John the Baptist would have been happy that two
his team mates have joined a better club, the club of the lamb of God.
Therefore for John the Baptist and his disciples, this title lamb of God was
invitational into the Kingdom of God and was inspirational to disciple Jesus
Christ from then on.
2.
Lamb of God – Disciples of the Early Church in
Johannine Community:
This
title ‘lamb of God’ becomes important in John’s gospel for he unlike other
synoptic gospel writers uses lots of symbols and icons to communicate his
post-Hellenistic early Christians. John the gospel writer has been a witness to
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he therefore on knowing the
person of work of Christ introduces to his early Church that in Jesus Christ we
have the paschal mystery happening, for he was slaughtered unjustly by the
unjust Empire for the redemption of the entire creation. So the title ‘lamb of
God’ brings that paschal lamb to the memory of the early Church in Jesus
Christ. So it was very important for them to cling on to this eternal sacrifice
made on the Cross by Christ.
Secondly,
this lamb of God is the one who takes away the sins of the world, not with a
winnowing fork or with fire, but with the sacrifice. Some draw parallels to the
‘suffering servant’ in Isaiah 53 to show that Jesus as the lamb of God is the
suffering servant who died a vicarious suffering on the Cross. So this title
remind to the early church the suffering servant image in the lamb of God.
Thirdly,
this lamb of God is an apocalyptic title for the early Church, for in
Revelation 5:6, where the lamb stands on the throne contrasting the five magnificent
creatures. The early church believed in the elevation of the lamb of God to be
at the throne of God, for he shall judge both the living and the dead. So this
title reminds the early church of the throne of grace, for which they have all
been waiting to be at. On the throne are not the magnificent animals, but the
meek and lowly, the animal from the margins to be seated, which will come as an
unexpected and surprising to most disciples.
3.
Lamb of God – Disciples in the Public Context today
Finally
having discussed the importance of the title ‘lamb of God’ both for the
disciples of John the Baptist and the disciples of John the Evangelist, what is
the importance and relevance of this title for us as disciples of Christ in the
context of post-secular, post-truth public contexts today? Does this title mean
anything to us, or is it of no worth for us to think of a lamb except for a
kebab or roast or a curry?
Firstly,
the title ‘lamb of God’ is important for us today because God in Jesus Christ
as the lamb of God has come to take away the sins of the world, both personal
and corporate sins. We are called to recognise that it is God who has come as a
lamb, as an ordinary, as the one among the locals, as the one from margins, as
the one unexpected to bring in liberation to all creatures of the creation. The
challenge therefore for us is to look for the ordinary, unexpected, margins, to
the locals out of whom liberation comes. Don’t expect the divine among the
magnificent and majestic creatures, look, explore and situate the divine among
the margins.
Secondly,
the lamb of God implies a sacrificial hospitality, who is willing to be broken
for the cause of accepting many into the reign of God. The challenge for u as
churches is to therefore be and become sites of radical hospitality for others.
After all what does the lamb live for, in most ways for the sake of others. The
calling for us to willing to be broken for the sake of others, for Christ was
broken for others and in that brokenness, he identified with the broken and
crucified communities. Let people on looking to our deeds call us, ‘behold here
is the church which is like lamb’, ‘behold here is a Christian who is like a
lamb.’ Let our sacrificial radical hospitality speak for us.
Thirdly, in the vision of
Isaiah 11: 6, we see that
“The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
Initially, the lamb might be frightened to live
with a wolf, the kid might be afraid to lie down with a leopard, the calf to be
the lion, but in the peace reign of God the lamb will initiate to live with the
wolf as much as the wolf will live with the lamb, for it is the little child
who will lead of them together. The calling for us is to engage in ways and
means to bring in reconciliation between the strong and the weak, to bring in
repentance on the strong and to bring in confidence to the weak in making this
vision a reality. The lamb reminds us of a revolution, to which we are called
to partake and participate in.
To that end, may the Spirit guide and lead us to
rediscover lamb of God Christology as a relevant Christology for our times, and
challenges us to channel grace and love to several people around us as a lamb
of God. Amen.
Rajbharat
Patta,
15th January 2017.
Sermon Preached @St. Peter’s Church &
Chaplaincy
