Jesus, Lamb of God

Scripture: John 1:29

Title: Jesus, Lamb of God

Structure:

• Introduction
• Jesus’ innocence
• Jesus’ vulnerability
• Jesus’ sacrifice
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Today is Ram’s day – when rams all over New Zealand are put in paddocks with ewes for breeding purposes – it seems quite appropriate then to be talking about the Lamb of God today

In 1982 there were over 70 million sheep in New Zealand and about 3 million people – which equates to about 22 sheep per person

–         In recent years though this ratio has dropped – now there are more like 29½ million sheep and closer to 4.9 million people, which equates to about 6 sheep per person

–         Any way you look at it that’s a lot of sheep and lambs

 

Today we conclude our sermon series on the titles of Jesus by taking a closer look at the term Lamb of God

–         It’s strange in a way; Jesus’ favourite way of referring to himself was Son of Man and despite the fact that title is used numerous times in the gospels, it never really caught on in Christian tradition

–         By contrast the title, Lamb of God, only appears twice in the Bible and yet somehow it has become popular in Christian culture

–         Not sure if it’s just a New Zealand thing or if Christians all over the world prefer to think of Jesus as a lamb

 

The title, Lamb of God, is heard on the lips of John the baptist as he points out who Jesus is

In the gospel of John chapter 1, verse 29, John sees Jesus approaching and says:

–         Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  

–         Then, the very next day, John sees Jesus walking by again and says to his disciples: Look, the Lamb of God

In addition to the gospel of John the Book of Revelation uses the term Lamb a number of times as a kind of code word for ‘Jesus’, but stops short of the full title Lamb of God

 

Now before we get into what the Bible has to say about the Lamb of God, I’m interested to find out what you think…

When you see the image of a lamb what comes to mind – what do you associate a lamb with?

–         [Wait for people to respond]

 

Jesus is like a lamb in some ways, but not in every way. Three ways in particular we can say Jesus is like a lamb…

–         Jesus is innocent, Jesus makes himself vulnerable, and Jesus offers himself as a sacrifice. First let us consider Jesus’ innocence

 

Jesus’ innocence:

One of the things the gospel writers make clear is that Jesus was condemned to die as an innocent man

–         And when we say ‘innocent’, we don’t mean naïve or gullible – Jesus was no green horn

–         By innocent we mean not guilty, without sin

–         We would of course expect Jesus’ friends to say he was innocent and so the real test is what someone impartial says about Jesus

–         When Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, Pilate questioned Jesus repeatedly and found no reason to charge him

–         Not only that but in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ trial, we read…

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him a message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” 

Both Pilate and his wife (independently of each other) could plainly see that Jesus had done nothing wrong

–         Several times Pilate tried to have Jesus released but in the end, to appease the crowd and prevent a riot, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified

–         But it wasn’t just Pilate and his wife who thought Jesus was innocent

Jesus was crucified between two criminals. One of the criminals hurled insults at Jesus but the other criminal responded by saying…

–         “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what we deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”  

Later that same day when Jesus had breathed his last the Roman Centurion who witnessed Jesus’ death said…

“Surely this was a righteous man.”

–         When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.

Beating of the breast is a sign of protest & outrage – people could clearly see it had been a set-up, a terrible injustice. Jesus, an innocent man, had been killed

 

Jesus was as innocent as a lamb, and as vulnerable too

 

Jesus’ vulnerability:

To be vulnerable is to be open and unprotected, defenceless

 

On the wall here are a couple of pictures from our garden at home

–         The first is of a caterpillar eating the leaves of a swan plant

–         And the second is of a swan plant that has been stripped bare of its leaves

–         A swan plant is vulnerable to caterpillars – it has no defence against them

–         Caterpillars are in turn vulnerable to birds and those caterpillars who manage to become butterflies are vulnerable to wasps

–         Wasps, as far as I know, aren’t vulnerable to anything much and consequently no one really likes wasps

 

At one point, after I’d left home, my Dad owned a small lifestyle block

–         To keep the grass under control he had a couple of sheep – it was a steep section and not really suitable for mowing

–         One day I went to visit and while my brother and I were out in the paddock we noticed one of the sheep on its back

–         At first I thought the sheep had died but when I got closer I could see it was still breathing, it just couldn’t move – it was stuck on its back with its legs in the air

–         When we pulled it back onto its feet it ran off

–         There was nothing wrong with the animal – it had simply got caste

Reflecting on that afterwards it occurred to me just how vulnerable sheep are

–         A lamb has no way to defend itself

–         A dog has teeth, a cat has claws, a horse can run fast, a bird can fly away but a lamb has no natural defence

–         If a sheep loses its balance and winds up on its back it can’t even find its feet again – a sheep is dependent on the shepherd

Jesus’ vulnerability is not exactly like the vulnerability of a sheep or a swan plant or a caterpillar

–         A lamb, a swan plant and a caterpillar are all vulnerable by their very nature, whereas Jesus chooses to make himself vulnerable – Jesus chooses to put aside his divine force field and remain open to others

 

Vulnerability obviously comes with risk

–         Vulnerability tends to evoke one of two responses: either violence or love

–         If someone is defenceless then certain individuals will take advantage of that vulnerability for their own ends, as we saw (tragically) on Friday with the shootings in Christchurch

–         Most people though will act to care for and protect the vulnerable, as we have seen since, with the outpouring of support for those affected by the shootings

–         Jesus tended to have quite a polarising effect on others – people either loved him or hated him

–         Jesus’ disciples and those he healed and forgave tended to love him, not just because of what he did for them but because of the way he did it, with kindness and humility

 

By sending his Son to earth God was making himself vulnerable, opening his heart toward humanity in love

–         Jesus’ vulnerability was an invitation to love God – because we usually find it easier to love a lamb than a wasp

–         Sadly many of the religious leaders misunderstood God’s invitation and took advantage of Jesus’ vulnerability for their own ends – they plotted to murder Jesus

By choosing not to defend himself Jesus made it possible for the authorities to crucify him

–         In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ arrest, in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of the disciples struck the high priest’s slave with a sword, cutting off his ear, but Jesus responded with vulnerability saying…

“Put your sword back in its place. All who take the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you know that I could call on my Father for help, and at once he would send me more than twelve armies of angels? But in that case, how could the Scriptures come true…?”

Jesus had the power to smash his opponents but he chose not to defend himself

 

We should remember though that when Jesus returns it won’t be in vulnerability, it will be in glory and with power.

In Revelation chapter 6 the Lamb (aka: Jesus) breaks a number of seals

–         With the sixth seal there was an earthquake, the sun became black and the moon turned red…

Then the kings of the earth, the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and powerful, and all other men, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and under rocks on the mountains. They called out to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the eyes of the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. The terrible day of their anger is here, and who can stand against it.” 

We may feel a little disturbed by this picture of the future. Certainly anger is not normally something we would associate with a lamb

–         The anger of the lamb is a righteous anger though – an anger at injustice

–         Many of the original first century audience of the book of Revelation were persecuted, living in fear, if not in hiding from the authorities

–         Being told the tables would be turned, and their oppressors would one day be the ones in hiding, was actually a great comfort and gave the early Christians hope in the face of their suffering

John’s vision of the power of the Lamb reminds us there is more than one side to Jesus’ character, as we have seen throughout this series.

–         With this in mind it isn’t always appropriate for us to make ourselves vulnerable – we need to be discerning about who we open our heart to

–         Jesus instructed his disciples to be as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves

 

So far we’ve heard how Jesus is innocent and makes himself as vulnerable as a lamb

–         What is perhaps less obvious to us today, but which would have been most obvious to the people of Jesus’ day, is that lambs were often used as a sacrifice

 

Jesus’ sacrifice:

Sacrifice is the act of giving up (or surrendering) something of value

–         If it’s not worth much to us then it doesn’t really count as a sacrifice

–         Usually we make a sacrifice in order to save or gain something else we value even more

–         For example, in a game of chess you might sacrifice a pawn to save your king, because without the king its game over

–         Or if you have a loved one who needs an organ transplant, you might sacrifice a kidney or part of your liver to save their life, because your liver will grow back and you can survive on one kidney

 

In the Bible lamb sacrifices were memorials of deliverance

–         When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar, God provided a lamb as a substitute, thus delivering Isaac and his descendants from certain death

–         When the people of Israel were about to leave their slavery in Egypt, God instituted the Passover festival – where each family was to sacrifice a lamb and paint the blood over the door frame, so the angel of death would Passover that house

–         And, on a daily basis, lambs were sacrificed in the Jewish temple as a way of atoning for sin

–         Lamb sacrifices were reminders of God’s deliverance, his redemption

–         So when John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” his Jewish listeners would likely have thought in terms of a sacrifice that delivers them from sin & death

At this point I’m reminded of the movie Finding Nemo

–         Quick quiz – what nickname is Nemo given, by the other fish, in the dentist’s fish tank? [Wait]

–         That’s right – ‘Shark Bait’

–         Shark Bait is a nickname with foreboding overtones

Although John wasn’t using Lamb of God as a nickname for Jesus (he meant it as a term of respect), there is still a sense of foreboding in the title

–         Lamb of God is code for ‘sacrifice of God’ and imagines a future in which Jesus is destined to give his life to save others

–         The imagery wasn’t lost on the disciples. As the apostle Peter writes in one of his letters…

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

For a sacrifice to be truly worthy of the name it needs to be something of value

–         Therefore, under Old Testament law, it wasn’t good enough to offer a second rate lamb, that would be convenient to get rid of anyway

–         The sacrifice had to be valuable, a lamb without defect, one you would rather have kept for breeding purposes

–         Jesus is the perfect lamb, the innocent lamb, the best on offer, the most valuable in the whole flock

–         Clearly God loves his creation a great deal if he is willing to sacrifice his Son to redeem us

 

This is not to imply that we are more valuable than Christ

–         Using the chess analogy, Jesus the King became a pawn (like us) and sacrificed himself to save the game

–         Through his sacrifice Jesus not only saves the game, he changes the rules

–         Jesus, the sacrificial pawn, is resurrected to eternal life and restored to the throne as King, which means no one can ever remove him from the board

–         What’s more, by his Spirit, Jesus transforms the other pawns (that’s us) into knights and bishops and rooks

 

As followers of Jesus we are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices

–         We give up things we value to make ourselves available to God’s purpose, to obey God in other words

–         We do this in faith, trusting Christ for redemption

 

Conclusion:

Let me finish with a reading from Isaiah 53 – this sums up the innocence, vulnerability and sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God

“But he endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne. All the while we thought that his suffering was punishment sent by God. ⁵ But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received.
⁶ All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved.

⁷ “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word.

⁸ He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people. ⁹ He was placed in a grave with those who are evil, he was buried with the rich, even though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie.”

¹⁰ The Lord says, “It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants; he will live a long life, and through him my purpose will succeed.
¹¹ After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.
¹² And so I will give him a place of honour, a place among the great and powerful. He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven.”

 

Let’s stand and sing our closing hymn – this is really a prayer of intercession for our country – ‘God defend New Zealand’…

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Lamb’?

–         In what ways is Jesus like a lamb?

–         In what ways is Jesus not like a lamb?

3.)    How do we know that Jesus was innocent?

4.)    How do you respond to someone who is vulnerable?

–         How do you respond to the powerful?

5.)    When is it appropriate to make ourselves vulnerable?

–         When is it not?

6.)    Can you think of a time when you made a sacrifice? What happened?

7.)    What does Jesus’ sacrifice reveal about God’s attitude to us?

–         What is an appropriate response to Jesus’ sacrifice?

8.)    Read Isaiah 53 and take some time to reflect on (or discuss) Jesus’ innocence, vulnerability and sacrifice in those verses.