Good Morning Friends,
Calling someone the Lamb of God for a Jew in the time of Jesus was really a more impressive comment than we give credit to the title today. It was a Wow!!! statement that prompted excitement and emotions. It was an invitation to a spiritual feast and a discovery of something very valuable and nothing less than the answer to the question on the minds of Jews looking for the Messiah and yes, for some, finding God’s gift of the second Adam…righteousness. Scripture has a lot of names for God. I tend to like the number three in the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost…Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, for the Trinity brings meaning to me in my relationship with God. Billy Sunday however, a famous evangelist of the last century is credited with saying that there are 256 names in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ. Other commentators say the number is 700 and I guess that counts all the descriptors used to explain the unexplainable. Because Jesus is infinitely beyond just one title or an infinite number of titles I am not so concerned about the number. The Jews would not even speak the name of God audibly for fear of limiting the divine. So, as we contemplate the coming Advent Season let’s consider what Joseph and Mary were considering in the naming of their firstborn child. I do not know all the names they might have considered and do not intend to do that this morning. However, the name they chose was Jesus meaning Savior. That says it all. In the book of Revelation for example Jesus is called the Lamb. And here in the gospel of John, we find John the Baptist being the first one to name Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in his testimony that Jesus is the Son of God. A lot of the meaning around this name tracks back to a story in Genesis involving Isaac and Abraham when Isaac asked, facing the possibility of his own sacrifice, “Where is the Lamb of God?” And though that is a good question to answer, I think we should also ask, What Names Of God Are Most Inviting To Each Of Us Today?
Scripture: If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of him. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
1 John 2:29-3:6 (NRSV)
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 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.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 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?” 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. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 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).
John 1:29-42 (NRSV)
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
Genesis 22:6-8 (NRSV)
Message: Jesus has been called the Alpha and Omega, the Advocate, the Author and Perfecter of Our Faith, the Bread of Life, the Beloved Son of God, the Bridegroom, the Cornerstone, Deliverer, Faithful and True, the Good Shepherd, the Great High Priest, the Head of the Church, the Holy Servant, the I Am, Our Hope, Peace, Redeemer, Rock, Savior, Son of Man, Supreme Creator Over All, Immanuel, the King of Kings, the Light of the World, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lord of All, the Mediator, the Messiah, Resurrection and the Life, The Door, The Way, The Word , the True Vine, Truth, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, Our Hope, Peace, Redeemer, Rock, Savior, Son of Man, Supreme Creator Over All. So, we have a choice of how we will greet Jesus on His return. So, meditate on the one you will use. Rejoice in the images God uses to describe Jesus. But also, as an instruction, contemplate the Trinity in relationship to the meaning behind the Lamb of God title. Here we might just realize that, as our sacrifice, Jesus did not fight His death, He conquered it. He volunteered to take your place and mine and He went to the cross like a lamb innocent and blameless and pure going to the slaughter to pay the price for our sins. God provides an answer to Isaac’s in the bushes, and I suppose God will provide an answer to us in regard to the personal significance we give to each of the names for God. I think we are better able to worship God when we know and understand the names which describe our relationship with the divine. And because God is worthy of being honored for many reasons, we have many names to describe the divine character we worship. One name just would not be enough for that kind of relationship. And having many names gives us an opportunity to find personal meaning in each of them at different times and in the varied circumstances of life. When we understand how each of God’s names reveals another aspect of His character, we can quickly see what a gift it is that Jesus has so many names recorded in the Bible. The more we learn about those names, the more we learn about God and in turn the better we can Love, which is of course one of God’s names too. Still, the passage in today’s text that names Jesus as the Lamb of God should give us pause for special consideration, for it defines the relationship we are to have with Jesus in a way that separates Christianity from all the other world religions. The thing is that God knows our sins and counts them too but does not count them against us if we believe in Jesus. Friends, Jesus’ sacrifice of love is a gateway to a better understanding of the righteousness offered so we might be heir as children of God, blessed to be a blessing.
And So, when it comes to sin and being a Christian, on the surface of it, there seems to be a contradiction, for all the Christians I know still sin. The Jews had sacrifices to deal with the contradiction but even that was not enough. The revelation is that we tend to get better at being good when we love, for God desires our love more than our sacrifices. But still, we all fall short. We need something to engage us in getting better because we are typically not a great attraction based on our own faith alone. Though our individual faith matters. Thankfully, God provides a solution to the problem by providing the sinless Lamb of God. Here God provides the opportunity for us to offer others the chance to experience forgiveness and to come and see the depth and breadth of this movement that started as a tear in the Father’s eyes and turned into a flood of emotion designed to baptize us in the Spirit and fill our cup with overflowing joy and a wave of love. For in this experience of life we are to discover that Jesus is the Son of God…the answer to everything of importance. We are to discover that we have been made in the likeness of the Second Adam, Jesus, not just the first. So, friends, we need to try not to commit sins and see what happens. Perhaps we might just find that the love of God is so prevailing a match that we no longer desire to sin. We need to realize that Jesus is calling us. Jesus sees us and knows us and will praise us. Friends, Jesus is such a good lover of people and wants to know us even at the expense of his life. All the stories in the Bible are about Jesus. The gap between what the world is and what the world needs must be bridged. Jesus is the way to bridge the gap through a relationship of love. And if God invites us and we say yes it becomes more than a feeling regardless of what name attracts us to be more righteous.
Pray God is revealed to us in a way that changes our life. Pray we trust that God will provide what we need when we need it. Pray we realize that God will be God but that that does not leave much room for us to be selfish. Praywe spend time getting to know God. Pray that out of our troubles, as we discover and rediscover who we were born to be. Pray we see the Three as One and the One as Three regardless of the names we give to God. Pray we discover that God’s names are available to us so we might have a relationship with the divine. Pray we invite others to come and see what God is doing in our lives.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 