The Cross of Christ: John 1:29, 35-37: “Behold the Lamb of God…”

Does it seem odd that in the Bible and in hymns Jesus is so often called a “Lamb”? Wouldn’t “Lion” be more appropriate? Today we’re going to consider why “the Lamb” is such an appropriate name for Jesus.

JOHN 1:29, 35-37: “BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD…”

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever noticed how many hymns refer to Jesus as “The Lamb” or “The Lamb of God”?
We sang a hymn that began:
“My faith looks up to thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary,
Savior divine…”

We all remember the great invitation hymn,

“Just as I am, without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou biddst me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”

In Matthew and Luke we first meet Jesus as a little baby.
In Mark we first meet Jesus when he begins his ministry. He comes to John the Baptist for baptism, and we hear the voice from heaven.
But the first time we see Jesus in John’s gospel is when John sees Jesus coming from his Temptation.
We read that John was standing with some of his disciples when he saw Jesus.
I can see him pointing to that lonely figure in the distance.
And John says to his disciples: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Then John explains what had happened when he had baptized him in the Jordan River and seen the Holy Spirit descending upon him from heaven.

Isn’t it odd that John the Baptist introduces Jesus in John’s gospel as the “Lamb of God”?
He’s not a lion, the king of beasts, or an eagle, that flies into the heavens, but as a lamb?

Thirty-two times in the New Testament Jesus is called a “Lamb.”

Here is one of them from 1 Peter: “You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot….Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:18-19, 21).

I. Lambs were very important to the worship of the ancient Hebrews.

A. Do you remember the story about when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt?

The night of the Passover, the day when God would deliver his people from the Egyptians, he sent an angel of death to the Egyptians to compel them to let his people go.
Each household was told to take a lamb, without blemish, one year old, and kill it on a certain day.
They would take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and lintel of their houses.
They would roast the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, eat it all that evening, and prepare for their escape from Egypt the next day.
This was the origin of the Passover Feast that the Israelites would celebrate every year until the Temple was destroyed about 40 years after the time of Jesus.
Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover—probably every year.
This feast was a very important act of worship and loyalty to God.

Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples the night before he died.
That last Passover dinner that Jesus ate with his disciples was joined to the Lord’s Supper, that we celebrate in our churches still.
Some call it Communion, or the Eucharist, or the Mass.
The Lord’s Supper is the way Jesus gave us to remember his death for our sins.

“The Lord Jesus, on the same night he was betrayed took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is for you. Do this is remembrance of me.
In the same way also the cup,after supper,
saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

In many churches the minister or priest uses these words: “O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Grant us thy peace.” This is called the Agnus Dei.
For Christians, the Communion Service corresponds to the Passover for the Jews.

On that first Passover the Hebrews were set free from slavery in Egypt.
On a Passover, many years later, Jesus died, as our Passover Lamb, and set us free from the bondage to sin.

B. But the lamb wasn’t only for Passover. Every morning and every evening two lambs was offered in the Temple of God in Jerusalem: one lamb was offered in the morning and one in the evening.

To offer an animal in the worship of God seems to us very odd—even repulsive.
But all of the ancient people I have read about worshiped their gods by offering animals.
Some primitive peoples still do.
I don’t know what these sacrifices represented in other nations, but in Israel the offerings were the way that God gave his people to recognize his Lordship over them and to atone for their sins.

The Israelites offered other kinds of animals—not just lambs. They also offered rams and goats and bulls and heifers, and sometimes doves or pigeons.
The Bible is very clear that the sacrifice of the animals didn’t by itself cleanse away their sins, but the offering of the animals was the way God gave them to remind them of the seriousness of sin.

The offerings of animals were a way for worshipers to express their faith in their God.
The daily offering of the lambs at the temple symbolized Israel’s willingness to belong to God and to obey him.

The New Testament looks back to the lambs were offered daily at the Temple as a symbol of the One who would someday come and offer himself to bring us to God.

The lambs were offered daily at the Temple, but our Lamb was offered only once—an eternal sacrifice—sufficient for all people, until the end of the world.

C. I have spoken of the Lamb of the Passover and the Lambs of the daily offering at the Temple. But there is another reference to the Lamb—which is Jesus—in the Old Testament.

In Isaiah 53, the prophet writes of the Suffering Servant who would make himself an offering for our sins” (v10). We read:

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.”

When John pointed to Jesus and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” these are the things that were in his mind:
the lamb of the Passover,
the lambs that were offered daily at the Temple,
and the lamb that was the Suffering Servant—foretold by the prophet—who “was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities,” and on whom the Lord laid the iniquity of us all.

So Jesus, as the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world—your sins, my sins, and all the sin that has made our world such a broken and sorrowful place.

II. Then we read: “The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples; and he looked at Jesus as he walked, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus” (John 1:35-37).

When John said, “Behold the Lamb of God,” he didn’t just mean “take a look over there.”

He didn’t mean just to glance at Jesus. He means a steady, serious kind of looking.
He means to look at Jesus with faith and understanding.
To look to Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
The two disciples understood that, and that is why, when they heard John say this, they left John and followed Jesus.
Let’s follow the example of the two disciples in the story. Let’s behold and then follow.

CONCLUSION

The story is told of a popular monk in the Middle Ages who announced at the morning service that in that evening he would preach a sermon on the love of God. The people gathered and stood in silence, waiting for the service while the sunlight streamed through the beautiful windows.

When the last bit of color had faded from the windows, the old monk went up to the candelabrum, took a lighted candle and walking to the life-sized statue of Christ on the cross, he held the light beneath the wounds on Christ’s feet, then at Christ’s hand, then at his side. Then, still without a word, the monk let the light shine on the thorn-crowned brow. That was the sermon.

The people stood in silence and wept, everyone knowing that they were at the center of a mystery beyond their knowing, that they were indeed looking at the supreme expression of the love of God—a love so deep, so wide, so eternal, that no wonder could express it, and no mind could measure it. This is the GREAT ACT of Christianity—that God’s love gave to the world what was most precious to him: his only Son.

The reason I spoke to you today about Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is to encourage us all to look at him with the eyes of faith.

In one of our hymns we sing these words,

“Upon the cross of Jesus, mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of one who suffered there for me,
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess—
The wonder of his glorious love and my unworthiness.”

In some churches they use the symbol of the cross with the dying Jesus on it.
Let us—in our mind’s eye—see our Savior, the Lamb of God, on that cross dying for us.
Jesus said before he died, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Let us keep our eyes on our Lord Jesus. And let us love him and make him our Savior and our companion and follow him in his death and resurrection and into Eternal Life.