See, the Gentle Lamb Appears

 

Jesu Juva

St. John 1:29-42a                                                          

December 21, 2022

Midweek Advent 4                             

Dear saints of our Savior~

          It’s a good thing Advent is a season of four weeks—because it takes our family that long just to find all the Christmas decorations.  On Sunday, the last of the nativity sets went up (although the little set from Guatemala is still MIA). 

Something seems to go missing among the decorations every year.  Like that single sock in the dryer, it’s a mystery where these decorations disappear to.  In the off-season, all the decorations are stored in the basement—in an assortment of cardboard boxes and plastic bins.  Not every container is labeled, however, and that can present a problem.  And some of the labels aren’t all that helpful—labels like “Lights 2016” or “Christmas, etc.”  Labels like those aren’t gonna help you find that little Nativity from Guatemala.

          I suppose we could all learn a little something about labeling from St. John the Baptist.  His minimalist lifestyle left him with little need for labeling things.  His pantry had one shelf for locusts and one shelf for honey.  Clutter in his closet was no problem—one hook for leather and another for camel’s hair.  That Spartan simplicity freed John from the need to label anything—excepting, of course, his life’s work—to point his index finger at the ordinary-looking man from Nazareth, and cry out with prophetic precision:  Behold!  Look!  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

          THAT is John the Baptist at his best.  That’s his finest work—labeling the Lamb of God.  He may have baptized thousands.  He may have preached the Law with alacrity.  He may have faced down the Pharisees with ferocity.  But there is no nobler work on earth than to point people to God’s Lamb.  There he is!  That’s Him!  He’s the One for you! 

          Jesus of Nazareth was Lord and God; but you wouldn’t have known that just by looking at Him.  This Lord needed a label.  Right from the get-go—even in His Nativity—He needed to be labeled.  Before the shepherds could make their beeline for Bethlehem, they had to be told what to look for—not a newborn in a diamond encrusted crib—but a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.  That’s the one you want.  He’s the long-awaited Savior.  See, the gentle Lamb appears. 

          And for three decades nothing much changed.  When Jesus made His way to John at the Jordan River, John couldn’t point people to the superhero with the halo hovering above His head—or to the guy with the glowing, God-like physique.  No, there was nothing in Jesus’ appearance that would ever lead anyone to conclude that this man is the Messiah.  Even John didn’t know Him or recognize Him at first.  It first had to be revealed to John by the Holy Spirit.  Then—and only then—could John point his finger and label God’s Lamb.

          But what John did was much more than pin a nametag on the man from Nazareth.  John said:  Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  He labeled Jesus as the Lamb—the Lamb of God.  Now when you hear that, you have to let go of all your notions about little lambs frolicking in a dewy meadow, or cute, cuddly lambs at the petting zoo.  For nearly every lamb in the land of Israel would one day be led to the slaughter.  Lambs were for sacrificing and eating.  The life of the lamb in exchange for your life.  That’s how it worked—a bloody business!—going back as far as the first Passover.

          But this Lamb—Jesus—He wouldn’t just bear away the sins of Israel.  He wouldn’t just redeem the chosen few.  John makes it clear that this Lamb’s mission has cosmic significance.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The sacrifice of God’s Lamb is to deal with the sin of the world—all of it—including your sin and my sin.  Who would have guessed this?  Who would have figured this out on their own?  That the likes of you and me are actually loved by God’s Lamb?  We have to be told.  It has to be revealed to us—preached to us.  John must label Jesus.  He must provide the subtitles for what would otherwise be completely foreign to us.

          We desperately we need this Lamb of God, labeled by John.  It’s critical that we hear John’s voice and follow his finger and believe that this Lamb loves us and bears our sin away.  We have need of this Lamb.  This Lamb is the sole solution for our sin and its wages.  If you say you have no sin, you are mislabeled—you’re deceiving yourself and the truth is not in you. Ever since that day when God’s perfect world was ruined, and all creation was cursed, we have languished under the label the Lord assigned to us.  It’s a label you cannot refuse—a label you cannot long avoid.  In fact, you’ve earned this label for yourself.  What is this label?  You are dust, and to dust you shall return.  All we are is dust in the wind.  The dust of death—the sting of sin—awaits us all.

          But there’s a Lamb on the loose in these parts—God’s Lamb—who still today takes away the sin of the world.  This Lamb, Jesus, was led to the slaughter for your salvation—a bloody business carried out at Calvary.  And this Lamb was raised to life on the third day.  Long live the Lamb!  Because He lives, your destiny is not dust and decay, but the resurrection of the body and the life + everlasting.

          God’s Lamb is a living Lamb!  He will never die again!  And this Lamb of God comes among us.  Through time and space, by the power of God’s Word, this Lamb locates Himself in bread and wine—to feed us with the fruits of His sacred sacrifice—to feed us with His very life and forgiveness. 

          The body and blood of Jesus right here?!  For us Christians to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins?!  Who would have guessed this?  Who would have figured this out on their own?  Who would look at that wafer and wine and say, “Here’s Jesus, the Lamb of God, given for me?”

          We need someone to label it for us.  We need someone to say, There He is!  That’s Him!  He’s the One for you!  And who, pray tell, is the best man among men for that job?  John the Baptist still prepares the way for Jesus every Sunday.  John the Baptist’s best work lives on in the liturgy.  John labels the Savior’s presence in the sacrament every Lord’s Day (in the Agnus Dei).  Every Sunday we sing his words.  And in so doing, we make his words our own:  O—Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.  John’s words become your prayer—your confession—as you prepare to receive Jesus in His body and blood.  You sing John’s words directly to Jesus, just as if Jesus were right here, present with us . . . precisely because He is present with us.  In the bread that is His body—in the wine that is His blood—He comes.  He comes to take away your sin.  He comes to supply you with the riches of His mercy.  He comes to grant you peace.

          Christmas comes in four short days.  Learn this lesson to celebrate Christmas aright.  Learn to label the Lamb with John.  For the Lamb in the manger . . . is the Lamb on the cross . . . is the Lamb on the altar.  Worthy is the Lamb!  Behold!  Look!  See, the gentle Lamb appears, promised from eternal years.

          In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.