Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God

       Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God.

         Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb…

One of the curious features of John’s Gospel is that there is no Last Supper—because the Last Supper was a Passover meal, and John wants to make crystal clear that Jesus is killed at the same time as the lambs are slaughtered for Passover, not because it makes chronological sense, but because Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

         When John the Baptist points to Jesus, he points to a Universal Passover, a cosmic Passover, a whole world…
(this is the God-So-Loved-the-World Gospel after all) a whole world Passover.
Just as death passed over the first born in Egypt and God brought the people out into the promised land—so too this Lamb of God, this Son of God, liberates the whole world, frees us from Sin and connects all of creation to God.

         This Lamb of God, Jesus, marks creation out for life, not death! Calls the world out of death into new life!
Think of those images of joyful kangaroos and their joeys, gathered together to drink from the first rain since the bush fires down in the inferno formerly known as Australia. Life, not death!
The Lamb of God marks the whole cosmos for life!

         Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God. Behold the testimony of the SpiritLook at the evidence given by John
—it is as if he is at a trial and testifies:
“I didn’t know the defendant, but the Holy Spirit identified him in a line-up. And I trust the Holy Spirit. She is a trustworthy witness to the invisible God made visible in Jesus Christ.”
She abides
—she remains, with him.

         It should be a comfort for we who have our doubts, who find it hard to hold this whole faith thing together sometimes
—John didn’t see it, save for the Spirit’s revelation…

         

         Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God. Behold, He in whom we may abide.

         “What are you looking for?” He asks these disciples of John, now following after him, these would be disciples of his.

Take a moment:
         -Ignore all pretense,
         -be honest with yourself,
         -trust that the question isn’t an opening line to sell you something
         -don’t worry about giving a good solid theological answer…
—What are you looking for?

…

         Jesus will sharpen this question as things go along.
         “Who are you looking for?” he asks the detachment of soldiers and guards gathered behind Judas on Good Friday.

         “Who are you looking for?” he asks Mary at the tomb that first Easter.

         Your deepest desires—your truest longings—will be found there, here, in the Life and Death and Resurrection of Jesus.
The whole story is where you will find your story, where you find what you are looking for
—with Jesus
—abiding with him, through it all.

         “Where are you staying?” Where do you abide? They ask him… 

         John’s Gospel is filled with people conversing with Jesus, but only scratching the surface
—Nicodemus, confused about the mechanics of entering a mother’s womb a second time,
the unnamed Samaritan Woman at the Well, concerned first about buckets and fresh watercourses,
while Jesus offers God’s Spirit and the Water of Eternity.

         These disciples ask the question, “Where are you staying,” and the unspoken answer is,
“At the bosom of the Father—I abide in the very heart of God.”

         But that would mean nothing to them
—Just as John can not see that Jesus is the Lamb of God, save through the witness of the Spirit,
so too the disciples…
and so Jesus simply says, “Come and see.”

         “Abide with me.”

         Go on this journey with Jesus, be with him for his life, death, and resurrection
—discover what God is up to,
join the Passover throng through desert and water
—God’s ongoing loving work for creation,
a risky adventure,
curiosity and fear balanced there,
being present with Jesus.

         “Come and see.”

         Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God. Behold, He will call you by your true name.

         Andrew is astonished at his afternoon with Jesus
—did you catch that he’s already become his disciple
—following after him
—imitating his actions to becoming like him.
He says to his brother, Simon Peter, essentially the same thing Jesus said to him, “come and see.”

         There is this whole line of testimony
—a cloud of witnesses gathered
—the Spirit tells John, John tells Andrew, Andrew tells Peter, and on it goes,
the good news that God is on the move, that all of creation is being freed through him—and this life giving liberty includes Peter.

         In Ursula Le Guin’s fantasy series, “Earth Sea” there is a whole magical system based on names—everything has two names, one that is known to everyone, and one that is kept hidden, because if that name becomes known it can be influenced magically, because that name touches upon the essence, interior, the true self.

         And Le Guin didn’t pull that idea out of thin air
—it is a common belief, nick-names and name changes were once a common way to know the character of a person—Just think of Sarai and Abram becoming Sarah and Abraham, Jacob becoming Israel, Saul becoming Paul
—in some fundamental way, these people are changed, are becoming more fully their true self…

         Now, you’ve probably heard some Christians talk about Naming and Claiming things in Jesus’ name… well, we Lutherans have good grounds to suggest that the pattern ought to be reversed. Jesus names and claims Peter (Cephas in the Aramaic) and calls him by a new name. Calls him on a journey that will transform him, will make him more fully his true self. Just as we are claimed by Jesus in Baptism for our faith journey, Peter is claimed by Jesus.

         Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God.
Behold the Lamb—he is bringing the world out of death to life.
Behold the Spirit’s testimony—she points us to Jesus in whom we can see the invisible God made visible.
Behold the one in whom we may abide—he continually calls us to come and see.
Behold your true name—you are children of God.
Behold Jesus, the Lamb of God.
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Baptism of Our Lord

      Have you heard about Jesus? Have you heard about his love for all people?

         Through him, the mystery was revealed
—God’s love for all people
—God’s gracious love!
God denies no one a relationship with him
—God shows no favoritism
—whether you are a no one or a someone, whether you’re relatives are just or unjust, no matter what nation you hail from—God does not play favorites. So hear this if you hear nothing else, the Gospel is for you!

         Peter, whom we read about today in Acts, saw this truth first by way of a vision
—that those dietary rules used to keep God’s people safe and separate from everyone else
—were no longer required, instead he was to take and eat, for God had made all things clean through this new thing God was doing in Jesus
—and then Peter met with these folk he’s preaching to today
—people who he would traditionally have been separated from, now gathered together, so they might hear about Jesus.

         In him we are all brought near to God—all face God,
And that can be frightening, there is a terrible awe in that
—creation confronted by creator, log to flame.

Yes, to fear God means to be in awe of God—but awe is no small thing
—we’re in awe of the Grand Canyon,
in awe of the pace of life,
in awe of true love,
in awe of the depths of the ocean and the heights of the heavens,
in awe of God.

         We are brought near God and our obligation to the rest of creation comes into stark contrast
—you can’t love God and hate, or even be indifferent toward, your neighbor,
you can’t love God and trash God’s creation,
you can’t love God and cheat or steal from God’s family
—yes, this connection to God made through Jesus transforms our connection to the whole world!

         This connection that Jesus lives out—from Baptism to the cross, from birth to death even, an ongoing expansion of God’s goodness—Jesus baptized so that all may know him.
Jesus challenging acts of exclusion at every turn,
being merciful to all in need,
expanding the border of the Kingdom of God,
building bridges of kindness in the face of very attempt to exclude.

         Jesus’ death, the inevitable result of radical inclusion, of opening up the Kingdom when so many were invested in keeping the doors of God’s goodness shut.
His death, overrunning every wall by taking on, putting on, all of humanity, becoming all humanity, that all of humanity might know God.

         It is this message that we are to testify to,
That we are to share everywhere we go, so that all people may trust that, in Jesus name, they are forgiven!

         Have you heard about Jesus? Have you heard about his life?

         His life was God’s message for all people, a message of awe toward God and Justice for everyone! 

         His life, a message from God, spoken in a holy whisper, a quiet king—“Peace by Jesus, he is Lord of all.” 

         In his baptism marked as God’s beloved that all might know God’s love.
In his declarations, hope for the least, last, and lost.
In his sacred deeds, healing and reconciliation for all of those who had been marginalized. 

         If Jesus’ life’s work is what Lordship looks like,
if Jesus’ words are what a proper Royal Decree sounds like,
if John the Baptist performs a coronation calling our attention to Jesus being the rightful heir of God… then there can be no other Lords.

         His conquest too, is strange
—there is a grand gentleness to it. Isaiah points to this, as conquering Lord he is the servant,
-no battle cry in the streets,
-no smashing of brittle reeds,
-even the faintest candle remains lit at his making all things right.
He embraces execution and death, is buried like a seed, and from him springs life for all the ages!

         We enter into that royal coronation
—his baptism
—it is our calling to tell all the world,
to point to Jesus as John points to him,
to let all the earth know that in the end, he is judge of the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

         Have you heard about Jesus? Have you heard that he was dead, but now he lives?

         Each of us find ourselves at the cross and the empty tomb, in awe of that, that gentle power that transforms death into life. His life is for all people!

         Does not Baptism drip with death and new life?
Isn’t that what we proclaim through the waters of Baptism?
—we are now clothed with the risen Lord.
We’ve been buried with him and rise too with him!
Wasn’t his whole life an ongoing confrontation with death, and the spreading of life?

         That death—he is killed on a tree…
that phrase “Killed on a tree” overflows with meaning
—all who are hung are criminal,
all who die on a tree are cursed by God (so says Deuteronomy)
Death and curse,
death and sin
—he knows it all, all that we humans are confronted with, and he confronts us still more surely with rightness, blessing, life! The whole world is being reconciled to God through him!

         How can we not tell the world? He, the one cursed, is the one to judge the cursed,
he, the one killed, is the one to judge the living and the dead.
He always has his arms wide open, now not on the cross, but wide open to embrace us all with forgiveness.

         Have you heard about Jesus? Then tell the good news!

         The Message of Jesus Christ is for all people,
-every ear should hear it,
-no wall should stop it,
-no nation should be bereft of its benefit.

         Tell folk about Christ’s life, how his baptism and our baptism are linked,
how it shapes our life
—better yet, live in such a way that people see Jesus!

         Be like those women, the only ones who remained at the cross and the only ones who came to the tomb—it is because of Mary’s words to the other disciples that we know about the resurrection at all,
that I’m able to tell you about it today
—be like Mary, tell the world about what happened in Jerusalem
—Tree and Tomb which tell the tale!

         Siblings of the faith, as we are gathered in this building, and as we go out into the world, let us bear and be, or at least boldly tell, the saving word of God to the entire world
—forgiveness in Jesus name.

Amen!