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March 26, 2006
Jesus, the Lamb of God
Psalm 2 / Isaiah 53: 1-7
John 1: 25-34
March 26th, 2006
A few minutes ago I spread before our children two pictures of Jesus in the Bible: as a lamb and as a shepherd. John the Baptist looked at Jesus and said, “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” The lamb lays down His life for the sins of the world.
A lamb is a gentle symbol of the Son of God, but a lamb is an easily confused animal. Isaiah remarked, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” I walked often in the hills behind Stirling Univeristy in Scotland when Bonnie and I were there in 1997. I saw the sheep scattered all over the hillsides. Sheep—like people--wander to wherever they see the next appealing tuft of grass. Look at the course of your own life. Did you not do as I did, go from clump of grass to clump of grass until now, many years later, we are where we find ourselves?
Soon the sheep are scattered everywhere. Then I saw a shepherd come along. In his hand he carried the traditional staff. He had two Border collies with him. Those tireless, completely obedient dogs, extensions of the will of the shepherd, drew the sheep together from all over the hillside at the whistle of the shepherd. It was a clear illustration of the Bible’s description of us people.
We need a good shepherd—who has a good sheepdog. Unlike the animals called sheep, we sheep-like people may or may not respond to the Shepherd’s whistle, or to the nipping at the heels of His Border collies. That’s why the Bible tells us of Jesus that he is both the Lamb and the Shepherd. Jesus is not only our shepherd; He became a lamb to bring us lost sheep back from our wandering. And He died for us to endure our death, the consequence of our wandering, because we will not on our own follow the voice of the Good Shepherd. The images of Jesus blur so wonderfully.
I wonder if we had lived with Jesus the three years of His ministry if it would have seemed He wandered purposelessly from village to village, along countryside paths. But in His wandering there was great purpose.
It matters how we think about Jesus. But it doesn’t matter in the way we often seem to make it matter.
It occurs to me that we sheep tend to think of other sheep in terms of how they think about God—and, anymore, of politics. I see this in the church and it troubles me.
We check out other sheep with narrowed eyes. “Does she think as I do about God? If so, I’ll get chummy. “Does he think as I do about politics? If so, good. If not, I’ll not speak with him except to beat him in argument. And thus we stand proudly cloaked in our rightness, confused about the boundary between what matters and what doesn’t, wandering, scattered over the hillsides of the Church.
I remember a very awkward but amusing situation last year when I went to Goshen to participate in a sad memorial to a dear young friend who committed suicide. I found myself in a Christian home filled with arch-liberals in politics and theology. Books about the goddess were conspicuous on coffee tables. Bush or “W” was used as an expletive. It got around that the new guy in the room was from West Lafayette--Purdue, which meant very conservative. It got worse when it came out that I teach Hebrew—a pro-Israeli loony. I spent a good part of the evening on my heels before I’d been able tell my full name.
I’ve faced similar situations with deep-dyed “conservatives.” Idiologues on one side are so like those on the other.
Is this the benefit of having a point of view? Do we think of God as we do in order to despise those who think differently? Do we think about how society works best in order to despise those who think differently? Or does somehow my view of God compel me to live out the way of God? Does somehow my view of how society works best inwardly regulate me in how to love my neighbor as myself? It’s too bad if we have enough thoughts about God to despise those who have different views, and just enough political ideology to despise those who differ.
These things are in my heart as I think with you about God who was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus and said with reverence, “Behold the lamb of God,” it made him realize his position before Jesus. “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie his shoe laces.” Instead, John saw his role in life standing away from this One whom he was not worthy to draw near. Humbly and from a distance he would prepare the way of the Lord. From a great distance he made straight in the desert a highway for our God for the benefit of other people. “He must increase and I must decrease.”
Though we are not taught in Scripture to follow John the Baptist, I wonder if it would not be good if we too felt unworthy to untie Jesus shoelaces. Do you think it would do the Church any harm if you and I were to say with conviction, “He must increase; I must decrease.”
What if, instead of speaking of Jesus as though He were our good buddy, we had John’s attitude. We do not worship good buddies. In fact, we insist that good buddies conform themselves to what we are or they are no longer our good buddies. We are to say of Jesus as Thomas finally did after standing away in honest skepticism, “My Lord and my God.” What a difference it makes to have this outlook on Jesus! “My Lord and my God” will never be my good buddy. I’m not worthy of that.
This morning I hope I may lead us all to think about Jesus not so that you’ll discover if you think like I do, but so that we will all be able to put on the attitude of John the Baptist.
This morning I pointed out to the children two pictures of God the Bible gives us as we look at Jesus, the Son of God. Remember, Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” I don’t know how many people back then knew it but when they looked at Jesus they were seeing exactly what God looked like—in human form. I wonder if there were people then who wondered, “If I saw God in human form, what would He look like?” Not everyone recognized God when they saw Jesus who was God in human form. Jesus, God in human form was like a lamb and like a shepherd.
To see God as a lamb was new. To see God as a shepherd was old.
There is a third image of God that we read of this morning in the second psalm that people understood long ago, but we have forgotten. This image equally describes Him as to think of Him as a lamb and as a shepherd. Here we see the Son of God as a King towering in majesty over the kings of the earth. Here we read, “with trembling kiss His feet lest He be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled.” How very different from a lamb or a shepherd this view of God is—or of the Son of God.
How we think of God should include all three of these images. If we neglect any one of them, we think defectively—and will thus act defectively in our practice of our religion.
The lamb is a gentle image. When John said, “Behold the lamb of God,” we might want to hold this lamb in our arms. I think of William Blake’s lovely poem:
Little Lamb, who made thee? _
Dost thou know who made thee? _
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o'er the mead; _
Gave thee clothing of delight, _
Softest clothing, woolly, bright; _
Gave thee such a tender voice, _
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee? _
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb, I'll tell thee. _
He is called by thy name, _
For He calls Himself a Lamb. _
He is meek, and He is mild; _
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name. _
Little Lamb, God bless thee! _
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Such a gentle view of God.
In the 23rd Psalm a sheep says of the shepherd, “He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul . . . though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will not fear for thou art with me.” This teaches you and me how to think of Jesus, the Good Shepherd—my guide, the one who takes me by still waters to drink, by green pastures to eat. “He protects me so well that without the will of my father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head,” as the Heidelberg Catechism puts it. Once when I was with one of our people as she died I quoted the 23rd Psalm and it comforted her. She slipped peacefully into the sleep of death.
But in the second Psalm The Son of God is the “Lord,” the King who towers over all the kings of the earth. In fact, the word in the Hebrew of Psalm 2: 11 is the name of God sometimes pronounced “Yahweh.” What happened to the lamb? What happened to the good shepherd? The lamb and the shepherd are still there, but this one is also the Lord of heaven and earth. When John wrote in verse twelve of this first chapter, “We saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” he gathered into one these images of Jesus, the Son of God.
One of the second-century Church fathers, Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in France, saw the eagle as the symbol of the Gospel of John. He didn’t mean for us to think of the eagle as we think of the American Bald Eagle, a powerful bird of prey. Instead he had in mind the clear vision of the eagle. Flying far above the ground he sees clearly the smallest objects below.
Let us see Jesus clearly. See Jesus, the Lamb of God, the gentle One who on Good Friday lay down His life as lambs used to be sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem. Lambs were sacrificed unwillingly to atone for human sin. Jesus, the Lamb of God willingly lay down His life, absorbing the natural penalty of human sin, death. Let us be grateful when we see Jesus as the Lamb.
Let us see Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Let us be like the sheep on the hillside who respond when the Shepherd’s Border collies draw them back from distant places where they may be in danger as they wander. The animals we call sheep are unwitting. But you and I are not unwitting. What you and I need is to be willing to hear our Shepherd’s voice and follow. How may the Good Shepherd be guiding you now? How is the Good Shepherd comforting you now, leading you to clear water, to green grass, or away from danger? Are you following this Good Shepherd?
Let us see Jesus as the King towering over all kings. Let us see Jesus as the righteous judge, whose feet we kiss lest He be angry and we perish in the way when His anger is kindled. He is not like ill-humored earthly kings. But don’t let this make you take him lightly. He may gird on His towel to wash the disciples feet. He may feed hungry masses who didn’t take aforethought for bringing their lunch. He may heal lepers, and care for thankless people along the way. But He is the King of kings, the righteous judge before whom you and I will one day stand and give an account of every thought and deed. Think of Him this way now.
And look at John the Baptist in his humility—though great in the Kingdom of God, feeling unworthy to untie Jesus’ shoelaces. Let us think of our relationship to Jesus with this humility lest we be proud that we’ve got it right, and thus destroy everything we might have gained in following Jesus.
Let us pray: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. O Jesus, our Lamb, our Shepherd, our righteous Judge, we would follow you. Amen.
Pastor Stuart D. Robertson
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at March 26, 2006 09:30 AM