I want to begin this morning by asking you a question. What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word lamb? I’d guess that you might think of an adorable, cute and cuddly little barnyard animal. You may very well think of the old nursery rhyme – Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow. You might also think of a soft stuffed animal given to a child – often given as a baby gift. And even though beef, pork and chicken are the major meat products consumed here in the Midwest, you might possibly even think about eating leg of lamb or possibly a lamb chop.
But two thousand years ago in Israel, the word “lamb” brought very different images to mind. A lamb was – above all else – a sacrificial animal. A lamb was born and raised to die, and every God-fearing Jew who heard John’s words knew exactly what he meant. They knew that lambs had been used for sacrifices to God at least as far back as Abraham. In Genesis chapter 22, we read the account of God commanding Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering. As Abraham and Isaac head to the place that God has chosen, Isaac asks his father: “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” And even before God stops Abraham from taking the life of his son, Abraham confidently tells Isaac: “God will provide for himself the lamb.”
Hundreds of years later, when the descendents of Abraham were enslaved in Egypt, the lamb became sacrifice on a much larger scale. In preparation for the tenth and final plague to afflict Egypt – and in preparation for the release of the Children of Israel from their bondage – God gave them very specific instructions for the sacrifice and death of a lamb. And not just any lamb – a perfect lamb without blemish. The lamb was to be killed at a specific, appointed time. Its blood was to be put on the doorposts and lintels of the houses where the Israelites lived. It was to be cooked in a very specific manner, every last bit of the meat was to be consumed, and no bones of the lamb were to be broken. It was the occasion of the Passover, when the angel of death would kill the firstborn of every Egyptian household while passing over the homes of the Jewish people. On the following day Pharaoh would finally let God’s people leave Egypt to begin their journey to the Promised Land, and to this day faithful Jews still observe the feast of the Passover exactly as God commanded them to do – beginning with the sacrifice of the lamb. The sacrificial lamb became and still remains a symbol of deliverance from bondage, a symbol of death for those who deny God – and a symbol of life for God’s chosen people.
Later when God established his sacrificial system, the lamb was one of the most prominent animals decreed by God to be sacrificed first on the altar of the Tabernacle and later on the altar of the Temple. Today the sacrifice of animals seems brutal and cruel to our 21st century mindset, but 2,000 years ago it was an everyday occurrence. A lamb was sacrificed every morning and every evening at the Temple, and additional lambs were offered for sacrifice on the Sabbath. Day after day, people would bring lambs to the priests that were to be sacrificed – innocent animals sacrificed for the sins of sinful human beings. The Temple of Israel was an incredibly beautiful building – it was, after all, the house of God – but it was also a slaughterhouse. The blood of sacrificed animals was poured at the base of the altar, and from there it ran into the streets and then into the Brook Kidron and eventually into the Dead Sea.
In God’s sacrificial system, something must die to bring forgiveness and life. In God’s sacrificial system, blood must be shed. In God’s sacrificial system, the innocent must die on behalf of the guilty. The Law requires – demands – a cleansing by blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is not and never can be forgiveness.
So when we hear John call Jesus the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” we begin to look at those words with an entirely new understanding. John the Baptizer, the last of God’s great prophets, uses those words to prophesy how Jesus will die. He uses those words to graphically explain that Jesus will be killed, will be slaughtered – just as lambs were slaughtered in the Temple. He uses those words to explain that Jesus’ death truly is a sacrifice, just as lambs were sacrificed. But Jesus is not just any lamb; He is the pure and holy Lamb of God, the perfect Lamb without any blemish or stain of sin. The Lamb who will die at a specific, appointed time and in a manner chosen not by men, but by His own Father in heaven.
We point to the cross as the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God – and it is – but Good Friday was not the first time that Jesus’ holy and innocent blood was shed. At the age of eight days he was circumcised, an act that then and still results in the shedding of blood. On Maundy Thursday, as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Luke tells us that “his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Following His arrest, blood flowed from Jesus’ body following his flogging and blood flowed from His head where the soldiers pressed a crown of thorns. On Golgotha the blood flowed from his crucified hands and feet. Even following His death, both water and blood gushed from His side after a soldier stabbed Him with a spear to make sure that he was dead – really, truly dead.
There – as the lifeless body of Jesus hung on the cross – we finally and fully understand what John meant when he called Jesus the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” God’s wrath over the sins of all mankind – over our sins – had been satisfied. The sacrifice and satisfaction that we could not make had been made for us – and had been accepted. The sacrificial death of our Lord had washed us clean. Had made us holy and perfect in God’s sight. We truly, as St. John writes in Revelation chapter 7, may now be numbered among the saints who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
But unlike every lamb that ever gave its life as a sacrifice in the Temple, the Lamb of God rose from the dead three days after His death. His victory over sin and over death has become our victory, too. Never again will the blood of earthly lambs be shed for the sins of the people, for the blood of the Lamb of God is truly the final and ultimate sacrifice.
On that day by the Jordan River, John the Baptizer not only prophesied about Jesus’ death, but he gave a stirring and eternal confession about the Lamb of God. “I have seen and have borne witness,” John said, “that this is the Son of God.” And ever since that day, Christians of all nations and nationalities have also been confessing that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins. We make that confession in the words of the Creeds, including the Nicene Creed that we confessed only minutes ago. We make that confession when we witness about Christ to those who do not know Him as their Savior.
In just a few minutes we will again make that confession. Following the Words of Institution but before we begin the distribution of Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, we sing an ancient part of the liturgy known as the Agnus Dei, Latin words that we translate as “Lamb of God.” You already know the words of this confession be heart:
O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us.
O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, grant us Thy peace.
In these words we – just as John the Baptizer told the crowds – bear witness that Jesus is the Son of God. We proclaim that Jesus has truly taken away our sins and made us righteous before God our Father and Creator. We proclaim that the Lamb of God has had mercy on us and has given us His peace.
More than 2,000 years before John confessed that Jesus was the Lamb of God, a boy by the name of Isaac asked his father: “Behold, the fire and wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” His father Abraham replied: “God will provide for himself the lamb.”
God has provided the Lamb. And thanks be to God, that Lamb truly has taken away the sin of the world!
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