Back
a few years ago, when we walked through the Gospel according to John, we came
across this passage in the first chapter that says, “The next day he saw Jesus coming
toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the
world!’” Now, I know that all of
you who were here that day remember everything I said about this passage back
then so there’s really no need to go over it again. However, just in case you happen to have
missed that particular Sunday, I’ll give you some bullet points about this
phrase spoke by John the Baptist that we covered that Sunday. I said that that title Lamb of God (Angus Dei in Latin) was (and still is) a
prominent one within Christian scholarship.
Within Scripture, the title itself is only used in John’s Gospel and
later on when he wrote the book of Revelation.
Now, obviously, there are many more references to lambs, sheep, or rams,
and particularly sacrificial or slain lambs in Scripture, but these are the
only books that make the direct connection between Jesus and this title Lamb of
God. However, we hear this title given
of Jesus and we probably never really stop and think about what it means to be
the Lamb of God. Why a lamb? Why are we told about the Lamb of God and the
Lion of Judah? Well, it’s my hope that
today, and over the next several weeks as we lead up to the culmination of our
Easter celebration, that we will all come to understand both the significance
of the title Lamb of God, as well as maybe getting a better understanding of
the place that the imagery of the lamb, sheep, or ram has in our worship and
understanding of God.
The
book of Leviticus, the place where our first reading this morning came from, is
in essence God’s guide to holiness, God’s guide for us on how to live holy lives. In its original context, it was God’s
instructions for Israel, his chosen people, fresh out of slavery and newly
redeemed, as to how they were to worship, serve, and obey their holy God. Roughly the first half of the book is devoted
to how they are to approach God, with the first seven chapters being about how
they are to approach him through sacrifices.
Well, right in the middle of those first seven chapters, we find the
words for our text today, talking specifically about the sacrificing of a young,
unblemished lamb. And as we see, there
wasn’t much room for interpretation, the instructions we detailed and they were
clear. The priest had a very specific
formula or format that he had to follow.
I’ve become quite adept at putting together children’s toys over the
past few years. When they say put pieces
B and C together before pieces D and E, they mean it. There is no room for variation in those
things. Well, worship of God, especially
for Old Testament Israel, was equally as structured and rigidly ordered. There was a specific process that had to be
followed by the people and the priests in order for it to be satisfactory in
God’s sight.
Now,
I’m going to address what is sort of the elephant in the room when we start to
get into discussions about the sacrificial system set forth by God in the Old
Testament. People always ask why
sacrifices had to be made anyway. What
was the purpose of killing such an innocent creature? Why would God command us to kill such a sweet
animal? Just get online and Google pictures
of a lamb (not now of course, but when you get home), and you’ll find nothing
but pictures of these sweet little uncoordinated animals, these baby
sheep. And not only are they lanky and
uncoordinated, but they’re dumb. They’re
so dumb that you have to save them from themselves. I have never sheered a sheep, but my wife has. She had to do it as part of her course of
study in college, and she can tell you just how dumb they are, and that’s
coming from a person who has said in complete honesty on multiple occasions that
many animals that she has dealt with are a lot smarter than many people that
she’s dealt with. Getting back to the
point, how could God command his people to kill and sacrifice these precious
creatures, regardless of their lack of intelligence?
Well,
the answer is that it’s your fault. It
is completely and totally your fault that these animals had to be put to death. You see, it’s because of sin that these
sacrifices were required. God was and is
and forever will be a just God. However,
we often don’t really understand what it means when we say that God is
just. This past week, I found one source
trying to answer what exactly we mean when we say that God is just that said, “The
Bible tells us that God is just. This
means that He is fair and impartial. It
also means that He hates the ill-treatment and oppression of people and of
nature, which He has created. He hates
lying, cheating, and other forms of mistreatment of others. The fact that God is just means that He can
and will judge between right and wrong and He will administer justice in
accordance with His standards.” Now, I
do agree with some of those words.
However, I think that that particular definition focuses a little too
much on the external behavior or mankind. Basically, God’s being just means
that there is a punishment for sin, i.e. a punishment for disobedience. If we disobey God’s will in any way, then he
has to punish us. Also, let me add a
little something else to the mix. God’s
being just isn’t just true in the negative, but also in the positive. Before we confessed our sins this morning in
a time of prayer, I quoted to you (as I always do) a text from 1 John (God, who
is faithful and just, will cleanse us of all unrighteousness). You see, just simply means that God is a god
of promise. We might want to say that he
is a man of his word (pardon my heresy for calling God a man). In essence, if God said it, then he means it.
Now,
I’m not the perfect parent; I know that.
My wife isn’t the perfect parent.
My kids aren’t perfectly behaved; I know that too. However, last weekend, while we were out of
town so that I could officiate a wedding for a long-time friend, we attend
worship on Sunday at another friend of mine’s church before going to eat lunch
with some of Amy’s close friends from the Jackson area. There were 16 of us in one spot, with half of
the group being six years old and under, and all but one of those being four
years old and under. Y’all, it was
chaos. There were kids running around,
climbing on walls, running into the kitchen, hanging on stairs, and our three
were sitting right where they were supposed to be. We didn’t criticize our friends or their
kids. We didn’t criticize their
parenting strategies. However, one of the
parents asked me later on how we got our kids to sit so still. I looked at Ashby and asked her why they were
being so good and she said, “because mom and dad told us that we had to sit at
the table and eat our lunch and we know that if we don’t, then we’re going to
be in trouble.” You see, I watched as
our friends gave threats, tried bribes, attempted timeouts, but largely never
really meant any of what they were saying.
You see, Amy and I have missed out on things before because we’ve had to
carry out punishments. Amy can tell you
that really my only rule of parenting is that you, as the parent, be willing to
follow through on any threat you make.
Thomas and I have sat over on the bench together before and watched as
his brother and sister played on the playground. Would I have liked to be over there playing
with my children? Sure, but I bet Thomas
would have liked to be over there even more.
However, we set a standard and it wasn’t lived up to. Therefore, we had to be just in carrying out
the punishment. We don’t do this because
we’re mean, but because we love our kids.
You see, loving our kids is teaching them how they are to act and why it
is important instead of letting them do whatever they want and letting them
decide everything for themselves.
I’m
sure a lot of you are wondering how we went from the Lamb of God to sacrificing
sheep to my parenting strategies. Well,
let me tie all of this back together with the time that I have left. Sacrifices had to be offered because God had
to punish us. God set a standard that
was perfection, and we fell short of that standard in the persons of Adam and
Eve. Therefore, God, being just, had to
punish us. Now, we know that there
wasn’t enjoyment on the part of God, just as I don’t enjoy disciplining my
kids. However, like parental discipline,
God punishes us not because of hatred for us, but because of love. You see, in that punishment, in that
discipline from love in the Garden, God promised that he was sending Jesus, the
Lamb of God. Now, obviously Genesis 3:15
doesn’t spell it out in precise terms, but through the continued revelation of
God and the unfolding of his plan, we see it.
Because God is just, mankind had to pay a price for disobedience to God,
but God, because of love, didn’t leave us destitute and without any hope. God set forth a plan to send the Lamb of God
into the world. Man was punished with
separation from God, banishment from the Garden, and ultimately death. However, God, through his love, was giving us
the Lamb of God.
So,
we’ve sort of come full circle between our texts haven’t we? We’ve seen the need for the sacrifice of
lambs; which in turn points us to the ultimate sacrifice of a lamb, the Lamb of
God. You see, Jesus’ death was
sacrificial because it was not warranted.
Death is only for those who sin and do not completely obey the will of
the Father. Jesus obeyed
completely. There was not one aspect of
God’s will or his law that Jesus didn’t fulfill. And through the work of the Holy Spirit that
perfection, that righteousness, is credited to us. We are made possessors of the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. To borrow another line
about sheep, 1 Peter 2:24-25 reads, “He
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and
live to righteousness. By his wounds you
have been healed. For you were straying
like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
You
see, Jesus’ death restores (at least to some extent) our relationship with
God. It won’t be completely as it was in
Adam until we enter into that final state of glory. It can’t reach that point on this earth
because as long as we live upon this earth then we are corrupted by sin. Sin is a reality that is known in this world
but not in heaven. However, because of
Jesus…because of the sacrifice that he made upon the cross, (as 1 Peter says)
we have been healed. Because of Jesus “we have returned to the Shepherd and
Overseer of our souls.” This table
that sits before us this day, these elements of the bread and the cup,
representing the body and the blood of Jesus, they represent our being healed
by his wounds. There’s nothing in them
physically that does this. This meal was
instituted by Jesus during the Last Supper between the Lamb of God and his
disciples, as a remembrance of the sacrifice made upon the cross. During the moments that we have between now
and our observing of this sacrament, I encourage all of you to think and
reflect upon the fact that God is just, and being such, he had to punish
us. However, he did not leave us in our
state of misery, but sent the name that is above all names, the Lamb that is
above all lambs, to come and die so that we may have eternal life.
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