Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 40:1-11; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9; John 1:29-42
About thirty years ago on a cold Thanksgiving Day, I was driving home to St. Marys, WV from Johnson City, TN where I lived and worked for Texas Instruments. For some reason I had to work fairly late on Wednesday, and so early Thanksgiving morning I got into my dark blue Nissan Pulsar and headed up I-81 to Wytheville. There, I filled up with gas at the TransAmerica Truckstop, which was about the only thing open that morning, and then headed north on I-77.
I was in a hurry. The trip was normally a six hour trip, but since there was little traffic on the road – and I knew the road well, I pushed it a bit, traveling 75 and 80 mph up the WV Turnpike.
I sped past the Capitol in Charleston and turned towards Parkersburg. And it was about ten miles north of Charleston that I became aware of a little blue light flickering in my rear-view window. I slowed down from the 79 mph I was traveling, and this WV State Police Cruiser came burning up the road and settled down right on my tail, so I slowed down and pulled over. The fine was $75 plus my insurance rates went up an extra $20 every six months for two years.
Throughout history, the punishment for many crimes, particularly the smaller crimes, has been the fine – a sacrifice of money or goods which goes to the enforcers – whether a government, a king, or, in the case of ancient Israel, to God’s Temple. Fines and sacrifices have long been preferred because they are the penalties that give second chances – other punishments such as slavery, the loss of life, or of a limb don’t really give you much of a second chance. Even jail time is considered a stronger punishment than a fine or sacrifice. And that is because you can never truly recover your time on this planet, while you can work harder, behave better, and recover your lost wealth after a fine or a sacrifice.
In ancient times, the preferred sacrifice was animal sacrifice for several reasons. First of all, cash or coin money was rare and more valuable, used primarily for travelers because it was easier to carry a gold coin than five head of cattle. Farmers – who represented over 90 percent of the population – rarely could save up enough to buy even one coin. In fact, by the time of the Roman empire, a single silver coin about the size and weight of our dime was worth a full day’s wages from an average laborer.
But livestock and grain – almost everyone had that. And so in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, in Numbers and Exodus there are various fines specified that must be paid when someone committed a crime against another person, against the community – or against God.
For small crimes, an offering of about 5 pounds of fine flour was the payment. For larger crimes, perhaps a couple of doves. But for more serious crimes, a lamb, a cow, or even a bull might be required. And even if you are a farmer today, the loss of your best bull – and the law of Moses stated that you always sacrificed the best you had – the loss of your best bull was felt.
Most punishments depended upon the wealth of the offender. Whereas a rich man might have to pay the bull, most people paid with a lamb and the poorest people paid with doves or even grain – in other words, a meal or two – which was enough to get your attention but rarely enough to break you for life.
And at the same time the Law of Moses came to the people of Israel, brought down from Mount Sinai from God by Moses, the people of Israel were just beginning to relax because they had escaped the Angel of Death who flew over Egypt a few months earlier and killed the firstborn of Egypt. The only reason the Israelites had been saved was because they believe what Moses told them, that they must take a lamb into their home for a few days, letting it become a member of the household, letting the children grow used to it, the entire family treating it as a pet, and then that night, they killed the lamb, ate the lamb, and put the blood on the doorposts of their homes and so the Angel of Death “passed over” their home, letting the firstborn live in that home because that home had decided that they believed in what God’s messenger, Moses, had told them, and they were able to escape the slavery of Egypt and cross over the water of the Red Sea to safety.
Can you imagine what the children said, how they cried, not fully understanding why their pet was killed? Can you imagine what impact it would have made on those firstborn as they grew old enough to understand the story and why that lamb had to be killed that night, that lamb with the pretty coat of wool that we had taken inside and played with and cuddled with and petted as it looked for food so trusting from us, who gave it death, how that lamb had been traded for our lives?
And so the idea of the sacrificial lamb became grilled into the minds of Israel. Everyone in Israel understood that lambs were there for wool, for eating, and to pay for penalties as sacrifices. And some of the prophets began to see visions of a lamb being sacrificed for sin, as well you might when you grew up on a farm, when you got to know every animal as an individual, when you took care of those lambs and protected them and fed some of them and named them, and then, when you did something wrong, you had to bring your favorite, your best, your most perfect lamb to Jerusalem and watch the priest cut the lamb’s neck and hear it squeal and see the lifeblood of that poor animal pour out on the altar. It was then that you realized that your sins do hurt others, that there is no such thing as a truly victimless crime, that what you do has life and death consequences, and so you resolved to be more careful, more holy, more obedient to God’s Laws. It is a heartfelt resolution no mere money fine can duplicate.
And then, one day, a wild prophet in the wilderness of Judea, down by the Jordan River, a man named John points to another man and says to his disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
And if you were one of those disciples, you might ask Rabbi John just what he meant. Had John, the one who ate wild honey and locusts finally eaten something that had addled his mind? Had John, the man who made his own clothes out of camel hair, had the smell of the camels gotten to him? Or was it simply the heat and being alone so much?
But John the Baptizer had a solid reason for that outburst. John had not chosen to go into the wilderness and preach his baptism of repentance and sin removal on his own. He had been sent by God, who had spoken to John. And God had told John that ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
And so, two of John’s disciples, Andrew and another man named John, went and followed Jesus and spent the evening talking to Him. And after that conversation, Andrew went to his brother Simon and brought Him to Jesus, where Jesus looked at this strong, muscular fisherman, and said, “You are Simon, son of John. Now you will be called “Rock””, which in Aramaic is “Cephas” and in Greek is "Petros", from which we get the name this man is remembered by: Peter.
And John the Baptist was right when he pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For in just three short years, after the disciples had gotten to know and love this new teacher, after they had lived with Him and shared food with Him, eaten with Him and spent nights together on the road, after they had become dear friends, Jesus was sacrificed. His blood was shed and he died, and, like children, his disciples did little more than watch from a distance and cry bitter tears.
But if they had understood, if they had been older, if they knew what was going on – which they learned later – they would have known that this Lamb had to die, He had to be killed, His blood needed to be shed because this sacrifice did not keep the Angel of Death from passing over us, but destroyed Death itself. It was because of Jesus’ sacrificial death that we can live forever. It was because of Jesus’ death that we can escape, not from the slavery of Egypt, but from the slavery we bring with us each day, our slavery to our addictions and sins. It was because Jesus was the most perfect Lamb that God said that all who believe in this sacrifice and cross over through the water of baptism will be saved.
"Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!"
Will you believe in this sacrifice and the blood of Jesus that was shed? Will you be saved by believing and crossing over through the water of baptism?
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