John 1:29-42a: The Lamb of God

Introduction

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Welcome to my Devotions Series. This series features devotions based on the Scriptures of the Common Lectionary. The series is being prepared for eventual and hopeful print publication.

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Lectionary Series Year A: The Second Sunday After Epiphany
John 1:29-42a (Read it on Bible Gateway)
The Lamb of God
In this passage from the Gospel according to John, we have a classic passage which introduces one of the many well-known titles by which Jesus is known, The Lamb of God. It also hints a little more at the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus, a relationship which as you might recall, we've looked at several times (most notably in Devotions: Matthew 11:2-15).

First, let's look at the title of The Lamb of God. As surprising as it may be, this passage, in verses 29 and 36 are the only two places in Scripture that this title is used to refer to Jesus, both uttered from John the Baptist and both right here in the very early part of the Gospel. As well known as it has become, it's hard to believe it had such little actual use in Scripture itself.

When we hear that title, most of us probably have some concept of its meaning. I'm fairly sure none of us picture it as meaning that Jesus was God's cute, cuddly pet. It refers to Christ as being the Sacrifice from God to redeem us of our sins, the fundamental underlying teaching of Christianity which sets aside our faith giving it its unique identity. This image has remained amazingly strong in our collective psyche, even though we've not been a sacrificial faith or culture for thousands of years now.

However, at one time, the Jewish faith was indeed a Sacrificial Culture and Religion. A good deal of the writings of the Hebrew Testament focused on teaching the rites, practices and principles of proper sacrificial offerings. This included actions requiring sacrifice, the proper means of preparation of sacrifice and the rites needed to properly bless an offered sacrifice. Lambs, particularly, were one of the animals often used in sacrifice. So while that in itself gives the image power, the greater power comes from a particular sacrifice of lambs.

If we go back to the story of the Exodus, when God was sending plagues against Egypt with the purpose of setting God's people free from their slavery in Egypt, we find a very powerful image which would have resonated with early Jewish Christians, and indeed with all Jews. In that story, the final plague was the death of all the firstborn in Egypt. The Jews were instructed by God, through Moses, to protect their families by killing a lamb and spreading its blood on the lintels of their doors, thus marking their homes as homes of the faithful, God's people, so that the Angel of Death would pass over their home, sparing the firstborn children within. (See Exodus 12:1-28 for the details.)

By this the Jewish people were literally spared the judgment of God through the blood of a lamb. It was a sacrifice and a grace that is still remembered and celebrated every year in the Jewish Festival of Passover, one of the central beliefs and rituals of the Jewish faith. Here we have John the Baptist bringing that central, core, and powerful image to bear on Christ in referring to how his sacrifice would spare all from the judgment that would be due us otherwise. All in all, this makes a pretty powerful affirmation of the Savior.

Other than that we have some reflection from John on other things that I want to mention primarily by way of putting it in context with previous comments regarding the relationship between John and Jesus. In this passage John the Baptist states he would not have known Christ, but for the pouring out of the Spirit in Jesus' baptism. This conflicts with other passages in scripture. We have the story where John leaps in his mother's womb when a pregnant Mary arrives (Luke 1:39-45). Of course, John may not have remembered that. Yet in the account of Jesus' Baptism in Matthew, John makes it very clear he knows Jesus' status before actually baptizing Jesus (Matthew 3:13-14). John, here, goes so far as to state he didn't even know Jesus, though its very unclear whether here he is simply referring to Jesus' status as Messiah, or saying he didn't even know Jesus period. Seeing as the two were family, that would lean toward the first meaning. However, it is possible that John had not known Jesus earlier. Remember John lived in the desert and we don't really know when he took up that life. If it was earlier, it may very well mean the two never met prior to that day when Jesus was baptized.

However, all in all, its still one of those little inconsistencies we sometimes find in scripture, based on the fact that these stories were set down by the recollections of their human authors. In this case, the Gospel author of John, who may have been one of these two disciples of John the Baptist who go to follow Jesus in this passage, may not have known the answer to these questions and told the tale as he remembered it.

For the complete listing of our Devotions, see our Devotions Archive