“We See; We Believe; We Act”

John 1:29-42

Servants and lambs; servants and lambs; what’s all this talk about servants and lambs? With a word of apology to the makers of Kibbles and Bits and their ad agency, I use those words to begin a discussion of the person and mission of Jesus Christ.

In today’s text Jesus is referred to as both the Son of God, or Chosen One of God, and the Passover Lamb. For the people who first heard those words those were two contradictory titles. How could Jesus be God’s anointed Son, his Messiah while at the same time being described as a sacrificial lamb? Messiahs were not sacrificed, or so those folks thought. Messiahs were to be military conquerors and political rulers. Who wants a Messiah who is as gentle as a lamb?

Probably not most of those folks who were standing around when John the Baptist yelled out, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” I’m sure there was a collective “huh?” when John said that. And then to make things even more confusing John referred back to the day before’s baptism of Jesus, an event which confirmed John’s foreordained knowledge that Jesus was indeed the Spirit-empowered Son of God.

Son of God? Lamb of God? Which phrase best described Jesus? Both. Jesus was God’s only begotten Son, the Anointed One of God – the Messiah. Jesus was also the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. What those folks standing around were forgetting were Isaiah’s prophecies of a Suffering Servant Messiah, upon whom the Lord would lay the iniquity of us all, “… like a lamb that is led to the slaughter…” – Isaiah 53:7.

Jesus had come to be God’s saving servant that Israel had failed to be. He had come to serve as God’s light to the nations, the Savior of the World. “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.. You are my servant, [said the Lord], Israel, in whom I will be glorified... I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation might reach to the [ends] of the earth.” – Isaiah 49:1, 3, and 6.

Jesus came; Jesus died; Jesus rose; Jesus will come again. His life and ministry were a beacon of hope in a dark and dying world. The blood he shed on the cross washed away the sins of the world. His resurrection was a guarantee of eternal life to those who believed.

That’s an interesting phrase: “to those who believed.” It echoes the words of John 1:11, “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” Confronted with the Light of the World, most Judeans chose to remain in darkness. Brought face to face with the real Messiah of God, they kept hoping for a Messiah more to their liking. Jesus was indeed the Chosen One of God who was rejected by almost the whole world.

Almost the whole world, but hear John 1:12-13, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God.” Some saw Jesus for who he really was, believed in him, and acted on that belief by surrendering their lives to him and following him in the way of the cross.

Two such people were Andrew and Simon Peter, disciples of John the Baptist who became disciples of Jesus. After John had pointed Jesus out to them and called him the Lamb of God, Andrew followed Jesus. He wanted to know where Jesus was headed. After spending time with Jesus he understood in just whose presence he was. With great inner perception he saw Jesus and knew that he really was the chosen One of God. He had no problem whatsoever with the seemingly contradictory titles of Jesus. He knew who Jesus really was and trusted that knowledge.

And he didn’t just sit on it. He found his brother Simon, shared the Good News with him, and brought him, quite literally, to Jesus. He saw, he believed, and he acted. Because of his testimony Simon also came to see and believed what he was seeing. In response he also acted. He too followed Jesus.

Over the next three years they would have their moments of doubt and misunderstanding. They would lapse back into their culture’s assumptions about who and what a Messiah really was. Simon, who Jesus renamed Peter, would berate Jesus after he shared the truth of the cross. On the night when Jesus was betrayed Peter denied him three times in order to save his own skin. But after the resurrection and ascension of the Lord, Peter held that early band of disciples together. And on Pentecost Sunday, empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter preached a sermon that brought 3,000 souls into the church in one day.

Peter and Andrew got it, not perfectly at first, but enough to enable them to follow Jesus. After Pentecost they and those other first disciples began sharing the truth of Jesus with the world. The church, Christ’s Body on earth, became servants of the Servant, instruments by which the light and love of God were revealed to the world. Ever since that time men, women, and children have believed the Good News of the Gospel. They have seen the truth of Jesus, believed that truth, and acted on it by becoming his disciples.

The question for us is do we get it? Do we really perceive who Jesus was and is? Can we deal with a Suffering Servant Messiah? Can we handle the truth that the Chosen One of God had to die on a cross in order to take away the sins of the world? Are we willing to understand that Jesus was and is both Messiah and Sacrificial Lamb? Can we grasp, and then truly believe, the whole truth about Jesus – his coming as the Word made flesh, his message of love and forgiveness, and his willingness to die on a cross in our place?

Please note that I left out two other facets of the person and mission of Christ: his resurrection and his coming again. We are God’s Easter people. We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We trumpet abroad the message of his coming again to make right all that is wrong.

The resurrection of Jesus was a mighty act of God, his mightiest act ever. It was an example of God’s conquering power. It is, and rightfully so, the church’s rah-rah moment. God won; the Devil lost. Christ triumphed; sin, death, and evil were defeated. Because he lives we live also.

His Second Coming will be an awesome display of God’s power. Jesus will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God’s Kingdom will be perfectly and eternally established. The Devil will get his final comeuppance. Everything that has been broken and destroyed by sin will be restored. The saints of God will gather around that crystal sea to sing the wondrous story of salvation. As the old song says, “O Lord, what a morning!”

As we celebrate the wondrous events that are the Resurrection and Second Coming – as we rejoice over the power and might of God Almighty being set loose – let’s not forget what happened first. God in the person of Christ became a man – a human being. This Christ, Jesus, was born into a family of common people. Until he was thirty he worked as a carpenter. His brief earthly ministry ended on a cross after he had been wrongly accused, beaten, cursed, served as the butt of coarse humor, and unjustly sentenced to death. His first crown was made of thorns. In him God’s strength was revealed in weakness; God’s wisdom was revealed in the foolishness that was the cross.

The prophetic words of Isaiah 53 became a reality: “He was despised and rejected… a man of suffering… held of no account… wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities… upon him was the punishment that made us whole… by his bruises we are healed… the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all… he was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter…”

As we celebrate his resurrection and anticipate his Second Coming, we must never forget that Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. Nor are we to forget that he was the Suffering Servant Messiah announced by Isaiah. He lived by dying, won by losing, became first of all only after being last of all, and won his crown by dying on a cross. He modeled servanthood as he washed his disciples’ feet. He taught and modeled forgiveness – on the cross he forgave his killers! His final commandment was that we love one another.

Until we get all that we don’t get Jesus. Until we can accept him as our Suffering Servant Messiah who was at the same time the sacrificial Lamb of God who died to take away the sins of the world, we have not really understood Jesus – we have not perceived him for who he is. Until we’re ready to practice servanthood and humility we cannot truly follow him. Until we’re ready to lay down everything in order to pick up a cross we cannot be his disciples. And until we’re ready to follow the missionary example of Andrew we cannot truly be his church. We must see Jesus for who he truly is and believe what we see. Then we must act by following him and sharing the Good News of his love: with excitement and conviction but also with humility. Amen.