Lamb of God
Two Named John
Recently I’ve heard stories of people having DNA testing. Sometimes they find out general facts about their family background. But sometimes these tests reveal information that leads to families being reunited with children who had been adopted. The mysteries of DNA are a fairly recent discovery for modern science. Yet DNA is one of countless miracles placed in each one of us by our creator. God carefully crafted each one of us with our own individual pieces of those who came before us.
As the Christmas season approaches, I think of another family who were linked together-the family of Mary and her relative, Elizabeth. From the book of Luke, we learn about the purpose of Elizabeth’s son, John (the Baptist.) He would be the forerunner of the Messiah, the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5, who would come in the spirit like Elijah to prepare the hearts of men.
In the book of John, the ministry of John the Baptist is in full swing. He is doing exactly what God sent him to do. He is preaching about the coming Messiah, teaching disciples, and baptizing believers.
Then one day, the time had come for Jesus to begin his ministry. First, he went to John the Baptist to be baptized. Imagine this scene with me. John the Baptist was a sight to see. He wore a garment made from camel hair and wore a leather belt. His hair would have been long and flowing as he preached repentance. Then John sees Jesus coming toward him. Without hesitation John cries out
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
The crowd would have understood what “the lamb of God” meant. They would have understood that lambs were sacrificed. The original Passover lamb was a young, perfect male. The blood of the Passover lamb had been spilled in exchange for the life of the firstborn. Each year they still sacrificed a young, perfect male for their annual Passover meal. And they all knew that twice each day in the temple, a lamb was sacrificed at 9AM, and one at 3PM. The crowd on the banks of the Jordan river that day would have understood the meaning of the lamb of God.
Jesus was and is the lamb of God. Only the blood of the lamb of God takes away our sin. It seems significant to me that the apostle John (who wrote the book of John) is the only gospel writer to include that John the Baptist called Jesus the lamb of God. But in the book of Revelation – also written by the apostle John – Jesus is called the Lamb over and over again (chapters 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, and 19.)
God allowed the apostle John a peek into heaven and write about it in Revelation. He saw multitudes worshipping saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
Yes, worthy is the Lamb.
Carla Killough McClafferty