The sentence that sums up salvation

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, 'A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 Then John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.' 34 I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39 "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ).

If you can understand the West Coast offense, you can become an offensive coordinator for many NFL teams. If you can understand sabermetrics, you can be a general manger in the Major Leagues. If you can understand F=ma (force equals mass times acceleration) you can teach physics. If you can understand the cartouche on the Rosetta Stone, you can decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

And if you understand one particular sentence in our Gospel text, you can preach and teach like John the Baptist and you can share your faith with your siblings and friends like Andrew.

While I was working on today’s sermon I found a Christian blog that asked the question, “What’s the Bible in one sentence?” Most of the answers were written by pastors, so of course, they were long and wordy. They tried to fit too much into one long run-on sentence, so it wasn’t clear or concise. I think many others were trying to be cute and clever. I’ve never commented on non-denominational blog before, but since I didn’t like any of their answers I wrote, “Why try and better John the Baptist? He succinctly summarizes the Bible: ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ It’s all there – epiphany, sin, sacrifice, salvation, redemption, justification, forgiveness, release, freedom and victory.”

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! The word “look” is an epiphany word. It means, “Look here, I want to show you something.” I asked the painters of our church this week if they’ve ever had so many field trips to their job sites before. They replied that they’ve never had any field trips before. Almost every day I was bringing the Lower School children or others on a guided tour of the church – pointing out this paint, revealing that vinyl covering, explaining the new arches, (them pointing out where the cracks had been) and telling them to come back next Sunday to look at the finished product. It’s an Epiphany!

John exclaims, “Look!” John had already received his epiphany from God. The day before John had baptized Jesus in the Jordan, the heavens opened, the Father spoke and the Spirit descended like a dove. Now John is proclaiming this epiphany to his disciples and audience. The founders of our church understood the significance of Epiphany and gave this church that name.

Look, the Lamb! I’m going to guess that the majority of you have never touched a sheep except maybe in a petting zoo. We just don’t hang out with sheep very much these days. So it may be a little harder for us to grasp the symbolism of Jesus being called the Lamb. The Jewish people had no such problem.

Out of all the animals used for sacrifice – bulls, goats or birds – lambs were used more than any other animal. These sacrifices were plentiful – morning and evening sacrifices, purifications, sin offerings, guilt offerings, burnt offerings, and so on. Then there were special festival sacrifices – the Feast of Tabernacles, Pentecost, the Firstfruits and we cannot forget the Passover. The blood of lambs was continually flowing from Jerusalem’s altar. When John calls Jesus “the Lamb” all these images come to mind.

All devout Jews knew that they were the ones who should be allowed to die, not all these lambs. The blood flowing from the lambs just emphasized how sinful they really were. The blood flowing from the lambs just emphasized how sinful they really were. “Those sacrifices were an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats (and sheep) to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:3). They knew they had earned God’s eternal wrath with their sins. Just as they knew that sheep are amazingly clueless animals regarding the things of this world, so they knew that they themselves were amazingly clueless regarding the things of God. This image was so strong that God often referred to the people as His sheep with Himself as their Shepherd. They understood that the sacrificial lamb was taking their place. Now John was pointing to this Man who was the Shepherd who had become a Lamb in order to lead by becoming a sacrifice.

Our forefathers at Epiphany understood Shepherd and Lamb imagery, so they put those images on our stained glass windows – Jesus as Shepherd above the altar and Jesus as Lamb in the back.

Look, the Lamb of God! This Lamb is God’s Lamb. Does God ever seem remote to you? Aloof? Alien? Distant? Unapproachable? Well, in a sense, God has held Himself at a distance from His creation. The Creator stands above and beyond all understanding for His creation. He remains apart so we may give Him reverence and awe. However, in the person of Jesus, we have our Immanuel – our God with us. He is God from God, Light from Light. He is the Savior God who took on human flesh to become our personal bridge to eternal life with God. He became the Son of Man so that we could be adopted as sons and daughters of God. He became the sacrificial Lamb of God in order to lead us as our Savior Shepherd to our God.

Look, the Lamb of God who takes away sin! The Polish man living in Germany liked to drink and party in quantity, so he was unable to clearly remember everything about the past. He does, however, recall how, on New Year’s Eve, somewhere around 2004 or 2005, he had been given a shot to the noggin. The next day he woke with a throbbing head, but he didn’t bother to go to the doctor for what he assumed was a hangover. But his head continued to bother him for a long time – for years, in fact. Finally, he decided to go to the doctor to remove what he thought was a cyst.

What the man had wasn’t a cyst.

What he had was a .22-caliber bullet lodged in the back of his brain. The wound had healed over and left him with reoccurring headaches as a reminder. Later, after the surgery, he was given the .22-slug as a second reminder. (In case you’re wondering, the German police aren’t looking for an unsuccessful shooter. They think it’s more likely our Polish man had been nailed by a bullet somebody shot into the New Year Eve’s sky so many years ago.)

As Martin Luther teaches in his catechism, I want to put the best construction on this man, but even with the best construction, this man appears clueless to me. I call him clueless because I call myself clueless and you clueless. This man had a bullet lodged in his skull for years and did nothing to remove it. We have sin lodged in our brain, in our tongue, in our eyes, in our body, in our heart, in our very nature. All of the wars, terrorist attacks, senseless shootings and nearby robberies; all of our illnesses, ailments, anger issues, marriage problems, fears, worries, doubts and debts – all serve as a reminder of our sinfulness. And we are clueless. We go on with life knowing there’s a throbbing in our brain, a heaviness to our heart, a guilt in our conscience, but we often do nothing about it.

That’s why God gives us a stronger reminder and remedy in our worship service with a confession and absolution, the admission of sin and the sacrament for forgiveness of sin.

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away sin! The words “take away” in the Greek mean to “lift up and carry to another place.” This means the Lamb takes the load, the curse, the damnation of the total massive amount of sin upon Himself. He lifts the awful burden from us and carries it to the cross. There our sin is crucified with Christ. Blood flows. The Lamb is slaughtered. The Savior is sacrificed. The Substitute takes our place and takes our sin away.

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! Sin which has plagued and plundered the creation since the Fall of Man is removed. Jesus takes away sin, not just of Jews or Germans or Anglo Saxons or African Americans or Hispanics. Salvation is not restricted to the rich or poor or the young or old. There is no sin anywhere by anyone that this Lamb of God does not take away.

“Lamb” speaks of sacrifice. That’s what lambs were good for. Their throats were slit, their blood poured out on the altar, sprinkled on the ark of the covenant or painted on doorframes. Their bodies roasted in the fire, sometimes consumed entirely, sometimes shared in communion for the fellowship offering. The lamb was their substitute, their vicarious victim. They owed everything to the lamb.

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! We respond to John’s declaration in the Divine Service. As John baptized Jesus in the Jordan one day and the next pointed to Him as the Lamb who would ultimately lay upon the altar of the cross, so too our baptism now leads us to the altar, to eat the body and drink the blood of the crucified Lamb of God. We sing John’s song as we approach the altar, “Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.” And the life we are given through water and Word is fed and strengthened and sustained through the forgiveness and life of this eating and drinking. If baptism washes us from the outside in, here is the food that changes us from the inside out. If baptism puts us into Christ, then here Christ is put into us.

We owe everything to the Lamb.

There are other Bible verses that may summarize the message of the Bible. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Or 2 Corinthians 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” I’m sure you can think of others. But I don’t know if any of them carry the deep meaning, the gravitas, the summary of John’s single sentence. I don’t know if any of them have been portrayed in countless paintings and stained glass windows like the lamb carrying the banner. How many of them are used in every communion service like the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God, after the words of institution.

This sentence will stand forever. Long after this world is gone, long after the West Coast offense and sabermetrics goes out of style, long after the formula of F=ma is no longer valid and different languages are a thing of the past because this world no longer exists – we will gather in heaven and say, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise” (Revelation 5:12)!

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! When John the Baptizer saw Jesus, pointed at him, and said this short sentence, he said more than I can possibly explain this morning. When God inspired John the Evangelist to quote John the Baptizer, God gave us something to think about and to comfort us for the rest of our lives and on into eternity.

Followers of the Lamb, know this verse. Commit it to memory. Cherish it. Sing it. Parents, be like John and teach the Lamb of God to the audience in your home. Friends, be like Andrew and invite your friends and relatives to come and see the Lamb here at Epiphany.

Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! It is the sentence that sums up salvation. Amen.