Behold the Lamb of God

21 Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.” – Luke 3:21:22

29 The next day he *saw Jesus coming to him, and *said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He in behalf of whom I said, ‘After me is coming a Man who has proved to be my superior, because He existed before me.’ 31 And I did not recognize Him, but so that He would be revealed to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” 32 And John testified, saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. – John 1:29-32

Can we pause a moment to reflect on how trippy God’s Word can be? Just imagine you were there at the River Jordan that day. What if you were in line behind Jesus to get baptized? Maybe you knew the rumors about Jesus – that he was Joseph the carpenter’s son.

“Which Joseph?”

“Heir to the throne of David, cuckolded, dirt poor Joseph.”

“Oh, that Joseph.”

You take a step back, not wanting to be tainted by the gossip associated with this poor man.

And then something like a dove comes down out of heaven, and Almighty God calls out from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”

Well. That’s put a different spin on things, doesn’t it?

Thanks to George Lucas and Industrial Light and Magic, it’s probably easier for us than for our ancestors to wrap our brains around what this might have been like.

When we come across something that would have knocked your socks off if you’d been there to see it, let’s take a moment to appreciate God’s ability and propensity to rock our world.

I’m big on making connections. And the Bible is full of them. Jesus is both the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. He’s the shepherd and the door to the sheepfold. (Shepherds slept across the opening to the sheep pen.)

If you do a word study on lamb, you’ll come up with many references to lambs (or the ram) given in sacrifice. Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. The Passover lamb in Exodus 12. Further information on lambs as sin offerings in Leviticus and Numbers. We read this in Isaiah:

He was oppressed and afflicted,

Yet He did not open His mouth;

Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,

And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,

So He did not open His mouth. – Isaiah 53:7

So by the time we get to John the Baptist declaring, “Behold the Lamb of God,” there can be no doubt. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ who takes away the sin of the world.

John (the soon-to-be disciple) and Andrew, Peter’s brother, heard John the Baptist make that declaration. Don’t you love their response?