Sermon: "Behold the Lamb of God" D. Anderson
Isaiah 53:1-6; I John 1:5-9; John 3:16-21
Listen again to the cutting Words of Christ,
our Priest and King, but also our Prophet,
from the Gospel record of John:
17 For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but to save the
world through him. 18 Whoever believes in
him is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe stands condemned already because he
has not believed in the name of God’s one and
only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has
come into the world, but men loved darkness
instead of light because their deeds were
evil. (John 3 NIV) These are Your words,
Lord Christ, renew us in Your Word, For Your
word is eternal Truth. Amen.
My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,
grace, mercy and peace to you as the Holy
Spirit increases faith and confidence within
you concerning all the promises of God-- and
especially, in the Second Coming of Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Imagine that this evening I had startling
news that Charlton Heston would be coming to
perform a scene from the movie “The Ten
Commandments.” He could not give us the
exact day, because it had to be worked into
his schedule, but he would be coming.
Excitement and enthusiasm tingled up your
spines. The next few months showed
electrified activity within our parish. Mr.
Ash’s long awaited dream of a stage in the
gym was quickly realized, even though it was
expensive.
NEXT AN ELABORATE SET WAS MADE FOR THE STAGE.
Al, Fred, John with parish handymen where
swinging hammers while Lori, Barb, Jeanne,
Pam and other gifted arts-and-crafters
decorated the set. Judy, Nancy, Linda and
Dorcas women were busy sewing costumes. IT
BECAME AN ELABORATE AFFAIR.
Soon all was done-- we were ready for the
call from Charlton Heston announcing the day
of his arrival and our special performance.
Days past... weeks... past... months past.
At first calls came in daily to the office.
"Any news yet?" "Have we heard from Heston’s
agent?" Yet as time past, fewer and fewer
calls reflected a decline in our enthusiasm
and expectations.
The stage set became dusty, and even
reflected some damage from gym activities
which accidently came in contact with the
stage area. Our people no longer wanted to
keep things us... the costumes, once hung
pressed and ready to go, where tossed around.
Arguments began to flair. "Why did we spend
that money anyway for that new stage!" some
snapped. "I’ll not give another cent toward
that gym," returned another. "I think it was
all a trick from the beginning... just
another trick to get more money from us."
said a third.
The whole parish had been electrified and
motivated by the coming of a big personality,
but when his coming was delayed, enthusiasm
converted to disgust, and motivation to
defiance.
Israel, God’s chosen people, experienced a
time of great blessing and prosperity under
King David. After his death, however, the
country disintegrated, became divided, and
was finally was devoured by foreign powers.
Faithful prophets tried to explain Israel’s
downfalls in terms of its sin against God.
Ezekiel, Haggai, and Zechariah also sought to
build up the hope of the displaced people of
Israel.
The temple was rebuilt by a people
electrified and enthusiastic-- there was a
confidence that the Messiah would be coming
soon. Confident of the Messiah’s imminent
coming, two crowns were made from the gold
and silver of returning exiled Jews.
One crown was placed upon Israel’s high
priest, and the other upon Israel’s reigning
king. These crowns would not leave the
temple, but remained a symbol of Israel’s
confident expectation that the Messiah, both
priest and king, was soon to arrive.
BUT TIME PASSED... AND PASSED... AND PASSED.
"Where is the coming Messiah?" people began
to grumble. "Why did we build this temple
anyway!" exclaimed others. "I’m not going to
worry about supporting the temple anymore,"
said many.
By the time of the prophet Malachi, Israel
was spiritually bankrupt. The failure of the
Messiah to come quickly, as expected, had
brought about two very serious spiritual
problems.
People didn’t see the importance of God to
daily life. They saw no profit to religion.
They stopped tithing to the Temple.
Israelite men divorced their Jewish wives--
treating them shamefully, in order to marry
pagan women.
The other problem was worse. Many in Israel
doubted the presence of God on earth. When I
traveled to Israel in the early 70’s to study
Biblical archeology, our guide was a Jewish
man who had been a tank commando in the army.
He was very frank to say that many Jews were
not religious, but identified with their
heritage. He was not a religious Jew. I saw
in him the Jew of the time of Malachi, who no
longer saw the presence of God on earth.
So Malachi blasts the people--with very
focused, criticism against the priests who
had become worldly... seduced by the darkside
of pagan life.
Today we see some Christian pastors, teachers
and seminary professors selling out to the
world on every social issue. No longer
compelled to believe in the sovereign
presence of God, they have become humanists--
labeling the Bible a human book–a book no
longer binding upon the lives of people
today.
Therefore every kind of activity, once
denounced as immoral and awaiting the wrath
of God, has become everyday lifestyles even
for those who call themselves Christians.
Worship of God, the sacrifices of time and
treasures, has become a weary thing for many.
Like our imagined disintegration as a parish
when Charlton Heston’s arrival become greatly
delayed, even Baptized Christians no longer
see the profit to weekly worship, sacrificial
giving of money, or time commitments to
Parish boards.
We really do mirror the generation of
Malachi. His warnings of God’s wrath are
equally as powerful for us today.
As Malachi closed his inspired message, he
makes this prophecy: "See, I will send you
the prophet Elijah before that great and
dreadful day of the LORD comes. (Malachi 4:5
NIV)
Our Lord tells us that this figure was none
other than John the Baptist; Speaking of
John the Baptizer in Matthew 11 Jesus says:
“And if you are willing to accept it, he is
the Elijah who was to come.” (Matthew 11:14
NIV)
When John came preaching, fulfilling
Malachi’s prophecy of the one who would come
to prepare the way for the Messiah, there was
again an electricity in the air.
For reasons both divine and mundane, people
were excited with the belief the Lord’s
Messiah was coming soon. The best parallel
to today is our present preoccupation with
angels-- people throughout the US are craving
to know about the supernatural... especially
the angelic messengers of God.
At the time of Christ’s birth there was a
carving for the coming Messiah. Who would he
be? What would he look like? What would he
do to establish God’s promise to Abraham?
On the banks of the Jordan, perhaps on a hot
sunny day, John stopped his business as
usual. He looked up to see Jesus coming
toward him and said in a loud voice: "Behold
the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world!"
John understood that the calamities within
Israel’s past, and the apparent slowness of
God’s coming Messiah, was not a problem with
God. The problem was human sin.
God’s answer to the “who” and “what” of God’s
Messiah was not to be seen in a conquering
king, but a sacrificial animal. This must
have messed up the minds of many Israelites!
When John referred to Christ as the “Lamb,”
the image conjured was not a playful lamb in
the bright sun of a meadow... but a bloodied
sacrificial animal on the altar!
My friends in Christ, what do you want to see
in Jesus? Someone who conquers all your
problems? Makes life easy for you? Is your
religion, and my religion, to be a religion
for profit?
Or do we see in Christ’s coming the One who
deals with our real problem-- which is not
economic, physical, or mundane; but
spiritual... a matter of the heart... dealing
with sin sickness?
When a person reduces the meaning of Christ
and Christianity down to a Jesus who comes to
make our life easy, then that person will
lose energy for living a life of service. As
problems arise in the individual’s life there
will be less and less worship... less money
given to serve God’s work... less time for
working in the church.
It’s difficult to remain faithful to God.
Satan wants to rip us away from His side.
Even our Lord’s closest disciples and
friends, on the eve of His darkest hour, did
not stay awake to watch with Him.
They were, however, in God’s time and by
God’s power made into towering witnesses
concerning Christ’s death, resurrection, and
Second Coming. They were forgiven and
empowered.
Our prayer is that God will also forgive us
for having eyes that grow large toward the
world and small toward service to Him. And
in this forgiveness, we also pray for
empowerment. We seek to once again be
energized and electrified as we pour our
lives into preparation for the second coming
of Christ.
Charlton Heston might let us down, but Jesus
never will. Let’s energize ourselves and
dust off the stage, ready the set, and build
up the kingdom here at St. Peter’s. Amen.
