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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen.
The sermon text is from John 1:29: Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world. This is our text.
Our hymn writer Charlotte Elliot was a successful young woman with everything
going for her. She was a gifted portrait artist and talented writer. Ms. Elliot was an
incredible talent in the promising bloom of her career, when she became dreadfully and
irreversibly ill. Weakened and suffering, she fell into a dark depression. During the
course of her illness, she spoke with a local pastor who asked her if she had peace with
God. That didn’t go over well. She resented the line of questioning and reacted harshly,
but soon the pastor’s question plagued all her waking moments, searing itself into her
mind. Despite her talents and gifts, she lacked the peace that only God gives… the peace
that speaks with Romans 14: “If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord;
so whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”
A few days later she went to apologize. She told the old pastor she wanted to
clean up some things in her life before becoming a Christian. The old pastor answered,
“Come just as you are.” That very day the Lord who had been knocking at the door of
her heart, adopted her into His family of grace. Fourteen years later, she remembered the
words of that old pastor, “Come just as you are,” and she wrote that familiar and
beloved hymn: “Just as I am Without one plea; O Lamb of God, I come; I come.”
In our verses this morning John the Baptist is being interrogated, “Who are you?
By what right do you teach and baptize? Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah or one of
the prophets?” John’s ministry was attracting attention from Jerusalem and the religious
leaders of the Jewish people. He was under great pressure to stop rocking the religious
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boat. But John always insisted, “One more powerful than I is coming; whose sandals I
am not worthy to carry.”
In our Gospel, Jesus came down the hillside toward John, and the Baptizer
pointed to Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” What
an incredible witness! John had been with Jesus in the waters of the Jordan. He baptized
Jesus. He saw the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove. John
heard the voice of God the Father, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased.”
And having seen the Spirit descending upon Jesus John said, “I have seen and borne
witness that this is the Son of God.”
Again, the next day, we’re told, Jesus passed by the place John was and John told
his disciples, “Behold the Lamb of God.” The two disciples with John left right that very
minute, tailing Jesus doing a little surveillance of their own. They watched him from a
distance and stayed with Him through the evening. The next morning Andrew woke up
and went right away to find His brother Simon. Convinced by John’s witness and his
own eyes, Andrew told Simon, “We have found the Messiah.” That’s how the Gospel of
Christ spread, teacher to disciple, brother to brother, family members to family members,
each spreading the word: “We have found the Messiah… Behold, Jesus is the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world.”
Just as a rock thrown into a pond sends out waves in ever-widening circles, this
Epiphany season we see how the Light shines brightly upon Jesus the Lamb of God. In
ever-expanding circles that light goes from person to person, town to town to the very
ends of the earth. As we see the light of the Gospel going forth through Epiphany we
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hear the words of our text: “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, first found his own brother
and said to him, ‘we have found the Christ.’”
Epiphany is the missionary season of the Church Year, and today John the
Baptist’s message rings in our ears: This Baby is “the Lamb of God who takes the sin of
the world.” It is so critical as God’s Epiphany light goes forth that we like Andrew and
the other disciple of John the Baptist… that we be like hymn writer Charlotte Elliot and
countless Christians who have found hope in Christ and point our dying world to the
Living Lamb of God.
If you are awake and these words reach your consciousness, then right now is the
time to “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Right now is the time to “come just as you are”, not
stubbornly holding God at arm’s length. Don’t assume you’ll have many years… you
may not have another day. Don’t assume that after your children are raised outside of the
church, they can be Christianized by taking a few classes with pastor. The Lamb of God
invites you to repent of your sins and come to He who takes the sin of the world away,
don’t insist on your own lifestyle; don’t live for greed and goods and money; or debauch
your life with pornography and sex outside of marriage or drunkenness; don’t refuse to
come to the Lamb because you’re sure you are good enough – that you’ve done enough –
that you’ve earned your way to heaven on the strength of your good life.
The most urgent demand of your life is to repent and come right now to the Savior
who died for you and me and all sinners. Behold, today your Lamb of God with arms
stretched wide in love dying for you; so that you could receive His grace and mercy paid
in the price of His blood.
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Further, like Andrew who first thing sought out his beloved brother Peter, don’t
put off sharing your faith in Christ with those God has given you. Don’t let the school
sports calendar order your home; if you have a husband, daughter, son or wife you love,
don’t wait to introduce them to the Living Lamb of God, sharing your hope, praying
together, worshiping together – not sometimes but always – because you are wrong if you
believe something in your life today is more important. Don’t hope for a chance some
time to invite your neighbor, go today. You too can say with Andrew: “Come, we have
found the Messiah. Come and you will see.”
May God in His grace pour out His Holy Spirit so mightily upon us that all our
days we learn with St. John to Behold, Christ the Lamb of God... that with the eyes of
faith we look in every moment of every day to the One who lived and died so that we
could gaze upon the beauty of His face in the splendor of heaven.
How beautiful that our words of John the Baptist find their way into our
communion liturgy. John pointed to Christ the Savior who bodily descended the
mountain – Behold, the Lamb of God! So after the Words of Institution as we come to
the Lord’s Supper, we sing with John, “The Lamb of God.” Jesus is emphatically and
assuredly present with His real, saving flesh and blood in this Holy Sacrament for the
forgiveness of sins… and here in His saving flesh and blood, the Lamb who takes the sins
of the world is the Lamb who takes your sins – “Given and shed for you – you are
forgiven as you receive Him in faith – shed for your sins.” Amen.
And now may the peace of God which surpasses human understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.