Christ is baptized!  In the Jordan!

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!’”

“’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!’”  How unlike Pontius Pilate’s announcement, “’Behold the Man!’” (Jn. 19:5).  For Pilate, the Jesus standing before him that day for judgment was but that – a man, a political annoyance, if for any other reason, He had riled up the religious leaders who, in turn, had agitated the people, which meant that Pilate had to do something with Him to get the chief priests and Pharisees off of his back. 

For John the Forerunner and Baptist, however, this Jesus – the same Jesus Who stood before Pilate to be judged – was Himself the Judge (Mt. 3:12; Lk. 3:17).  The One foretold by the Prophets Who was to come into the world, the One Whom John was ordained long ago in his mother’s womb to herald and announce, “’Behold, the Lamb of God!’” (Jn. 1:36).  John is the voice of one crying in the wilderness while this Jesus is the Word of God made flesh (Mt. 3:3; Mk. 1:3; Lk. 3:4; Jn. 1:1-18).  Jesus Christ is the Light of the world, John is His lamp (Jn. 1:4-9; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35).  John is not the Light, says the Theologian and Evangelist, but was sent by God to bear witness to the true Light Who enlightens every man that comes into the world.  If Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom, then John is His friend and best man.  The divine call of John was to decrease so that this Jesus might all the more increase (Jn. 3:27-30).  John baptizes with water for repentance; Jesus Christ, however, will baptize with divine fire all who come to Him in faith and repentance (Mt. 3:11; Lk. 3:16).  John announces that there is One among the people Who is far greater and mightier than John, Whose sandal he is not even worthy to stoop down and untie (Mk. 1:7; Lk. 3:16).  Indeed, John confesses, He existed even before John had existed for this Man, this Jesus, is the very Son of God.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” (Jn. 1:1-3).  On another occasion, our Lord prays in His High Priestly prayer bearing witness to His pre-eternal existence, “’And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was’” (Jn. 17:5).  If only Pilate had known just Who he had standing before him that day in Jerusalem, the Lord of Glory might not have been crucified (1 Cr. 2:8). 

“’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!’”  This is the God-Man Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn. 14:6) Whom the Baptist and Forerunner points to and bears witness so that the world might believe and Israel might know their Messiah.  “’Behold, the Lamb of God,’” he declares in no uncertain terms, “’Who taketh away the sin of the world!’”  In the Tradition of the Church, the Baptist not only pointed to this Jesus in this world, but in Hades upon his execution when he descended to the dead.  There, he was the first to announce the Gospel – the Good News of God – to declare to our first parents, “’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!’” – even yours, O, Adam and Eve – “for the life of the world and for its salvation” (Prothesis).  For us all has the eternal Son of God been born of the Virgin.  “For us men and for our salvation He came down from Heaven” (Nicene Creed) and soon “for us men and four salvation” this same Jesus, the Son of God and Lamb, will Himself descend into the depths of Hades being put to death on the Cross, and there His Light and His Life will dispel the gloomy darkness and ransack the abode of death itself!  There He will overthrow the strong man of Hades who has kept us in bondage by the fear of death (Hb. 2:14-15).  “Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.  Therefore, let us keep the Feast,” the great Apostle Paul exhorts us (1 Cr. 5:7)!  “’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world,’” “for the life of the world and for its salvation” (Prothesis)! 

This image of the Lamb is long rooted in the Old Testament and its sacrificial system, thus demonstrating that what was prefigured in the Old, our Lord has now fulfilled in the New, bearing witness to the unity of the two Testaments.  Like other images employed in the Gospel, they are intended to give us insight into this Jesus – Who He is and what He has been sent to accomplish.  He is the “true Light that enlightens the world” (Jn. 1:9; 8:12; 9:5).  He is “’the true Vine,’” we are His branches (Jn. 15:1, 5).  He is the Bread of Life come down from Heaven (Jn. 6:35, 48, 51); the Good Shepherd Who lays down His life for the sheep (Jn. 10:11, 14); the Door (Jn. 10:7, 9); the Resurrection and the Life (Jn. 11:25); the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Jn. 14:6). 

But, here Jesus does not declare, “I AM the Lamb of God,” but rather it is His Forerunner who declares such, pointing us to all those sacrificial lambs of the Old Covenant, and, in particular, to the Passover or Paschal Lamb.  When the Baptist announces, “’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!,’” all of these Old Testament sacrificial images are captured by this one phrase and image. 

We should further note here that the Baptist does not say, “’Behold, a Lamb of God!,’” but rather “’the Lamb of God.’”  Jesus is the summation of all that has preceded, the fulfillment of all that has come before, the completion and perfection.  He is the Lamb of all lambs, just as surely as He is “’King of kings and Lord of lords’” (Rv. 19:16).       

“’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!,’” recalls for us that our Emmanuel – God with us – is the “propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 Jn. 2:2), that with the shedding of His precious Blood on the Cross, “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” our sins are washed away forever (1 Pe. 1:19).  This Jesus is the Lamb of God “slain before the foundation of the world” (Rv. 13:8), “foreordained before the foundation of the world,” now made “manifest in these last times for [us]” (1 Pe. 1:20).  He is the Lamb at the center of the Book of Revelation around Whom all those in Heaven fall down in worship precisely because He, and He alone, has been slain (Rv. 5:1-14).  “In Him,” the Apostle assures us, “we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ep. 1:7; Co. 1:14). 

It is here, however, that the image of “’the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world’” and the image of God’s Suffering Servant are brought together.  The Suffering Servant of God is “a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”  He has taken upon Himself our griefs and our sorrows though we have not esteemed Him.  Yet, “for us men and for our salvation” He willingly was “wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities . . . and with His stripes we are healed.”  The Prophet foresees the Lamb of God as “brought to the slaughter” and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb so He opens not His mouth.  Ultimately, He is cut off from the land of the living and stricken for the transgression of God’s people (Is. 53:1-12).  By taking upon Himself the sin of the world, the Lamb of God heals the ancient wounds inflicted by sin and death, reconciling through His one great act of sacrificial love as the “one Mediator between God and men,” God and sinners (1 Tm. 2:5-6).  Once we were far off, estranged from God, cast out of Paradise, but now in the Lamb of God we have been “brought near by [His] blood.  For He Himself is our peace, Who has made [us one with God], and has broken down the . . . wall of separation, . . . .” (Ep. 2:11-18).  This is less about Jesus as the Lamb of God taking on our penalty and more about Him Who knew no sin being made sin for us, “that we might be the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cr. 5:18-21).  In other words, God has reconciled us to Himself through His Lamb.  “’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!’”

Although the Lamb of God is associated quite often with sin offerings, that is, offerings made because of sin in order to restore the sinner to a right relationship with God, there is another theme or facet that dominates Orthodox thinking, and that is the Lamb of God as the Passover or Paschal Lamb.  In the world of Old Testament sin offerings, one was not restricted to just lambs or sheep, but could offer up bulls and goats as well.  And if these were not affordable, then turtledoves and pigeons could suffice.  But, there was no substitute for the Passover Lamb.  It had to be a lamb and not a bull or a goat or a pigeon or a turtledove.  It was a lamb that was slain on the eve of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt’s dark tyranny of death and slavery.  It was that lamb’s blood that was sprinkled or smeared on the doorposts – signed and sealed upon the lintels of the houses – so that the angel of death would see the blood and “pass over,” sparing those inside. 

When John points to Jesus he is pointing to our Pascha Lamb, our Passover Lamb, Who has trampled down death – our death – by His voluntary death, and upon those in the tombs He bestows Life!  Death is our great enemy that receives its power from sin.  It is that which was unleashed at the Fall, casting us down from the heights of Paradise.  “God made not death; neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living,” the wise Solomon reminds us in his writings.  “For [God] created all things that they might have their being” (WS 1:12-16).  Indeed, “God created man to be immortal,” we are told, “and made him to be an image of His own eternity.  Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world; and those who take hold of [the devil’s] side do find it” (WS 2:23-24). 

“Christ, the Lamb of God, our Passover Lamb, is sacrificed for us.  Therefore, we keep the Feast!” (1 Cr. 5:7-8).  “’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!’”  In one mighty act of His Death and Resurrection, the Lamb of God shatters death’s dominion over us and breaks the shackles of sin’s power, liberating us from the dark dungeons of Hell!  The Lamb of God conquers!  Christus Victor!  Jesus Christ Conqueror!  This is the shout of victory that resounds throughout the halls of Heaven and reverberates down the corridors of time.  By the Blood of the Lamb salvation is ours so long as we turn not away from Him. 

One final thought: the Passover Lamb – the Pascha Lamb – is slain so that those who come under His Blood might live.  We would see that happening in Baptism.  But, the body of that first Passover lamb became a meal for those in that household under its blood.  How much more do we, then, partake of our Paschal Lamb’s Body and Blood when we commune in the Holy Eucharist?  He is salvation.  He is forgiveness of sin.  He is Food and Drink, even as He Himself has said.  “’Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath Eternal Life, and I will raise Him up at the Last Day.  For My Flesh is Meat indeed, and My Blood is Drink indeed.  He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him’” (Jn. 6:54-56). 

“’Behold, the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world’” “for the life of the world, and for its salvation” (Prothesis).                             

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen.

Christ is baptized!  In the Jordan!

PROPERS:

Ac. 19:1-8

Jn. 1:29-34