Jesus Who?

John 1:29-42

A couple in Tennessee this spring had a baby boy. They named him Messiah DeShawn McCullough. This summer a judge in Tennessee ruled that they could not name a baby Messiah. She said in her ruling that the name was a title, and only one person had earned that title - Jesus Christ. She changed the baby’s name to Martin. The parents protested and appealed, and the judge was overruled. So now there is a little baby in Tennessee named Messiah. Messiah is the Hebrew word that means Christ. Just so we are clear, Christ was not Jesus’ name either. Jesus last name was not Christ. As the judge said, that was a title given to him by his followers. Christ or Messiah means anointed One. It is just one of many names and titles that have been given to Jesus. One of the names we heard a lot during Advent and Christmas was Immanuel. Today in our gospel lesson we see some other titles for Jesus.

1. The first one is given to him by John the Baptist. One day John is walking with some of his own disciples, and Jesus approaches. John points at Jesus and shouts out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” What a strange thing to call anyone. It is not the type of title that any human being would pick for their leader. Lambs are not known for their leadership qualities. King Richard was not called the Lamb-hearted. He was the lion-hearted. Lions are the king of beasts, not lambs. You won’t find sports teams called the lambs. You’ve got the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Broncos, Boston Bruins. But you don’t have the Saint Louis Lambs. You have the Saint Louis Rams. But Jesus is not called the Ram of God, which is a symbol of strength. He is called the Lamb of God. You would not think that would inspire confidence. Lambs were followers. Lambs were domestic animals. Lambs were vulnerable.  Why is Jesus called the Lamb of God? What does it mean?

The primary reference of this title was to the Passover Lamb. In fact the apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 5:7 “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” When John called Jesus the Lamb of God, Passover was approaching. It was on everyone’s mind. Passover is mentioned in the beginning of chapter two. The Passover was one of the most important festivals of Israel. It commemorated the time when Israel was freed from bondage in Egypt. Most people here likely know the story, but for those who don’t, I will reount it very briefly. And it is a good review for everyone.

The Hebrew people had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years. God called Moses to free his people from slavery. He did it through a series of ten plagues through which he tried to convince Pharaoh to free the Hebrew people and let them go to the Promised Land. Each plague grew in severity and intensity. They were things like frogs, gnats, boils, hail, and locusts. The tenth and final one was the death of all the firstborn in Egypt. It was the last resort due to the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart. But God provided a way of escape from this death sentence. God gave instructions to slaughter a lamb for a meal. Take the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorposts of their home. The people within that home would be protected from death. The doorway to liberation was painted, you could say, in the blood of the Lamb.

This imagery might feel a little strange to modern people because most of us (except for farmers) are not used to slaughtering our own animals for food. Our meat comes in neatly wrapped in packages in the supermarket. Most of us do not get our hands dirtied by the blood of the animals that we consume. But blood was a part of everyday life for ancient peoples and especially shepherds, the occupation of the Hebrews. The slaughter of animals was common for all ancient peoples, whether they were hunters or farmers. We modern sanitized Americans need to get over our squeamishness over blood in order to relate to the power of this spiritual image in Scripture.  The Passover Lamb was the lamb of God which was the symbol that God used as protection for his people. It was also the means by which he freed his people from bondage.

Not only is this true of the Passover lamb, but the sacrificial system of the Old Testament instructed that the priests offer lambs as the daily sacrifice at the temple. Every morning and evening, a lamb was sacrificed for the sins of the people (Exodus 29:38-42).  So the phrase Lamb of God had great symbolic meaning. It meant protection from death. It meant liberation from bondage. It meant forgiveness of sins.

All of this is seen by Christians as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Christ was killed during the feast of the Passover in Jerusalem. In the Gospel of John Christ dies at the same time as the Passover lambs are being slaughtered. In the other gospels, he dies at the time that the daily evening sacrifice of the lamb was being made in the temple. The Lamb of God is a powerful image of what Christ does for us. Some people get really hung up on the whole idea of death and blood. It all seems so violent and even primitive. The idea of animal sacrifice is offensive. To describe Christ as some type of sacrifice is more than some people can stand. But we need to remember that freedom always involves sacrifice.

One of the best analogies that we can make these days is the sacrifice that folks in the military make for us. We all know the sacrifice that servicemen and women make every day. We use the word sacrifice for this because it cost them so dearly. We know that many men and women have laid down their lives in battle. Many men and women have laid down their lives in the wars that our nation has fought to win and preserve our freedoms in this country. Many Americans have laid down their lives for people in other countries that they might also be free. That was true in Europe in WWII, but more recently in the Iraq war that the Iraqi people that they might be free, and for the Afghan people that they might have the opportunity for freedom. Whether those countries will now step up and continue on the road to human rights and democratic freedom is up to them and still to be seen. But the American blood that was shed for them is a genuine self-sacrifice.

That is a good way to understand the sacrifice of Jesus. The animal sacrifice idea worked for people 2000 years ago. It is certainly true and it is biblically accurate in that historical context. But we no longer sacrifice animals, and the concept does not connect to many people nowadays. But the military sacrifice does connect to people on an intellectual and emotional level. And there is a biblical precedent because the Messiah was expected to be a military leader in Jesus’ day. And in the Book of Revelation he is portrayed in this manner, as commander in chief on a white horse leading his army. So it is a biblical metaphor. Some people have a difficult time with the military metaphor also, but I can’t help that.

Think of Christ as a spiritual warrior who died in a spiritual battle. He laid down his life for us. Think of Christ as a warrior of nonviolence who gave his life so that people could be free from the fear of death and from bondage to sin. When understood in this way, the title Lamb of God is a powerful title. 

II. It is not the only title used in our gospel lesson for today. John the Baptist also calls Jesus the Son of God. It says in our passage in verses 32-34. “And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

In this passage John is referring to his experience at Jesus’ baptism. Last Sunday was the date for the remembrance of the baptism of Christ, but it is referred to in our passage again for today. Jesus came to John to be baptized by him. As John was baptizing Jesus he witnessed the powerful presence of God. As Jesus came up from the river Jordan, John saw the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus like a dove and remaining upon him. Then John declares, “And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” 

To call Jesus the Son of God is an extraordinary statement. We don’t really understand how extraordinary it was at that time and place. It was a revolutionary statement both politically and religiously in those days. You could be separated from your head for calling someone this title. And John would be later beheaded but for a different reason, for challenging King Herod.

Today we call people children of God and it doesn’t really mean hardly anything. It is just a way of saying that we are all special in God’s sight or to declare the sacredness of human life. Back in the first century the term Son of God was a declaration of divinity. The only human in the Roman Empire allowed to be called the Son of God was Caesar. The title was stamped on Roman coins along with Caesar’s image. There was a Caesar cult connected to the emperor’s divinity. To call anyone else but Caesar the Son of God was equivalent to treason against Rome. This was the charge brought against Jesus at his trial. His interrogators were trying to get him to admit that he was the Son of God.  Such a confession would be equivalent to confessing to treason and be grounds for the death penalty. For the religious  leaders at the time to claim to be the Son of God would also be considered blasphemy and also grounds for the death penalty under religious law.

It is still grounds for the death penalty under Sharia Law in extremist Muslim countries today. If a Muslim declares that Jesus is the Son of God and converts to Christianity it is called blasphemy. Such a person can be executed in many countries today. In America we have religious liberty. We Christians declare Jesus to be the Son of God in our songs, prayers, and sermons, as I am doing today. But do we really take this confession to heart?

For us to call Jesus the Son of God is not just a religious statement about his divine nature. It is not just a doctrinal confession. To really believe that Jesus is the Son of God is still a controversial political statement. We live in a very politicized climate in our nation today. Democrats and Republicans are at each other’s throats. Congress repeatedly gets up in knots and unable to get much done. Politicians fight over budgets and Obamacare. People get very agitated over politics, especially every four years.

To declare that Jesus is the Son of God is a political statement today as it was when Caesar was emperor of Rome. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God is to say that Christ has authority over the nations on the earth and over our nation. That is why I call it a revolutionary statement. It is a challenge to powerbrokers and those who sit in Congress and in the White House and on judicial benches. Jesus is not called Lord of lords for nothing. He is not called the Judge of all the earth for nothing. It means that all earthly authority and power is under his ultimate authority. It means there is a higher standard of morality than majority rule.

I am not talking about an earthly Christian theocracy.  That has been tried and failed. I am not talking about Christianity as the official religion of the land. I am a strong believer in the separation of church and state and freedom of religion for people of all religions. I am speaking to us who call ourselves followers of Jesus as Lord, who in actuality follow political leaders and political systems and political ideals more than we follow the ways of Christ and his kingdom. I believe that politics has taken on the function of a religion in many people’s lives. It has become a substitute for God, God’s Law and the gospel in many people’s lives, including many Christians’ lives. To call Jesus the Son of God is to challenge the idolatry that is at the heart American political life – the idolatry of human political and economic power that seems to acknowledge no restraints besides itself and no authority higher than human authority.

III. There is one last title for Christ that I want to mention briefly. It is the term Rabbi. Verses 35-39 say, “Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day.”

We know the term rabbi today as a title for a Jewish religious leader. In this passage it is actually explained to us by the gospel writer that it means teacher. But that is not completely accurate. The ending i makes it possessive. It literally means “My teacher.” It is a personal profession of faith. In the story, two of John the Baptist’s disciples heard John call Jesus the Lamb of God, and it says that they followed Jesus. That means they stopped being disciples of John the Baptist and they became disciples of Jesus Christ. To call Jesus Rabbi meant in that time and place that Jesus was your master.

This is the title I recommend to you this morning. We can talk about titles for Jesus in an impersonal and objective sense. But this title makes it personal. It was personal for these two disciples, one of whom we learn in this passage is Andrew. The titles for Jesus should be personal for us as well. To call Jesus the Lamb of God is to talk personally about being freed from bondage, sin and the fear of death. To call Jesus the Son of God is to make a statement about his divinity, and just as important about his Lordship over the world and over our lives. To call him Rabbi means that he is our personal teacher whom we follow as disciples. That is who Jesus is to those of us who call ourselves by the name Christian.