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John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
This morning I was at a prayer meeting and there is one elderly woman in particular who I am always glad to hear pray. She lives all by herself and often walks to the church during the week and prays for the pastors and congregants and children….she reminds me a bit of Anna from Luke 2:36-37 who “did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.”
Her prayers are always filled with biblical imagery and overflowing gladness in God, and today’s verse picture is taken straight from something that she prayed this morning. I can’t recall the exact words, but the gist of it was praise to God for Christ as the Lamb…..she said something like, “He was a Lamb—He was just a Lamb, and yet He took all that sin….the sin of The whole world…”
Her words instantly created in my mind a picture of the contrast between the small, white lamb and the choking, broiling, festering sins of the entire world. How could a creature as weak, as frail, as small as a lamb bear away the sins of the world…especially when you recall that the weight of one sin severed man from God and introduced all the sorrow and suffering of this world…..its as if somone said a thimble would swallow the ocean, or a dust mote would swallow the sun.
And yet, this is just what Christ—the Lamb of God—has done….He has borne in Himself our sins, our suffering, our death, our hell, and He has conquered…..He now stands—slain-yet-living—at the Father’s right hand in splendor, worthy of all blessing, honor, glory and power, having ransomed by His blood a people from every tribe and nation and language…..as the Moravian missionaries are recorded to have said: “May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his sufferings!”
