The Lamb of God!
“The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
At first glance, with the death of Jesus in mind, we read these words and think: Yes, amen. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb who made atonement for us by his cross.
That, of course, is true, and John the apostle would want us to believe that. However, that’s most likely not what John the Baptist meant when he spoke these words.
Now, to be sure, there is no conclusive interpretation of this verse. There are a few different readings, each with merit and shortcomings, but when it’s all said and done, John the apostle probably intended for it to have a double meaning. Like when John says of Caiaphas in Chapter 11 that he spoke about more than he knew, John the Baptist also says more here than he realizes.
Within his world, though, remember that John the Baptist came preaching repentance. The kingdom of God was at hand and that meant judgment was coming. In the other Gospels, John the Baptist makes a big deal about Jesus as a sign of judgment. He’s a winnowing fork who is coming to sift, to clean house. John the Baptist said about Jesus (!),
His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Luke 3:17; also Matthew 3:12)
And then Luke adds in the next verse: “So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people” (Luke 3:18).
With that in mind, to read John the Baptist as preaching about a sacrificial lamb makes the Fourth Gospel quite a different account of his preaching compared to the others. But wait a minute …
Within some of the Jewish texts around during the time of John the Baptist, there was much talk about an apocalyptic, warrior lamb. According to D. A. Carson, you can find mentions of this lamb in extra-biblical writings such as 1 Enoch 90:9–12; Testament of Joseph 19:8; Testament of Benjamin 3:8 (all written previous to the New Testament). And this category of a conquering lamb isn’t entirely strange to us. John the apostle runs hard with this theme in the Book of Revelation! (See (Rev. 5:6, 12; 7:17; 13:8; 17:14; 19:7, 9; 21:22–23; 22:1–3). Consider Revelation 17:14,
They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.
The Lamb is a sacrificial lamb, thanks be to God, and he’s also more. He is a triumphant Lamb. And that is most likely what John the Baptist means.
He is saying that Jesus is coming as the Lamb who will conquer. He’s going to take away the sin of the world as in remove the sin. He’s going to get rid of it. He’s going to put things right.
John the Baptist expected that of Jesus, and he was right to expect it. Jesus is still going to do that. But as John the apostle will show us, before Jesus is the conquering Lamb he is the Passover Lamb. Before he is the victorious Lamb he is the bleeding Lamb — and, get this: he is victorious by his bleeding … for us.
This is the glory, church, that John wants to show us.
