All About John: Second Essay (John 1:29-42)

But there is more. John shows himself worthy of imitation not simply because of his awareness but also because of his confession. He doesn't, as it were, keep his knowledge "to himself." His confession, so "obvious" to us today, (i.e., "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"--1:29, 36), was really quite striking and unique in the earliest days of Christianity. That is, the earliest Christian preaching, as recorded in Acts, calls Jesus the "servant" of God (Acts 3:13; 4:27, 30). This designation really didn't "catch on" as the Christian movement grew. The three most popular "titles" of Jesus were "Son of God" or "Messiah" or "Savior." In contrast, our passage talks about Jesus as the lamb, amnos. The Greek word amnos to describe Jesus (only appears 4X in the NT. Indeed, arnion, a synonym, occurs 29 times, but John uses the word amnos and the even more rare phrase "lamb of God."

Two questions arise: where did John get this terminology, since it wasn't very prevalent in early Christianity, and what does it mean? Many scholars have suggested that there is probably a twofold origin for the term. First is the reference to a lamb in Is 53:7, a passage that would have been quickly applied to Jesus by the earliest Christians after his crucifixion. It is quoted in Stephen's early sermon/message:

"And he invited Philips to get in and sit beside him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: 'Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth...' The eunuch asked Philip, 'About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this...?' Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he roclaimed to him the good news about Jesus," Acts 8:31-35.

So, John's identification of Jesus as the lamb of God is probably derived from the early Christian application of Is. 53:7 to Jesus. A second possible source of this imagery is from the realization that Jesus died on Passover. Thus, he became quickly associated with the Passover lamb that is offered on that occasion. As Paul says, "Christ our paschal lamb has been sacrificed for us" (I Cor. 5:7).

The imagery of "lamb of God" is significant for three reasons. It suggests: (a) the patience of Jesus in suffering; (b) the sinlessness of Jesus in suffering; and (c) the efficacy or effectiveness of Jesus' death to forgive sin. Just as I have argued in last week's OT lesson (Is. 42) that Is. 42 acted as a sort of hermeneutical grid or playing field for Jesus to explore what the concept of "Servant of God" actually meant for his life, so I would say that the notion of the "Lamb of God" acts gives us a wide berth to understand the death of Jesus. The part of the image that speaks strongest to me in 2008 is Jesus' patience. Though he was innocent of charges that were flung against him, though he was surrounded by uncomprehending people, he went to his death with dignity, knowledge and love of people and God.

I notice one other small point about John's confession. He does it in two verses: 1:29 and 1:36. In the first instance it is just before the generic and undifferentiated crowd. He confessed Jesus to whomever was "around." But then, a few verses later, he is standing with two of his disciples and he confesses the same thing. The point is that public and private confession for John are identical. He doesn't have one message for "the crowd" and another for "his disciples." His private and public confessions reinforce each other. John, then, is worhty of imitation by us in that he confessed Christ with words that were fairly unique among early Christians but are full of rich meaning.

IV. John's Humility

We also learn a lot about humility from John in this passage. Even though he is only supposed to be a "forerunner," who develops a ministry of preparation, I am sure that the temptation was strong to feel a bit of "ownership" for his ministry. That is, when you labor hard at something and establish yourself in something, you aren't often very eager just to "give it all away" to someone else who comes along, even if you knew from the beginning that your work was only going to be temporary. You become "attached" to your life, especially if your work has been crowned with some success. John's certainly was. He was baptizing in the Jordan. One of the other Gospel writers says that "all" the people came out to him. He was a guy whose picture you would like to snap; perhaps people came up to him not simply to be baptized but also to catch a bit of his spirit.

I think it is incredibly difficult for people who have achieved a modicum of success in their call just to "give it up." My goodness, it is sometimes difficult for us to give up our failures; how much more our successes? But this is precisely what John did. When two of his disciples were with him one day, he looked at Jesus and said, "Look, here is the Lamb of God" (1:36). What did his disciples do? They took off right after Jesus. And, these weren't any two disciples; one of them was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. That is, John was going to lose some of his "best" disciples, who were going to go on to become the cornerstone of Jesus' ministry.

Nevertheless, John pointed Jesus out to them. Once he has directed his disciples to Jesus and they follow him, the scene shifts, and John is only mentioned one or two more times. In fact, by pointing out Jesus to them, John was committing professional suicide. He was putting himself out of a job.

When I was in college, a large national Evangelical operation put two staff members at our University in order to see if it could flourish at an Ivy League school. In fact, we invited this body (Campus Crusade for Christ) to our campus. From "Day # 1" on campus, the staff members kept saying that their role was "to work themselves out of a job." What did they mean? They wanted to "train us" and "equip us" so that we would be able to carry on their labor and they could then move on to other areas for a harvest. But, in fact, it never worked out that way. The more they tried to work themselves out of a job, the more entrenched they became. There was more work to do, more people to train, more evangelism to perform, etc. I began to see that their phrase, "to work ourselves out of a job," was a sort of self-deception, uttered by staff members before they really knew what they were saying. They may have thought they were working themselves out of a job, but in fact they weren't.

A story like this makes the story of John all the more remarkable. For, in fact, he was "working himself out of a job" when he pointed out Jesus to his disciples. And, to be sure, his job ended shortly thereafter. He was like a pace-setter in a race, who runs the first 800 meters ahead of the pack but then drops out so that the better runners may have a chance at the "record." That was John. The focus wasn't on him; he was only there to give himself so that others would follow Jesus. Now that is something that is not simply admirable, but rather amazing. That is what makes me want to say that this passage, though directing us to Jesus, is all about John. And, by thinking of the passage in this way, we are improved and strengthened.

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