Behold the Lamb of God—Lectionary Reflection for Epiphany 2A (John 1)

John 1:29-42 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

                        ²⁹ The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³² And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. ³³ I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.”

                        ³⁵ The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. ⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). ⁴² He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

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                We return to the Jordan where John the Baptist is busy preaching and baptizing, preparing the way for the one who was to be revealed. One day, while John was busy baptizing people and proclaiming the coming realm of God, he noticed Jesus coming toward him. Before we go any further, I want to step back to the previous Sunday’s reading (Matthew 3:13-17). In that reading, Jesus comes to the Jordan, approaches John, and asks for baptism. While John at first resists, he ultimately agrees so that they might fulfill God’s righteousness. In John’s Gospel the two meet, but John doesn’t baptize him. Instead, John takes on the role of the evangelist and announces to those who gathered for baptism that here was the one they had been waiting for. Yes, behold, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (Jn. 1:29). John recognizes in Jesus the one who would come after him, and now it's time to give way to Jesus.

                Although John’s story of Jesus’ encounter with Jesus at the Jordan doesn’t involve the baptism of Jesus, it still connects us with John’s ministry of baptism. The way that John tells the story of the encounter, you could envision John baptizing him, though there is no mention of it. However, John the Baptist testifies that he “saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remained on him.” In Matthew’s Gospel, that occurred during Jesus’ baptism. Nevertheless, John doesn’t mention that Jesus was baptized, only that Jesus is in the vicinity and therefore John can point to him and announce that Jesus is the Lamb of God. In fact, in this story, there is no evidence that the two even spoke with each other.

                What we read here is that the one John had been proclaiming has arrived. His own ministry of baptism had been pointing toward this day, and now John could testify that this is the Son of God (Jn. 1:34). He knew this to be true because he had been previously informed by God that the one on whom the Spirit descended would be the one, and John apparently saw the Spirit descend. It is he who will baptize not with water but with the Holy Spirit. With this knowledge, John the Baptist could now proclaim him to be the Lamb of God and Son of God. 

                The title “Lamb of God” is one that only John among the Gospel writers gives to Jesus, and only here in chapter one. Jesus is identified as the Lamb of God in Revelation, but that is a different author. So, what does John mean by this identification? How might Jesus be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? It would be easy to read this in light of later atonement theory, with Jesus being the sacrificial lamb, but is this John’s intention? Here in the Gospel, the only other time that lambs are mentioned is in John 21, where Jesus asks Peter to feed his lambs. One might connect the sacrifice of the lambs at Passover, but Passover is not related to atonement from sins. It is a celebration of liberation from slavery, but it isn’t the day of atonement. While there is no direct precedent for the connection, there are images that might provide an interpretive foundation. Marianne Meye Thompson writes that “the description of Jesus as the “Lamb of God” who “takes away” sin may allude more generally to the various sacrifices of lambs that atone or cleanse. Finally, the servant of Isa 53 is compared to a lamb that “bears the sins of many” (probaton, Isa 53: 7, 11 LXX), even as Jesus takes away “the sin of the world.” [Thompson, Marianne Meye. John: A Commentary (New Testament Library) (p. 47). Westminster John Knox Press. Kindle Edition]. Whatever the origins of this declaration, Jesus is understood by John the Baptist (and the author of the Gospel) to be the one who takes away the sins of the world.

                The author of this Gospel, the one we call John, wants to make sure we understand that the Baptist plays an essential role in the story of redemption. He’s the one who prepares the way for the Lord, but he is not the one who would take away the sins of the world. Now that Jesus has arrived, John’s disciples would face the question of whether they should leave John and follow Jesus. The Gospel writer doesn’t tell us how John felt about this, but even though he pointed Jesus out to his disciples and told them that Jesus was the Lamb of God, it must have hurt to watch them walk away and seek out Jesus. After all, he had committed his entire life to the service of God. He was the voice crying in the wilderness. But now his ministry was drawing to a close, even as Jesus’ ministry was about to be launched. He had done his job well, so you might expect that Jesus would stop and commend John, but that doesn’t happen here. John just recedes and Jesus steps into the breach, fulfilling his part of the mission.

                John has been expecting the Messiah to appear, so it’s no wonder his disciples would be sharing in that expectation. If this is true, then it should be expected that they will stay close to John until that moment comes. After all, he seemed to know what to look for. When John pointed out the Lamb of God, who is filled with the Spirit, and thus the Son of God, they knew where to go. After John pointed out Jesus to two of his disciples, they approach Jesus as he walked by. When they approached him, he asked them: “What are you looking for?” They answered first by calling him Rabbi or Teacher and then by asking him where he was staying. What they were saying is that they were looking for a new teacher, who would guide them toward the kingdom of God. While they had found John’s ministry rewarding, they were ready to take the next step in the journey. With that answer, Jesus invited them to follow him. That’s what they did, seemingly without looking back at John. They were ready for this new thing that involved the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. At this point, we don’t know who the two new followers were, though we will meet one of them soon enough.

                John tells us that the two new disciples followed Jesus to where he was staying. They stayed with him the rest of the day. Then John cryptically tells us that it was four o’clock in the afternoon, suggesting that this took place later in the afternoon. That they stayed with him suggests that they were committed to this new cause. They weren’t going anywhere. Thus begins the public ministry of Jesus. What comes next would seem to occur the next day. Here we discover that one of these two disciples of the Baptist is a man named Andrew. So, the next day, Andrew, perhaps after having a lengthy conversation with Jesus about his emerging ministry, goes looking for his brother, Simon. When Andrew finds Simon he tells his brother “We have found the Messiah.” Then he brought Simon to Jesus.

                Andrew’s message that he delivers to Simon marks an important turning point. That is because this is the first time in John’s Gospel that Jesus is directly identified as the Messiah, the anointed one, whom many (not all—the Sadducees were not among those expecting a Messiah) were expecting. We have to use our imagination here to get the full picture. I can’t picture Andrew telling his brother this news without emotion. Here he was, the one they had been waiting for. The moment had arrived. The realm of God was about to be set up. The time of Israel’s renewal was at hand. While Mark is rather coy about Jesus’ messianic identity (Mark regularly has Jesus warn his disciples not to tell anyone that he’s the Messiah), from the very beginning of his Gospel John wants us to know that Jesus isn’t just a prophet (he is that as well), he is the Messiah. He is the one who will bring renewal to Israel. 

                When Andrew presents his brother to Jesus, Jesus looked at Simon and saw something in him that he wanted to remark on. Thus, in John’s Gospel, this is the moment that Jesus gives Simon a new name, calling him Cephas or Peter. Cephas is the Aramaic word for rock, and thus Simon is now to be known as the Rock. As to why Jesus called Peter Cephas or Peter is not spelled out as it is in Matthew. While we can’t know for sure what John has in mind here, Marianne Meye Thompson writes that “Jesus’ designation of Simon as “rock” may point to his role as spokesperson for the disciples (6: 68– 69) and shepherd of Jesus’ flock (21: 15– 19, 22), a role Jesus assigns to Simon after the resurrection (10: 3– 4, 16; 21: 15– 19, 22)” [Thompson, John, (p. 51). Kindle Edition].

                The season of Epiphany speaks of light and enlightenment. It offers stories of revelation. Here Jesus is identified as the Lamb of God, Son of God, and Messiah. He is the one who brings with him the Holy Spirit. While John the Baptist had been taking the lead, now it is time for him to step back into the shadows. Nevertheless, John the Baptist starts the process of setting up a community around Jesus by pointing Jesus out to two of his disciples who decide to follow Jesus. One of those disciples, Andrew, will go and find his brother and bring him along. Thus, the ministry of evangelism begins. With the arrival of Simon/Cephas, our story comes to an end. However, the story of Jesus’ ministry is just getting started. If we continue to read John’s Gospel past the stated text, he’ll soon gather a few more disciples including Philip and Nathaniel. Even as Andrew brought Simon to Jesus, Philip, who was from Bethsaida, brought his friend Nathaniel to Jesus. That’s the way recruitment worked!

               As we ponder this reading from the Gospel of John, what do we hear? Do we hear a voice telling us to focus our attention on Jesus—the Lamb of God, the Chosen One, the one who brings to us the Holy Spirit? Do we hear the call to attach ourselves to this one who restores not just a nation but all of creation to a right relationship with God? Do we hear a call to join Andrew in sharing the message with our neighbors of finding in Jesus the one who we’ve been looking for, the one in whom, as Augustine acknowledged, our restless hearts will find their rest?  

Saget, Father George. Lamb of God, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58345 [retrieved January 9, 2023]. Original source: Robert Harding Photographers, https://www.robertharding.com/.