If you were the emcee at an event where Jesus was to be the main guest, how would you introduce him?

If you were a fan of the Johnny Carson show, you knew exactly how it would begin.  There would be the gravely voice of Ed McMahan, welcoming everyone, while Doc Servronson’s band would be gradually building up to a climax.  Finally, those predictable words that never changed:  “And now, Here’s Johnny!”  It was all the introduction he needed for some 35 years on TV. 

So, when Jesus appears on the scene, his own version of Ed McMahon is also right there, on the scene.  The build up was not the sound of a band with trumpets and drums, but the sound of water dripping off of newly baptized souls.  The expectation was just as palatable.  And now: “Behold, the Lamb of God!”  It doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it?   

You would have figured that this wild man of a preacher, John, would have come up with a fiercer animal for a mascot.  “Behold the Lion of Judah.”  Or the “Tiger of Jerusalem.”  Or the “Eagle of Nazareth.”  Anything but a meek “Lamb of God!”  But that is the problem, isn’t it.  You see, that image is not about meekness, or gentleness or the relative defenselessness of lambs.  Those are the images we think of when we think of sheep and lambs.  Docile.  Nice.  Gentle.  Lead-able.  They are not, however, the images that the people of in the time of Jesus would have had.  
John introduces Jesus as the Lamb into a culture that knew exactly what Lambs were for.   They were one of the principal animals of sacrifice.  Both the Baptizer and the evangelist Johns are telling us from the outset that Jesus’ life is destined as a sacrifice.  And more specifically as a sacrifice that ‘will take away the sin of the world’ - a sacrificial sin offering to God. 

It is strange concept to our twentieth century mind.  Why would God desire a sacrifice?  Why would God need a sacrifice?  Those are the questions that we think of when we think of sacrifice.  But in the best of the Jewish tradition, this idea of sacrifice runs like a golden thread throughout their history.  And what they understood by sacrifice is simple to express.  Some aspect of God’s good creation is returned to God in order to signal one’s desire for union with God.  Some aspect of God’s good creation –the first fruits of the field, an animal, or incense – something of value – is offered to God to signal OUR desire for God.  God was never perceived as ‘needing’ the sacrifice.  Rather, sacrifice benefitted the people who made them.  As you sacrificed, you were ‘ordering yourself’ back to God.  And there were multiple levels of meaning to that act.  You were saying to God – let my life be like this – dying and bleeding and over, unless I get my act together.  Or let my love for you be expressed by the value and worth of the items I give for you.  Or as this animal goes through this pain in his dying, let me go through the painful re-organization of my priorities for you.   In each case, the sacrifice benefited the people making the sacrifice.  It was about becoming ‘right’, about becoming “re-ordered’ with God

So when John says: Behold the Lamb of God, it has nothing to do with Jesus being gentle and humble.  Rather, has to do with sacrifice, with the temple sacrifice.  John is saying that Jesus will offer the final definitive sacrifice.  Jesus will be the one who will reconcile humanity with God.  Jesus will in himself, go through the twisting, the pain, the re-ordering of our sinful humanity once and for all to God.  Jesus will teach us how to be turned toward the Father in our humanity in the definitive and final way.  Note that John is preaching in the wilderness – he has lured people away from Jerusalem.  Away from the temple.  Temple is no longer the place to reconcile people with God.  NOW, he says: BEHOLD the LAMB of God.  Behold the one who is the NEW PLACE OF SACRIFICE.  That is who Jesus will be.  He is the one who reconfigures all who partake of his sacrifice with God.  And he will do that first upon the altar of the Cross and then allow us to enter into that sacrifice here at this altar.

So this week, I invite you to enter into that sacrificial path of the Lamb of God.  Practice that ‘offering up’ of a suffering; engage in the sacrifice of your treasure to keep someone warm; give up some free time to help tutor someone, so that we might join in the sacrifice of the Lamb – and be transformed from sin into Glory.  Who needs a “here’s Johnny!”  We have our own:  Behold the LAMB OF GOD.