In this passage, we are confronted by John’s witness to a “Lamb” who takes away, not individual sins, but the sin of the whole world. Where is that happening, in our world today?
Today we find ourselves at the beginning of the Gospel of John, at the first stated recognition of God’s presence, in Christ, in the world. Our passage for today continues a witness from John the Baptist that began earlier, when Jewish authorities sent priests and interpreters of Jewish law to John to interrogate him, to determine just what he was preaching, to find out just who this upstart was and what he had to offer with regard to Israel’s future hope.
John the Baptist is quick to say that he is not any kind of “messiah.” He is not the Christ, the one anointed to save Israel. He is not the Savior; he is one — perhaps the one — who was sent to proclaim the imminent arrival of the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior. “I am the voice of one,” John says, “[who is] crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”1
John situates himself with prophets of old, who were especially called by God to bring a message from God to God’s people. In this case, the message John brings is that the arrival of the long-expected savior, the Messiah, the one anointed by God to free God’s people from sin, has happened.
Here he is!
The Savior has arrived, John says; the one who is to set Israel free. My job, John says, is to call us to prepare for his arrival. And by “us,” he means Israel. My job, John says, is to reveal the Savior’s identity and his presence — to Israel. “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” John says, later on, in the opening verse of our passage for today.
And what does this revelation of the Messiah’s presence mean, for Israel? Just who is this Messiah? That’s not exactly clear. The “Lamb of God”? What does that mean, with regard to Israel, and Israel’s story? Is the “lamb of God” a reference to the Passover lamb? Or might it be a reference to Isaiah 53:7, in one of the &lsqu
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