Good Friday + John 1:29 + John 18:1-19:42

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

After Jesus had been baptized by John in the Jordan River, the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness to fast forty days. There He faced the Devil. Afterwards He walked along the Jordan River again. John sees Him, points to Him, and cries out for all the world to hear, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The sacrifices prescribed in the Old Testament did no such thing. They were only good for the man offering up the bull, lamb, or goat. Those sacrifices also were unable to atone for sins. It is written in Hebrews 10:3-4 that “those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” The Old Testament sacrifices kept Israelites civilly righteous and forgave sins according to the righteousness of the Law. They kept you in Israel, God’s covenant people. But they couldn’t atone for one’s sins and take them away. Each sacrifice looked forward to the Lamb of God; the Lamb upon whom God would place, not one man’s sins, not Israel’s sins, but the sin of the entire world. Ancient Israelites offered their sacrifices and were saved, not in the offering of them, but in looking forward to the Lamb of God foreshadowed and prefigured in their sacrifices. Their faith looked ahead, trusting that God would provide a Lamb who would take away the sin of the world and make full atonement. Christ’s public ministry begins with John exclaiming to all Israel, and to you, that that is precisely what Jesus will do.

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” That’s precisely what Jesus is doing in His passion. Like the sacrifices prescribed in the Old Testament, Christ was spotless and without defect. He was the sinless Son of God in human flesh. He wasn’t stained with sins like you and I are. His thoughts were pure, unspotted with lust and covetousness, free of hatred and haughtiness. Never had He spoken falsehood but always the truth. He was made like us in every way but was without sin, a perfect man, the only perfect man. Yet God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). As Old Testament saints had placed their sins upon their sacrifices, so that the animals would bear those sins instead of the man, so God the Father places the sins of entire world upon Christ so that it is as if Christ were sin itself. The prophet Isaiah foretold this. “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:4-7). He bears our sins because He has none of His own. He bears those things that we have done which grieve God. He was wounded by fist and thorn for our transgressions, by nail and rod for our iniquities, for all the times we have chosen to follow our own desires rather than God’s desires for us.

The crucifixion of Jesus makes no sense whatsoever if you don't believe in sin and its consequences; if you don’t believe that breaking God’s law merits punishment, that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And there are countless who do just that. If there is no sin then you don’t need a savior from it. If death is just part of life, then it’s not a punishment, that ever-approaching verdict that reminds you that you’re a sinner. But there is Law and there is punishment for violating God’s Law and there has been from the beginning. “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). Adam and Eve ate and so they died for their disobedience, cast out from the Garden and God’s presence, spiritually dead; so that one day in the future they’d die physically as well. That sin of theirs is passed down through each generation because as Job reminds us, it is impossible to bring a clean thing from an unclean thing. Their sin is hereditary. So our thoughts, words, deeds, motivations, feelings, and wills are mired in sin and selfishness, so that what we see Jesus suffer in His passion is what we deserve.

But “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” This suffering and death is how He takes them away. He earns forgiveness for each and every one of them; every filthy thought, every hateful word, and every selfish act. He takes away the sin of the world by atoning for the sins of the world as the Lamb of God. He takes the punishment you and I deserve, the punishment that every sinner deserves, and bears it in His own body upon the cross. He suffers every inch of God’s wrath against sin and sinner alike. He even does that well; never speaking evil, never complaining about this fate, but faithfully committing all things to God His Father. “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). He dies as a lamb at slaughter because He is the Lamb of God, taking away, paying for, and atoning for the sins of the world. That includes you, for you are part of this world. Your sins have been atoned for by the sufferings of Jesus. Christ has fully satisfied God’s wrath against all of your sins and paid for each and every one of them. In this way He has taken away your sins.

He offers this you, and to all mankind, in the gospel. He has taken away the sins of the world but that atonement benefits only those who accept in faith and believe that it is true for them, for God remits sins only to those who believe in His Son and flee to Him for mercy. As often as you confess your sins and trust in Christ’s death for your sins, God is taking away your sins, not by dying for them again, but by applying what Christ earned at the cross directly to you. And God is rich in mercy toward us poor sinners. He has given His only begotten Son into death for our sins and continually invites us to flee to Him for mercy. He takes away your sins through the Holy Ministry He establishes, for by the words of our pastors Christ applies His merit to us and forgives sins. He takes away our sins by feeding us with His very body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, giving you the very body crucified for you. And even though sin dwells our flesh so that we don’t even know most of the sins we commit, God promises that all who are in Christ by faith are covered by Christ, clothed with Christ, so that their sins are taken away by the faith which God gives and sustains in us each day.

This is what it means when John points to Christ and cries out, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He takes your sins away by dying to atone for them, to earn the forgiveness of sins, so that He may daily and continually forgive your sins, and the sins of all believers, and grant you eternal life through faith in Christ. As you meditate upon Christ’s passion and hear these words again, hear them with John’s voice in the background. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.