( John 1: 29 – 34 ) - [ Deutsch ]
The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me’. I myself did not know him but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel. Then John gave this testimony: I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.
Beloved in the Lord!
What is the reason, that we are always so quick to defend ourselves when somebody criticises us or when we have made a mistake? Immediately we try to save our image or to place ourselves in a better light. We as adults are not different to our children. Again and again, we point away from ourselves and blame someone or something else. Why is that? Could it be that we find the burden of being weak, of having shortcomings, of being guilty and sinful, too heavy to carry ourselves; that we are too weak to admit and take responsibility ourselves? Could it be, because we are afraid that our weakness and guilt could cause that people might no longer love or accept us? When we are accused of something we feel at attacked, bad or even inferior. That is why we get angry. That is also why we seek someone else or something else to blame – we seek a scapegoat. Just observe yourselves and others how you or they react when accused. It is fascinating to see how quick we are to justify ourselves or to find a reason for our wrong behaviour, because the moment we can blame someone or something else, we are free, blameless and good. We don’t like being accused or the guilty one. Yes, we need and seek a scapegoat. Sometimes we call this scapegoat our wrong upbringing, our parents or teachers, the circumstances in which we grew up, our friends or acquaintances, the unfairness in life, the inequalities, the unfriendliness or dishonesty of others, e.g., the state; because the state is corrupt, I am dishonest also e.g., in my tax returns. In other words, someone else is blamed for my dishonesty, or my unfriendliness – then we say: Because that person did that to me, I am mean or vengeful. We can’t or we refuse to carry the burden of our weaknesses or guilt alone. Already in the O.T. we read about the scapegoat. On the Jewish festival of Atonement, the Jews had two goats. The one was slaughtered as a sacrifice for their sins and was then burnt as an offering to God to atone him. Onto the second goat the high priest would representatively for the whole nation lay his hands onto the goat, laying symbolically all their guilt, sin, injustice and transgressions onto its head. As carrier of all this sin and guilt he was chased into the desert, never to come back again. The sins of the people were taken away, they were forgiven.
It is important for our well-being to stand clean, guiltless and unsoiled and not as the accused and unforgiven. We seek acknowledgement and acceptance and that is why we justify ourselves, even where we were wrong. That is why we need a scapegoat, a scapegoat that can be blamed or that can take away our guilt and cleanse us. That is why John the Baptist came and said: „Come and see, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! “John first did not recognize Jesus. Only at Jesus’ baptism it was revealed to him, that Jesus from Nazareth was the Son of God, when the Spirit came down upon him. Come and see the Lamb of God. Here is someone who is willing to be the scapegoat for you, who is willing to carry and to suffer the burden of guilt, weakness and sin for you.
When Jesus carried this burden, this cross, up the hill to Golgotha, he collapsed under its weight, similar to his break down in the garden Gethsemane, when he prayed to his Father to take this cup from him. God did not take this burden from him but gave him strength to carry on so that there is one person for us who can carry the burden of our weakness, guilt and sin, our egoism and lovelessness for us, so that we can live again. Yes, also so that we can live with God again, because all these things in our life separate us from God – our arrogance, our judgementalism, our apparent betterness than others, our weaknesses and guilt.
During World War I an officer, fighting at the front, was badly hurt. Hand-grenades were exploding around him. One of his soldiers, who had seen that he was struck by shrapnel, slowly crawled on his stomach towards him and bandaged his wounds. Once he had finished, he lay next to the officer saying to him: Do not be afraid, now I lie between the exploding grenades and you, they first have to hit me: A picture for our message today. The cross on Golgotha, the lamb of God, now stands between God and us. The lamb of God tells us: Be not afraid, be not sad, I stand between you and your guilt – it has to hit me first – I carry your burden for you and open the door for you to God and to the other person. I carry it for you so that you are freed to be honest again, to acknowledge your weakness or mistake, so that you can reconcile yourself with the other person you have hurt or cheated or the person who cheated on you or lied to you. To know that you are accepted and forgiven gives you strength to do the same to the other.
See, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. That is why we no longer need to justify ourselves constantly to pretend to be better than we really are. What we need is to see the lamb, to get up and go to the lamb and bring our burden to him and to lay it onto him – to bring it to his cross. Now we also no longer have to judge and condemn others or to point at their mistakes and weaknesses, thereby trying to put ourselves in a better light.
I remember a young lady – she happened to follow a wrong and evil path and fell deeply into sin and guilt. Many people rejected her because of what she had done. She noticed the many unfriendly and judging eyes and fingers pointing at her. Consequently, she felt forced to justify herself – so in self-defence she became arrogant and obstinate – now she could at least accept herself. By doing so she was off cause prevented to look at Jesus – she stood in her own way and as a hurt person withdrew from her community. We may not condemn and judge others.
As we know about the forgiveness and acceptance through the Lamb of God, it is our task to point towards him, as his disciples did. Where we judge others, we force them to carry the weight of their burden themselves, we force them to justify themselves. What did Jesus do? He e.g., did not condemn the adulterous woman; he did not accuse her; he did not reject her although she had sinned. He received her with love and forgiveness and only then told her: Don’t sin anymore! We so often act the other way round. We say: First you behave, first you change and then I will accept you. The Lamb of God is different! We don’t need to condemn and judge – we need to lead to the Lamb!
A well-known woman had experienced terrible things during the war. Her friend one day asked her how she feels about those people who tortured her? She answered and said: All those things were forgiven and forgotten. Did your torturers accept your forgiveness, the friend asked? No, she replied, they denied their guilt and claimed that there was nothing that needed to be forgiven. Then she walked to her office table and said: Here, all the letters, I can prove that they were guilty. Her friend put his arms around her shoulders and asked: Are your sins not forgiven and haven’t they been thrown into the deepest sea, but you are keeping these letters and the guilt of your torturers in your desk and your heart? She then had to admit that she wanted God’s forgiveness for herself but she did not truly forgive. Then she took all her letters and burnt them.
See, the Lamb of God, the lamb that frees us, frees us from ourselves and towards the other. We may receive that gift for ourselves and we may live the gift we have received.
Amen.
