John 1:   ²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Dear Jesus, For centuries the people of Israel anticipated your coming, and when the time had fully come, You came to us. The Son of God, whose destiny was already determined from the foundation of the world. John saw it completely – “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. I do not deserve what you have accomplished for me, for us, for all who trust in you. Yet, you lay down your life in spite of this. Thank you, Jesus, for being our Atonement, our Sacrifice, for bringing justification to an undeserving people as the True Lamb from the Father. Amen.

 

The Lamb will not respond to the voice of a stranger. In John chapter 10 we will learn that the Lamb knows the voice of the True Shepherd, and responds only to his voice. The voice of a stranger will scatter the sheep. But the voice of the Shepherd, the True Shepherd, calls each sheep by name, and name He has given to them, and they come to him without question or delay. 

The interesting thing about the Christ is that He is both Shepherd and Sheep. The Shepherd is the one who does whatever is necessary to protect His sheep. While the hired hand will abandon them, will turn and run at the slightest hint of trouble or challenge, the Shepherd will risk it all for their safety and their well being. Jesus is just such a Shepherd. He does whatever it takes to gather those He loves into the safety of His dwelling. IN our case, however, there is only one way to insure our safety from the ultimate enemy of human kind – sin and death. Paul wrote that “the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God through Christ is eternal life.” So the Shepherd becomes the Lamb; the Creator becomes the Creature; the One who creates humanity becomes a human himself. And this time, the Shepherd allows the sheep to wander, to leave the safety of His heavenly home, and to sacrifice himself to the point of death with no Shepherd to save him. All for us, all for me, and all for you.

  

Advent is clothed in mystery- virgin birth, the visitation of angels, the gifts of Magi from other lands, ancient prophecies fulfilled, and the amazing crescendo of history marked by a star hovering above a cave. All of these mysteries, however, do not compare to the absurdity of God’s motivation to sacrifice His Son for the likes of me and you, indifferent postmodern disciples of a lesser kind. This is the most amazing mystery of Advent – God’s love for a fallen world, a world that would respond with rejection and indifference. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”