2EpiphanyA St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Moses Lake by
Annette Fricke
This gospel lesson takes place the
day after Jesus’ baptism. There are just three points that are worth making
from today’s gospel lesson and they are this: John the Baptist did not know
Jesus before he came for baptism. This
is an important point because this is said twice. Number 2, Jesus is identified by John the
Baptist as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is also said twice. Note that sin is singular, not plural. Thirdly, the result is that Andrew decides to
follow Jesus and tells his brother Simon Peter who also becomes a disciple of
Jesus.
We might be puzzled at John the
Baptist no knowing Jesus because stuck in the back of our minds is the account
in Luke where John the Baptist’s mother and Jesus’ mother meet when they are
both pregnant. How is it that John the
Baptist and Jesus did not know each other until now? Aren’t they cousins or something? We are not told how to fill in that gap. John tells us that John the Baptist knows
this is Jesus because he saw the Spirit descending onto Jesus from heaven like
a dove when he baptized Jesus. This is
how John the Baptist recognized Jesus. The text says “the one who sent him,”
but ultimately God seems to have told him that this would be the indicator,
this would be the identified Messiah who had been prophesied for many, many
years. This was the fulfillment of that prophesy. And John the Baptist knows that even though
he has gained prominence as a leader and maybe even seen as a prophet, he knows
that Jesus is the real thing. He knows
that comparing him to Jesus means that Jesus must become the leader now in
order to carry out the mission of God, of how God will through Jesus be the
savior of the world, the entire world.
In that role of Messiah, John the
Baptist says twice, just in case we didn’t hear or notice it the first time, “Here
is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Note again that the word ‘sin’ is singular;
it is not ‘sins.’ Jesus is not one of many lambs with lower case l, but is the
Lamb with a capital L. The word sin that this Lamb takes away is our condition
of sin. One of my seminary professors
describes it as “It is not possible to not sin.” I know this is a double negative, but this is
the condition of humanity from which we need to be saved. We will continue to sin as in plural
sins. Jesus takes away the barrier
caused by our sinful nature so that our relationship to God in a very real
sense is restored. Both the cause of sin
is taken away as well as the effects, even guilt. God does not see our sin as we do. We forget this and need reminding. God is always with us and everything God has
is ours.[i] That is the grace of God in which we are
called to live every day, each day. That, my friends, is good news and a cause
for celebration.
And because this is good news, we
have good news to share when we go out into the world, when we gather for
worship, when we share what we have with people we don’t even know. And just maybe our approach should be just
that, asking what people are looking for in a church and then saying to them, “Come
and see.” Many people will say that they
want to go to a church where they preach the gospel and because that can mean something
different to different people, it is enough to say, “Come and see.” Allow people to see for themselves without
our pronouncements or explanations of what we may believe or think. Simply put, “Hi. What are you looking for in
a church? And listen to what that person
has to say. If they ask if we have that,
say that we are open to input. Then invite them—you can hand them one of the
pens up front at the table where the greeter hands out the bulletins and
crayons. Tell them, “Come and See.” You don’t have to say that Jesus sent you, even
though Jesus did send you.
