19 Behold John's testimony when the Jews sent Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him: "You, who are you?"
20 It said, without limitation asserted: "I am not the Messiah."
21 They asked, "Who are you? Are you Elijah? "And he said:" I am not. "Art thou the prophet?" And he answered: "No."
22 They said to him: "Who are you? We must give an answer to those who sent us! What do you say to yourself? "
23" I, "said he," I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make the right path of God', as said the prophet Isaiah. "
24 Those who had been sent from the Pharisees.
25 They asked him that question again: "Why do you baptize if you are neither the Messiah nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" 26 John answered, "I baptize with water, but among you is someone you do not know.
27 It comes after me [but before me] and I am not worthy to untie his sandals. "
28 This happened in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
29 The next day he saw Jesus approaching him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
30 It's him I said, 'After me comes a man who preceded me, because he existed before me. "
31 For my part, I do not know, but to make it known to Israel that I came baptizing with water. "
32 Jean also gave this testimony:" I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remained on him.
33 I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. ' 34 And I have seen and I testify that he is the Son of God. "
35 The next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 He saw Jesus move and said: "Behold the Lamb of God."
37 The two disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following, he said: "What do you want?" They answered him, "Rabbi - which means master - where do you live?"
39 "Come," he said, and see. "They went [so], saw where he lived and stayed with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends
,
I read that there is in Germany a church whose bell tower is decorated in the top of a sculpture of a sheep. The hsitoire says that while the construction of the tower was in progress, a bricklayer's scaffolding slipped and fell into the void. His companions rushed downstairs, sure to find him dead. But it is a living they saw: that moment when man fell, a herd of sheep passing under the church. The man had fallen on one of them: the beast was dead, but it was intact. On that day, angel, Masons therefore decided sculptured beast in the tower, to where their comrade had fallen. Very sincerely, after researching the Internet, I could not find this church, and I do not know if the story is true. But even this would be a legend, it still presents a truth central: we need a lamb to survive.
We need a lamb, and he must first come to the Lamb of God
Jean-Baptiste was the first to call Jesus the Lamb of God. It was a title. A title is something that confers a certain prestige. Everybody can not be called "Doctor X" or "Master Y". But calling someone "lamb"? The lambs are small defenseless animals, not particularly cunning, easily distressed. Does Jean-Baptiste wanted to say that Jesus was poor and destitute? Yes somehow. But we must replace this expression Jean-Baptiste in the context, it must be remembered that this meant the lamb for the Jews whom he addressed.
The figure of the lamb was responsible for the Jews of an enormous burden in terms of faith. The lamb was one of the sacrifices that God required in the temple, symbolizing the forgiveness of sins. The lamb was also a central role in the Passover meal, when the Israelites commemorated their liberation from Egyptian slavery by God. The book of Exodus tells how the Jews linetau placed on their doors the blood of sacrificed agenaux not to be impressed by the lamb was symbolic of the atonement sins, purification, by the grace of God too.
And one day, when the time came, John the Baptist saw Jesus and said "this is him, the Lamb of God." In a culture that sacrifice two lambs every day in the Temple, this statement was the kiss of death sentence great, wonderful in what she announced, but also foreshadows the destiny of Jesus. What John said in calling Jesus the Lamb of God is "look: that one who will be sacrificed for you." So
a terrible title, but who is there to mark our minds to make us understand what Jesus will do: it takes away the sin of the world. Literally, it rips. The sin is to say, in fact anything that separates us from God, either personal or collective level, Jesus comes to destroy and conquer.
few years ago, friends have been robbed. In addition to the loss of a few valuables, they explained that what was most shocking was to realize that we had violated their privacy. None of us likes that. Even people who love both into his head one day end up losing patience and attacked a paparazzi too curious. It is a
can the same thing with sin. "It's my life I do what I want" is a slogan widely used, very commonly used as an excuse. Yes, we do almost everything we want. We are free. Also free, through our attitudes, by our selfishness, for our anger, by our frantic search of immediate gratification, to inflict injury and cause suffering to others.
And yet, when Jesus comes to us, not to judge us. It is not just a pawn who restore discipline in the classroom. Jesus does not seek to impose. Jesus did not intend to change our lives by making us go under a rule of iron. It changed our life by giving himself on the Cross. Jesus does not break us. It was broken for us. Jesus does not punish us. He was punished in our place. Then he rose again, showing that our sins are dead, we can finally really living.
But for that to happen, our lives must take a new direction. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus. He denied being the Messiah. In our text we see him send his disciples to Jesus. Saying, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John wants us to redirect to Jesus and to him alone.
Our faith is not based on tradition, on what the world says and think about our own ideas. Our faith is founded on Jesus, the Lamb of God.
I once saw a diagram that showed the church as a wheel that Jesus was the center and Christians rays. The caption read "the more we are close to Jesus, the more we are close to each other."
course, must still be close to the true Jesus of the Gospels, not a pale copy.
Because nothing is more terrible for Christians away from Jesus. When this happens to a church, it may no longer point to Christ as John did. Yet the Church exists only through and for Jesus! Church of Jesus loses a life and she will soon lose its place of communion, it will become a religious force, so that Christ has always condemned the religion! It must then find another reason for being and acting. Then, in general, seen churches turn into clubs or leagues in virtue (right for the traditional family, or left for undocumented migrants, whatever ...).
But there are also many Christians who, personally, live spiritual lives stunted because their gaze is not fully turned to the lamb.
Here, I think it's great to be back the lamb sacrificed at the time of the Exodus and the Passover. This lamb was the mark of a powerful action of God toward his people, the liberation from Egypt. But God was not content to protect his people and bring the country out of slavery. He gave them the land which he promised to Abraham, a good country, a country of abundance flowing with milk and honey. All this is a picture of what Jesus did for us.
Jesus gives us freedom. We are freed from sin, free as the law in which we so often tend to lock us up with their "do this, do not do that." But Jesus also leads to communion with him every day, where we know we are safe at home, as the Israelites were in the promised land. Lamb of God is that which liberates us and gives us all that God has promised us.
The disciples of John the Baptist went to Jesus. He asked them: What are you looking for? Everyone is looking for something I believe. Some seek love, others wealth. The Declaration of Independence of the United States speak of the right in search of happy. I always thought it was a wonderful phrase and a wonderful goal for human life, because before seeking happiness, we must first Having defined what it is.
Jesus poses this question to those who come to him: What are you looking for? What is your goal, what your desires are the most buried, what your heart desires?
can approach Jesus for the wrong reasons. If you want to be rich, beautiful, healthy, if you think that faith brings the promise of success depending on the values of the world, then yes, Jesus did not have much to offer you. It can however give us much more: a new way of designing our identity, new relationships with the world around us, a hope alive and well founded.
The other thing Jesus told the disciples of John is not a question but an invitation: come and see.
Come: the disciples left John the Baptist and followed Jesus. There was a movement, and that's what happens when you start following Christ. Saying "come" Jesus invites us to move to a new beginning. He says "do as the Hebrews. Leaves the country from despair and slavery and put yourself in my suite, we will walk together. "
Look: it means there is something to see, something real, tangible, you might say. I know that for many, faith is a crutch, an escape into a fantasy land. But I walk with the Lord last few years and I can testify to having seen the answers to prayer, healing body and spirit, loyalty that came from Christ. They came because the Lamb of God who was slain is alive.
He calls us today to begin or renew a new relationship with him. He says "come and see." Let us answer his call.
Amen.
20 It said, without limitation asserted: "I am not the Messiah."
21 They asked, "Who are you? Are you Elijah? "And he said:" I am not. "Art thou the prophet?" And he answered: "No."
22 They said to him: "Who are you? We must give an answer to those who sent us! What do you say to yourself? "
23" I, "said he," I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make the right path of God', as said the prophet Isaiah. "
24 Those who had been sent from the Pharisees.
25 They asked him that question again: "Why do you baptize if you are neither the Messiah nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" 26 John answered, "I baptize with water, but among you is someone you do not know.
27 It comes after me [but before me] and I am not worthy to untie his sandals. "
28 This happened in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
29 The next day he saw Jesus approaching him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
30 It's him I said, 'After me comes a man who preceded me, because he existed before me. "
31 For my part, I do not know, but to make it known to Israel that I came baptizing with water. "
32 Jean also gave this testimony:" I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remained on him.
33 I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. ' 34 And I have seen and I testify that he is the Son of God. "
35 The next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 He saw Jesus move and said: "Behold the Lamb of God."
37 The two disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following, he said: "What do you want?" They answered him, "Rabbi - which means master - where do you live?"
39 "Come," he said, and see. "They went [so], saw where he lived and stayed with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends
,
I read that there is in Germany a church whose bell tower is decorated in the top of a sculpture of a sheep. The hsitoire says that while the construction of the tower was in progress, a bricklayer's scaffolding slipped and fell into the void. His companions rushed downstairs, sure to find him dead. But it is a living they saw: that moment when man fell, a herd of sheep passing under the church. The man had fallen on one of them: the beast was dead, but it was intact. On that day, angel, Masons therefore decided sculptured beast in the tower, to where their comrade had fallen. Very sincerely, after researching the Internet, I could not find this church, and I do not know if the story is true. But even this would be a legend, it still presents a truth central: we need a lamb to survive.
We need a lamb, and he must first come to the Lamb of God
Jean-Baptiste was the first to call Jesus the Lamb of God. It was a title. A title is something that confers a certain prestige. Everybody can not be called "Doctor X" or "Master Y". But calling someone "lamb"? The lambs are small defenseless animals, not particularly cunning, easily distressed. Does Jean-Baptiste wanted to say that Jesus was poor and destitute? Yes somehow. But we must replace this expression Jean-Baptiste in the context, it must be remembered that this meant the lamb for the Jews whom he addressed.
The figure of the lamb was responsible for the Jews of an enormous burden in terms of faith. The lamb was one of the sacrifices that God required in the temple, symbolizing the forgiveness of sins. The lamb was also a central role in the Passover meal, when the Israelites commemorated their liberation from Egyptian slavery by God. The book of Exodus tells how the Jews linetau placed on their doors the blood of sacrificed agenaux not to be impressed by the lamb was symbolic of the atonement sins, purification, by the grace of God too.
And one day, when the time came, John the Baptist saw Jesus and said "this is him, the Lamb of God." In a culture that sacrifice two lambs every day in the Temple, this statement was the kiss of death sentence great, wonderful in what she announced, but also foreshadows the destiny of Jesus. What John said in calling Jesus the Lamb of God is "look: that one who will be sacrificed for you." So
a terrible title, but who is there to mark our minds to make us understand what Jesus will do: it takes away the sin of the world. Literally, it rips. The sin is to say, in fact anything that separates us from God, either personal or collective level, Jesus comes to destroy and conquer.
few years ago, friends have been robbed. In addition to the loss of a few valuables, they explained that what was most shocking was to realize that we had violated their privacy. None of us likes that. Even people who love both into his head one day end up losing patience and attacked a paparazzi too curious. It is a
can the same thing with sin. "It's my life I do what I want" is a slogan widely used, very commonly used as an excuse. Yes, we do almost everything we want. We are free. Also free, through our attitudes, by our selfishness, for our anger, by our frantic search of immediate gratification, to inflict injury and cause suffering to others.
And yet, when Jesus comes to us, not to judge us. It is not just a pawn who restore discipline in the classroom. Jesus does not seek to impose. Jesus did not intend to change our lives by making us go under a rule of iron. It changed our life by giving himself on the Cross. Jesus does not break us. It was broken for us. Jesus does not punish us. He was punished in our place. Then he rose again, showing that our sins are dead, we can finally really living.
But for that to happen, our lives must take a new direction. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus. He denied being the Messiah. In our text we see him send his disciples to Jesus. Saying, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John wants us to redirect to Jesus and to him alone.
Our faith is not based on tradition, on what the world says and think about our own ideas. Our faith is founded on Jesus, the Lamb of God.
I once saw a diagram that showed the church as a wheel that Jesus was the center and Christians rays. The caption read "the more we are close to Jesus, the more we are close to each other."
course, must still be close to the true Jesus of the Gospels, not a pale copy.
Because nothing is more terrible for Christians away from Jesus. When this happens to a church, it may no longer point to Christ as John did. Yet the Church exists only through and for Jesus! Church of Jesus loses a life and she will soon lose its place of communion, it will become a religious force, so that Christ has always condemned the religion! It must then find another reason for being and acting. Then, in general, seen churches turn into clubs or leagues in virtue (right for the traditional family, or left for undocumented migrants, whatever ...).
But there are also many Christians who, personally, live spiritual lives stunted because their gaze is not fully turned to the lamb.
Here, I think it's great to be back the lamb sacrificed at the time of the Exodus and the Passover. This lamb was the mark of a powerful action of God toward his people, the liberation from Egypt. But God was not content to protect his people and bring the country out of slavery. He gave them the land which he promised to Abraham, a good country, a country of abundance flowing with milk and honey. All this is a picture of what Jesus did for us.
Jesus gives us freedom. We are freed from sin, free as the law in which we so often tend to lock us up with their "do this, do not do that." But Jesus also leads to communion with him every day, where we know we are safe at home, as the Israelites were in the promised land. Lamb of God is that which liberates us and gives us all that God has promised us.
The disciples of John the Baptist went to Jesus. He asked them: What are you looking for? Everyone is looking for something I believe. Some seek love, others wealth. The Declaration of Independence of the United States speak of the right in search of happy. I always thought it was a wonderful phrase and a wonderful goal for human life, because before seeking happiness, we must first Having defined what it is.
Jesus poses this question to those who come to him: What are you looking for? What is your goal, what your desires are the most buried, what your heart desires?
can approach Jesus for the wrong reasons. If you want to be rich, beautiful, healthy, if you think that faith brings the promise of success depending on the values of the world, then yes, Jesus did not have much to offer you. It can however give us much more: a new way of designing our identity, new relationships with the world around us, a hope alive and well founded.
The other thing Jesus told the disciples of John is not a question but an invitation: come and see.
Come: the disciples left John the Baptist and followed Jesus. There was a movement, and that's what happens when you start following Christ. Saying "come" Jesus invites us to move to a new beginning. He says "do as the Hebrews. Leaves the country from despair and slavery and put yourself in my suite, we will walk together. "
Look: it means there is something to see, something real, tangible, you might say. I know that for many, faith is a crutch, an escape into a fantasy land. But I walk with the Lord last few years and I can testify to having seen the answers to prayer, healing body and spirit, loyalty that came from Christ. They came because the Lamb of God who was slain is alive.
He calls us today to begin or renew a new relationship with him. He says "come and see." Let us answer his call.
Amen.
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