The Lamb of God - Part One

Have a teen beat box in your ear, drum your digits in a defined rhythm on your desk, do whatever you have to do, just rap this:

They came from the cities and towns all around
To see the long-haired preacher from the desert get down
Waist high in water, never short on words, he said
Repent, the kingdom of heaven can be yours
But he stopped in the middle of his words and dropped
Down to his knees and said, behold the Lamb of God
He's the One, the Slam, don't you people understand?
You're staring at the Son; God's reaching out his hand

~ From Toby Mac’s, The Slam ~

Admit it; you enjoyed that just a little bit.  And if you’re anything like me, you even got a little chill when you spoke the last line.  I heard T-Mac explain once in concert that after seeing The Passion of the Christ and having the full force of what his Savior endured for him slam into his cognizance, he wrote that song, of which the above is verse two.

You know, as much as I’ve raved about John the Baptizer in the last two posts, there’s something he himself would have wanted you to know:  “As for me, I baptize with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals…” (Matthew 3:11).  See, JB’s motive was not to draw attention to himself, nor was it just simply to live a quirky, unique life.  Remember, John devoted his earthly existence to serving the God whom He knew to be Almighty, and in doing so was rewarded with the privilege of being connected to this God-in-the-flesh in such a singular way that, I dare say, no other has experienced this certain caliber of a bond.

Indeed, the two are so perpetually intertwined you’d be hard pressed to tear their relationship asunder.  John so identified with his Savior, and when he opened his mouth was so evidently filled with the Spirit, that he had to confess to the crowds he was not the Christ of whom he bore witness.  And there’s an interesting interplay between the two that I think illustrates a pair of God’s most prominent characteristics: His righteousness and His love.

You may be thinking that all this association with the Master of the Universe got old JB a lotta props, some really good street cred, maybe a pimped out ride and an in with the ladies.  (Think about what it got the Master Himself, and you’ll know that didn’t happen.)  What did happen was he got himself tossed in the slammer for speaking truth to the self-serving king who occupied Israel’s throne at the time, Herod Antipas.  This darling was engaged in a little fling with his brother’s wife, and wasn’t having any of this nonsense JB was barking at him, so Herod incarcerated him.  Got to love corruption in politics that leads to abuse of one’s power.

So while JB’s pounding out license plates in the yard, word gets back to him about his cousin, Jesus, who apparently is running amuck on the outside curing people of all kinds of diseases, raising widows’ sons from the dead, casting out evil spirits, and generally showing epic compassion to any and everyone who seems to need it.  Wait just a minute – sounds like someone’s straying from the agenda just a teensy bit!  The message is this, Cuz:  “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?!  And also, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!” (Luke 3: 7, 9).  Dude!  I ate bugs for you, Man!

See, JB had one facet of God down pat: His righteousness, His perpetual state of being right, His total and utter perfection that demands 100% purity.  And he was on the right track in delivering his message of repentance.  In fact, when Christ came to John in the Jordan and John cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29); Jesus, the Spotless Sacrifice, identified with John’s mantra by instructing John to baptize Him.  JB was like, nuh-uh!  “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”  And Jesus answered him and said, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:14-15).

What John had yet to wrap his head around was the concept of God’s love: His relentless, unstoppable, immovable, never-sleeping, unshakeable, unconditional, irrational, never-ending love that is His supreme quality.  “God IS love” (1 John 4:8).  God can do nothing that is not permeated with His love, driven by His love, because love is not something you will find separate from Him, nor is love something he simply does or shows.  It is who He is.  It is His essence.  Now balance that with His righteousness, and you have perfect love that is never wrong.  But beyond that, you have God incarnate who came to live a sinless life in order to fulfill the requirements of His righteous deity because He loved us so much, and He knew we couldn’t do it ourselves.  If that doesn’t drive you to your knees, frankly; I don’t know what would.

I urge you to not be like the Pharisees – the religious eggheads of the day – who were so self-righteous they had need for no message from God other than what they thought they already knew.  You would think they could identify with either John or Jesus – I mean, pick either end of the spectrum – focus on judgment to the exclusion of mercy or vice versa.  But no, Jesus compared them to children who sat in the market place and called to one another.  He said John came eating no bread and drinking no wine and they accused him of having a demon.  And the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they labeled Him a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners (Luke 7: 33-34).  See, these guys were so busy having their religion all figured out and accusing everybody else, they missed God in their midst.

You know, my boy never made it out from behind those bars – dimwitted Herod got tricked by his girlfriend and her daughter into giving them John’s head on a platter.  No matter – JB got his reward in full as soon as he departed this world.  And trust me on this one; he ain’t eatin’ grasshoppers in Heaven.

There was a man from the desert with naps in his head
The sand that he walked was also his bed
The words that he spoke make the people assume

There wasn't too much left in the upper room
With skins on his back and hair on his face,

They thought he was strange from the locusts he ate
All the Pharisees tripped when they heard him speak

Until the king took the head of this Jesus freak

~ From dc Talk’s, Jesus Freak ~