Obviously, we do not ask for help with a problem we
do not know we have. And sin is one of those problems. Being a sinner is, for
many people, not a practical, daily way we think of ourselves. Being a sinner
is often regarded as a religious way of feeling, or it has to do with some
“sinful pleasure.” Sometimes we have a fuzzy awareness, like when we know we
are spending money in a foolish way and then think we do not have enough, or
nursing a resentment even though we know it only makes us miserable and not the
other person, or worrying when we really want peace of mind. We may be able to
fix one of these problems or even some of these problems. But that something
that is wrong with us simply comes back on us in a new way, like a weed
consuming our lawn and no poison seems powerful enough to stop it.
And now John has a more difficult thing for us to
believe. Behold,
the Lamb of God, this Jesus, this very common, unpretentious person that
you see, He is the one who takes away the sin of the world. A lamb sacrificed
for the sins of the people and slain to remove sin was familiar to the people
of Israel, but is foreign to us, even a little bit “way out” to many of us. But
most of us have some recognition of people who have sacrificed something for us
– a parent, a wife, a husband, a friend, and sometimes our children.
People have sacrificed
their time for us, sacrificed having something so we could have something. And
this sacrifice is important, is influential on our life. There may be a crisis
of how we respond: to let that sacrifice into our life, to let it shape our
life … or do to refuse it and let it harden us instead of shaping us. In Jesus
is someone who can do something about that “something that is wrong with us.”
What He will do and how
He will do it is sometimes a blur for us. John simply points to Him again for
us. Two disciples heard this and they followed. Jesus was still a fuzzy blur to
them, but they did not go up and ask, “Are you the one to take away the sin of
the world?” They only know to ask Rabbi,
where are You staying? And
Jesus does not answer the question. Rather He says to the disciples then and to
us now, come and see. However blurry
He may seem to us, come and see.
From a sermon preached by
Henry Dobbs Pope January 14, 1996
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
(Broyles)
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