Behold, The Lamb of God
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a Man which is preferred before me: for He was before me.” John 1:29-30
Jesus and John the Baptist were second cousins. Mary, Jesus’ mother, and Elizabeth, John’s mother, were first cousins (Luke 1:36). Elizabeth was quite a bit older than Mary for scripture states that she conceived a son in her old age. We don’t know Mary’s age, but it is speculated that she was likely a teenager because women married fairly young in ancient times. Elizabeth and her husband, Zacharias had not been able to have children until it was time for John the Baptist to come into the world to be the forerunner of Jesus Christ. When John was an adult, he preached repentance unto the people of Israel as foretold by the Prophet Isaiah: “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3). The ordinary working folks were coming to John to be baptized, but when the religious leaders came to his baptism services, he told them to bring evidence that they had repented of their sins.
Even Jesus came to John to be baptized, but John felt unworthy to baptize Him. John said that Jesus should be baptizing him, not the other way around, but Jesus made it clear that He was fulfilling the law. Thus, John baptized Him, and the Spirit of God descended on Jesus like a dove and lit upon Him. A voice from heaven was heard saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:13-17). This was the proof that Jesus was the Messiah, the One sent by God to baptize believers with the Holy Spirit. God had earlier revealed to John that the One whom he baptized would have the Holy Spirit descend upon Him in the form of a dove.
The next day, John looked out and saw Jesus coming toward him. He introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. We know that lambs were offered daily as a sacrifice for the sins of the people. We also know that these sacrifices could not really remove the sins of the people. God set up the sacrifice system as a temporary measure until the one true sacrifice was made by Jesus on the cross. That one sacrifice was sufficient for every sin that had been or will be committed. Our sins were included in Jesus’ sacrifice. In order to appropriate the sacrifice to cover our sins, we must repent of our sins and place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
John repeated what he had said earlier (John 1:15) which was the fact that Jesus was before him and is preferred before him. As stated before, Jesus and John were second cousins. There was only six months difference in their ages, with John being the older one. They grew up together and likely played together. I had a cousin who was three months older than me, and we spent a lot of time together, having sleepovers, being in the same Sunday School class, and enjoying each other’s company. When we married, we began to drift apart as people sometimes do. She divorced several years later, and I became a widow. I looked forward to us getting together, going out to eat, talking, etc., but before we had a chance to do that, she developed cancer and passed away on my birthday in 2010. I don’t know why I included this except that Jesus lost John when John was executed for rebuking Herod for his act of adultery. Jesus likely missed John, but His mission was forefront in His mind. He had to be about the Father’s business.
All those years that Jesus and John were growing up together, John never knew that Jesus would be the One who would be God’s Messiah. Jesus knew, of course, and He also knew all about John, and how he would preach repentance to the people and be the one who would introduce Jesus to Israel and the world. When John baptized Jesus, he saw the dove light on Jesus as had been revealed to him. We have to admit that it is very unusual for a wild bird of any kind to light upon a human, but Jesus wasn’t an ordinary human. When John saw the dove, he knew for certain that Jesus was the Son of God.
God sends the world proof of His existence in all kinds of ways, but so many neglect to pay attention or outright reject the evidence that there is one God, and there is one Savior, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. I don’t have to see a sign to know that Christ is my Savior because He lives in my heart. I just wish everyone could know the peace, joy, and freedom that I have because of Christ.