The Good Lamb

Third Sunday of Easter

April 14, 2013

Revelation 5:11-14

The Good Lamb

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Next Sunday we'll think about how Jesus is our Good Shepherd. But today we'll consider how He is our Good Lamb.

In the final book of the Bible, Revelation, Jesus chose to be identified as a Lamb 30 times. For example,

Revelation 5:6

And I [John] saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

Revelation 6:1

Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.”

Revelation 7:9-10

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Revelation 12:11

And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

Revelation 17:14

These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.

Jesus, why a lamb? Why not a bear or a bull or a lion? In each and every Narnia book, C. S. Lewis depicted God's Son as a great lion. This lion named Aslan was beautiful and strong. But in Revelation St. John recorded our Jesus appearing as a lamb.

Consider a lamb. It's small. It's helpless. It's cute. They make great pets—Mary had a little lamb. So I guess the question is, can something that is small, helpless, and cute save you?

We do associate the helpless with the innocent. Babies are helpless and therefore it follows that they are innocent. They can't hurt anyone, just like a lamb couldn't hurt anyone. But does helplessness equal innocence?

No, actually they're not the same thing. David the King tells us that helpless babies are sinful from the moment of their existence and Paul the Apostle tells us that all of us, from the womb and crib on, fall far short of God's expectation of perfection for His creatures. No one is innocent, even if they are helpless.

So Jesus became one of the helpless to save the helpless, us. He became the most helpless of all so that He could save us. He became the Lamb to save all His lost lambs, us.

A different John twice identified Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of world (John 1:29, 36). And there's the secret. There's the answer. He wants to be our Lamb because He saves us by being a Lamb, a Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world.

Acts 8:30-33

30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

“He was led as a sheep to slaughter;

And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,

So He does not open His mouth.

33 “In humiliation His judgment was taken away;

Who will relate His generation?

For His life is removed from the earth.” (Isaiah 53:7-8)

Jesus chose to be a Lamb for us and chose to be killed for us. By identifying with this helpless little animal, our trust in Christ's promises is always pushed back to where it needs to be: the cross, both His cross and ours.

Listen to His words about the temporarily blind Saul:

[Saul] is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites. I will show [Saul] how much he must suffer for My name!” (Acts 9:15-16)

Saul would be renamed Paul and confessed the Good Lamb who was slain for us into all the world. And in the end Paul was slain himself, not for the sins of the world, but for the name of the Lamb. The apostles with whom Jesus had breakfast on the shores of Galilee—Peter, Thomas, John, James, Nathanael—almost all were slain for the name of the Lamb who was slain for them.

No matter how old you are, you are a helpless and guilty little lamb. On your own you will fall off a cliff or be gobbled up by wolves. But God became a Lamb, the Good Lamb who was slain, to take away our guilt through His innocent blood.

He's risen! He's risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.