Wednesday, December 28, 2022

 

Wednesday, December 28, 2022


Psalms 143; 146

Isaiah 30:1-14

John 1:19-34


Observance: Holy Innocents


“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”


This entire proclamation made by John the Baptist might as well be our memory verse. So much of the beauty of the Lord Jesus is packed into just a few sentences. Let’s sit with this just the first line this morning.


Our author already got our heads into thinking about Moses and the Exodus; there was a lamb there, too. But while that first Passover lamb served as protection from God’s wrath, John the Baptist’s Lamb does more: it also takes away sin.


We have a reference here to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. If this chapter is not embedded into your memory yet, then do take the time to let it marinade. The Suffering Servant is an explicit prophesy about Jesus’ Passion; that moment of atonement He made on the cross, where God’s wrath and judgement was bore upon His shoulders in our stead.


John the Baptist has joined together the Suffering Servant and the Passover Lamb in the Person of Jesus Christ. Ours was the punishment Jesus suffered, yes, and now we have another facet of the Jewel revealed to us. Not only is Jesus the perfect atoning sacrifice, but He is a meal, our spiritual food.


The perfect Man and our glorious God, the God-Man Jesus Christ, God incarnate, who descended the mountain to pitch His tent among us, did so that He might then go to the cross for us. Now that we may ascend the mountain with Him, He gives Himself as our sustenance for the journey.


We cannot live without food, and we cannot make this journey home to the Father without the Son. Jesus’ giving of Himself is complete and absolute. There is no part of Him we cannot access. He is ours, and we are His. Any moment we sense the loss of God’s presence, either His guiding discipline or merciful love, we flee to Jesus, who gives us all of Himself, and in turn, we always receive all of Him.


No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th'eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

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