What’s Your Mantra?

John 1:29–41

What is your mantra? What is your slogan? What is it that you wear for all to see? I ask that question, and I can’t actually help but wonder and think about what we actually wear because sometimes what we wear says something about us, like, “I’m going to go there. What we wear can say something about where we stand politically.” 2004 was a great example of this because that was not the presidential election. That was when the cult classic, the indie film Napoleon Dynamite, was released. You guys, anyone? I need to know that some people here will associate with this analogy. Okay, thank you. Napoleon Dynamite was released, and if you remember that movie, the entire generation seemed to adopt this mantra afterward that said, “Vote for Pedro.” Right, that was the mantra, and it was emblazoned up on t-shirts in the characters in the movie because they were supporting the underdog Pedro for class president. You can actually buy Vote for Pedro t-shirts today still, if you’re interested. It’s a silly example, but more seriously, what we wear can say something about us. I, growing up, remember this shirt that I wore. It had an acronym emblazoned on it. It’s four letters that said something about what I learned to embrace. You might even remember this acronym. Some of you, it was D-A-R-E, which some of you will remember, and you’ll recognize that it stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. So we learned, we went through this program as kids. We learned all about the dangers of drugs and gangs, and then we wore these t-shirts partly because they were free but partly because we actually did believe this thing that we learned, and it said something about us. So what is your mantra? What do you wear for all to see? In our gospel, the Apostle John, who is one of Jesus’ closest 12 disciples, gives us a ready-made mantra for us to embrace today, and maybe your mind is going there already. Look, the Lamb of God. I could see that emblazoned on a t-shirt. I could grab onto that as a mantra. I think it’s an obvious one for us to embrace as Christians. It says so simply what we confess and believe for ourselves, yes, and what we would confess to others. But believe it or not, it was that mantra was a little risky in John’s day. It was politically incorrect because in John’s day, John the Baptist is who we’re talking about here. In John’s day, you got to remember this is the first century AD, and the people of Israel that had once been an independent people that God established, planted in the Promised Land, they had become a conquered people. Centuries earlier, the Assyrians conquered the north. Centuries earlier, the Babylonians had conquered the south, Judah. And then came the Persians, and then the Greeks, and then the Romans. They were a conquered people. The homeland was run by foreigners. And not only that, but the Jews in Jesus and John’s day, they were scattered throughout the Mediterranean world, throughout the Roman Empire, such that they longed and looked forward to a day when God would bring Israel back and unite them as one people again. And the reason I’m laying all this out for you is so you can understand the national and the political condition of the people and how that influenced their sense of identity. You heard identity mentioned before as Pastor Kock was introducing our service and the series that we’re looking at right now, the identity. And for most people in this day, most Jews that lived in Israel, their identity had a lot more to do with Israel’s restoration as a nation and preeminence and glorification as a people than it did with anything else. In short, the people of Judah at this time, the Jews, were looking forward to a Messiah who would make their people great and glorious and victorious once more, just like they had been under David. But the message that John the Baptist preached was not what the people of Judah and Israel had wanted to hear and what they were expecting. Look the Lamb of God. That is an entirely unique mantra and slogan. And what we want to understand is when John preaches this, what he’s saying because you can almost imagine as John sees this Jesus coming along the lakeshore, along the Jordan, you can see him pointing to Jesus and saying there he is, the Lamb of God, revealing, reaching for this Jesus to show the people of Israel that he did not come as a ferocious, conquering lion that they had wanted but as a gentle and selfless lamb that they needed. John was revealing Israel’s true need, and it had nothing to do with Romans and independence and had everything to do with spiritual restoration. John was there preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is familiar, right? John was bringing the people back to spiritual restoration. He was drawing their eyes from the mundane to the glorious purpose that God had established for his people, the transcendent purpose for the people of Israel. He was showing them the reality of sin, and he wanted them to see God’s answer to sin in this Jesus Christ. He was showing them the purpose of their history, their culture, and their worship. All the lambs sacrificed, all the blood shed over the years. In short, John the Baptist’s mantra, “Look, the Lamb of God.” It was like a clarion call. It was like a bell ringing out over the commotion of their lives and drawing them back to what was their true need. Sin and sin’s answer. The deadly, dead humanity that we all share, and God’s answer for that in this Jesus Christ. And that’s John’s mantra for you and me today, too. All right, so a few verses later, John has proclaimed the Messiah. He said, “Look, the Lamb of God.” And then the disciples go following him, and this is what Jesus says to his disciples. It’s kind of shocking to me. He says, “What do you want?” Imagine following Jesus because you think he’s the Messiah, and he turns around and says, “Excuse me, what do you want? What are you looking for? What are you seeking?” But it’s a good question. And I can say it’s a good question because God said it. But also because it’s appropriate for you and me. It’s a good question for us to ask, what is it that we seek from Jesus? What need do we bring to him, and what answer are we looking for from him? So do that with me this morning. Look at the landscape of your life. Consider what passions and pursuits animate your daily habits and practices. And ask yourself, what does it say about what is most critical to you? What is it that has hold of your emotions and your physical energy? What is it that characterizes the thoughts in your mind and the discussions that you have with him? What would an honest, outside, objective observer say about your life? Not what it is that you would want them to say. Not the critical concern that you would tell everyone else here. But that what your life confesses. Whether that’s pursuing relaxation and enjoyment or success and power, or even social goods like societal transformation or political and cultural empowerment. What is it that drives you? Where do you spend your time, and what characterizes your mind and your confession, your thoughts, your conversations? What would someone say is most critical in your life? Because John’s words to us today, they have nothing to do with what characterizes the lives of most people today and what so easily begins to characterize our lives. It has nothing to do with pursuing our own success and happiness. It has nothing to do with finding contentment and joy, and relaxation. The mantra isn’t living the good life, nor is a mantra that we are to embrace anything political or cultural. It’s this. Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Because sin and sin’s consequence is the greatest concern of our lives. And it is the answer that Jesus draws us to him to seek. That’s the reality that John the Baptist came revealing. It is the reality that the Spirit of God sets before you, yet today as well. And as we look more closely at that, as we are oriented to what is truly of critical importance in our lives, then we get to see with John God’s greater answer in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God, because he was like all those lambs that were sacrificed over Israel’s many years. He was like all the one-year-old males without defect or without disease that were laid upon Israel’s altar. He was like them because of the sacrifices that they were day in and day out at the temple and the tabernacle, every festival, every Passover. Jesus was like them because they testified to the greatest need that we have, the true concern that we share, and all of humanity shares sin. But Jesus also transcended those sacrifices because he didn’t just reveal the greatest need and promise a future answer. He became what was our greatest need and problem and gave us the answer. Jesus, in his life, became the Lamb of God without defect and without sin for you and me. And in his death, he became sin for you and me. The sacrifice, not of an animal, not even of a human being, but of the God-man, the sacrifice, the one who takes away the sin of the world, the sacrifice of the Father, the answer to our greatest problem. It’s no wonder John called Jesus the Lamb of God because that is his identity for us who know him. Amen? I know you’re used to stopping right there, but there’s another second part of this. You’re not? Okay. This is Jesus’ identity for us who know him. But here’s the thing. Like John the Baptist, this cannot just be what we know of Christ. It must become our confession of Christ. It must become our witness to others. It is not only the mantra that we embrace for ourselves. It is the mantra that we must wear for all others to see. And this is where John excelled. He was great at this. The Baptist’s life was focused on pointing away from himself and to the answer to the greatest need that we have in Jesus Christ. He said, “Look, the Lamb of God.” Right? John came preaching and teaching about sin and repentance, but all the while pointing ahead to the one who would come after him, who has surpassed me because he was before me, John said. In so many words, John said, “I have come, baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel.” John’s mantra pointed to Christ as the answer for the great need that we all share. And here’s the thing. He did it. Even for those who were considered his enemies. In the Baptist’s day, first century AD, if you’re a good upstanding Jew, you did not associate in a meaningful way. You could go and buy things from a Gentile church, but you did not call a Gentile your friend. You did not have a meaningful associations with a non-Jew because in the Jewish mind, their monotheism and their descent from Abraham and their enlightened worship, they were dividing lines between them, between Jew and non-Jew. And so all those Gentiles, those polytheistic, idol-worshipping Gentiles, they were beyond the pale. You couldn’t touch them. Or those tax collectors and prostitutes that were formed part of Israelite society, they too were on the fringes. You didn’t go near them. But John, John’s message to all of them, regardless of class or culture or background or history, was one that spoke honestly about the great need that humanity shares, sin. And God’s greater answer in Jesus Christ, whatever surface-level tensions existed, whatever political and cultural differences there were between John and the people he came to serve, he set them aside, and he spoke about what was truly the issue and the true answer in Jesus Christ. This was his mantra. Look, the Lamb of God. And it worked. You see what John’s disciples did after he reveals Jesus to them? They’re there at the river Jordan that John points out Jesus to them, and the disciples begin to follow this Jesus, right? They start following after him, and they stay with him, and they learn from him, and they find out that he is exactly what John said, the Lamb of God. And then what happens? The first thing Andrew found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah.” And he brought him to Jesus. They didn’t just believe. They shared John’s confession. They joined in John’s proclamation. John’s mantra became their mantra to look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And it brings us squarely back to us now, right here. Because we are those who, like Andrew and John, have followed Jesus today. And it brings us back to a critical question for us this morning. Is this our mantra, too? The great problem common to humanity and the great answer found in Jesus Christ is this what we wear for all to see? And if not, what of the spirit of this age has swept us up so that we don’t? What is it of the concerns over culture that have won out over the winsomeness of our witness? Are the passions that animate us truly about the concerns of the kingdom of God or the concerns of the kingdom of this world? Do we see what John saw? Do we say what John said? Do we recognize the true need that faces us and all people, and do we confess the answer to be found in the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ? Now, I don’t mean to say that any of us do this perfectly. We’re sinners, right? We are sinners, and the problem that infects all of humanity infects us as well, and so we need the answer of Jesus Christ. None of us do this perfectly, and neither did Jesus’ disciples. You continue reading throughout the rest of the New Testament, you find out how true this is. Jesus had to severely discipline James and John when they wanted to call down fire on Samaritans because they weren’t like them. Jesus had to chastise Peter for standing in the way of him going to the cross, even at Jesus’ ascension. The disciples were like, “Well, now is now the time when Israel is going to become great again,” and Jesus was just patiently dealing with them. The disciples didn’t get it, not at first. But when they came to understand their great need and God’s greater answer in the Lamb of God, then slowly they began to understand that this Lamb of God was for all the world, as you heard Pastor Kock highlight in the Old Testament reading, and that knowing this Lamb of God makes us to be lambs who point to him as well. That’s the power of John’s profession. That is John’s mantra to you and me today as well. We are sinners. We’ve come to know Christ. And as we have, we come to share in John’s mantra and his proclamation. So, my friends, I invite you to embrace it for yourselves. Be aware of everything in this world, just like Pastor Kock said about in the second reading, everything that would seek to lead us astray, it would seek to shape our confession. And what we say is true and important in this life. It would seek us to find the answers and the fights that we engage in in the things of this world, whether they’re our own pursuits or the pursuits of culture or society, or politics. But Jesus invites us. John proclaims to us this mantra, “Look, the Lamb of God.” And it is our slogan today, just as it was his slogan then and throughout all the years in between. And I would invite you, brothers and sisters, at Atonement to wear that slogan loudly and proudly above all else. Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Amen.