John the Baptist knew who he was from his birth, He was the voice crying in the wilderness — the first prophet in four hundred years. He would be the herald of the Messiah. Yet even he didn’t know who the Messiah was. His cousin Jesus lived such an ordinary life, he didn’t stand out even to the last and greatest prophet. All that changed when he baptized Jesus and God the Father spoke and God the Holy Spirit settled on him like a dove.
Now John knew who Jesus was and what he had to do. “Look!” he told his disciples, “The lamb of God, who carries away the sins of the world!” This insight was fro God and not his upbringing. The Jewish people mistakenly thought the Messiah would be an earthly king, who would defeat the Romans and rule the world from Jerusalem. But the Messiah was instead to be the sacrifice to atone for the sins of the whole world.
All the Passover lambs of history, all the scape goats of Israel, all the sacrifices for sin did not have that power alone. They drew the ability to forgive from the sacrifice of God Himself in Jesus. As the Lord’s Supper, Baptism and absolution draw their strength from the cross, so did all the sacrifices of Israel’s history. The Angel of the Lord, who stayed the hand of Abraham and promised that the Lord would provide the lamb fulfilled it in himself.
This title of the Messiah, then, is precious to us. It is why we use it in the prayer just before we receive the Lord’s Supper — the agnus dei. “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the word… have mercy on us… grant us peace.”
