The Lamb of God

John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

A traveler in Europe was looking at a church tower when he saw something that puzzled him. Near the top of the tower, one of the stones had the carving of a lamb on it. The traveler had seen lambs depicted in churches before, but never in a location like this. When he asked about the carving, he was told that back when the church was being built one of the workers lost his footing and fell from the scaffolding, just as that particular stone was being laid. His fellow workers hurried to the spot where he had landed and were shocked to find the man standing there brushing the dust from his clothes. He had fallen into the midst of a flock of sheep, and pointing to a lamb at his feet he said "That lamb was crushed, but I live." The construction crew carved a lamb on that stone so that all might remember the miraculous rescue of the fallen workman.

The European traveler had seen a lamb motif at many churches because the Bible identifies Jesus as "the Lamb of God." Predicting Jesus’ quiet submission to death for our sins, Isaiah wrote: He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). Any ordinary man would have resisted being put to death for crimes he was innocent of; at the very least, such a victim of injustice would protest his innocence or beg for his life. But Jesus was no ordinary man; Jesus was and is the Son of the living God. He did not protest being executed for our sins because that is what He came among us to do! Jesus died so that we might live just like the lamb died, crushed by the fallen construction worker and so sparing the man’s life. But unlike that sacrificial lamb in Europe, the Lamb of God did not stay dead; John records the following sight in Revelation chapter five, verses six and nine: Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne encircled by the four living creatures and the elders…And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." The lamb at the church in Europe gave its life to save one man, but the Lamb of God shed His blood to save uncountable people the world over. This is why churches often display the symbol of a lamb marked by a fatal wound, yet alive and carrying a cross to show triumph over sin and death.