January 15, 2023 Text: John 1:29-42a
Dear Friends in Christ,
Have you played the blame game? The one where Adam blamed Eve for his troubles. The same game where Eve blamed the serpent. We even print t-shirts to put on youngsters with sayings like, “It’s my sister’s fault”, or “my brother did it, not me.”
What if I told there are Christian churches where there is no blame game because there is nothing to be blamed for. What if I told you this is being taught in a Lutheran Church. Pastor Dawn describes herself as a “21st Century Progressive Christian Pastor.” She preached on the text that we have before us today at Holy Cross Lutheran in Ontario, Canada. She handled it differently as we see from her theme, “Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? It ain’t necessarily so!” Oh . . . she used “ain’t.” Sit back and listen – it gets worse. Here is a small portion:
“To this day many Christians believe that though you and I deserved to be punished for our sins, that God sent Jesus to absorb that punishment as a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter…The projection of a literal sacrifice for sin depends upon a pre-Darwinian understanding of creation…So, becoming one with God is not about blotting out the stain of original sin, but rather evolving into our fullness as creatures grounded in the creator and source of our being…Jesus did not die for our sins. Jesus revealed a God who calls and empowers us to step beyond the survival mentality that warps our potential and to become so fully human that God’s love can flow through us to others.”
I told you it was going to get worse. If this is the Christian Church, we might as well go home. We are wasting our time. I pray you know; you are making good use of your time in the Father’s house this day. We have a message that answers the question . . .
“WHO DO WE BLAME?”
Jesus. He is the one the Old Testament was waiting for – what all that bloody sacrifice in temple was all about. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus.
He was the one the whole creation was waiting for – waiting for the full payment to be made so that his new Adam might restore all things. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus.
This is what the whole New Testament Church is still about – what goes on here today and each Sunday in fact. Jesus.
Each of us has sinned and will sin. We need to fess up. Repent. All that we do, and leave undone, is our fault. Yet, even doing this – admitting our fault and then being allowed to blame someone else – God Himself, of all people – this would still do nothing for the guilt or consequence, would it? Someone still has to pay.
We know all this. We understand justice. God is just. He is justice itself. Justice must be fulfilled. So, God tells us to blame Him as if He did all these terrible things. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
He did, and it was finished. He did die in our place. He did accept all sin as His own. He paid the penalty on the cross for the whole world. Justice has been done.
So, yes, we are to take our sin – all of it – and place it on his head and send it with him into that bleak and desperate place to die. Outside the city wall. To the cross of Calvary. Leave it there. In him. On him. This is why Jesus came. He is the Lamb of God who takes the blame. He accepts the blame, so we won’t be blamed. He gladly accepts the eternal consequences, so we don’t have to.
So, fess up. And when the devil comes with his list of your misdeeds you go right ahead and tell him it’s all true. Yes, all of it. And remind him there is probably more he doesn’t know about because he is not God. You can tell him you are in fact a whole lot worse than he knows.
But Jesus knows. He came for that very reason. He came to take the blame. He has taken care of it. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Amen.