Series: Names of Wondrous Love
Maundy Thursday
March 28, 2013
Dear friends in Christ.
Why is it that little children are so attracted to
little lambs? Though many of them may
not have every had the opportunity to see one in real life or stroke its soft
fleece, yet in their beds, so many little children clutch a facsimile close to
their hearts as they fall asleep. Even
after they have out grown their child’s bed, so often that lamb might still
occupy an important position on their dressers, bookshelves, or even display
shelves. What is it that makes lambs so
attractive to little children? I don’t
know for sure, but I do know exactly what makes The Lamb attractive to us who
are God’s little ones, and children of our heavenly Father. It is the wondrous love that the Lord reveals
to us through his Son—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the Word—that
make Jesus, the Lamb so important for us.
This, in fact, is exactly what the Apostle John
reveals to us in our lesson today. For
as he writes he describes Jesus as 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. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of
God sent out into all the earth. 7 He came and took the scroll from the right
hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a
harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers
of the saints. 9 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. 10 You have
made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on
the earth.”" (Revelation 5:6–10, NIV84)
In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John calls
Jesus “the Lamb” some 20 different times, and for John. Here, John described Jesus as looking like a
Lamb that had been slain, and for John, this was a term packed with
meaning. In fact, this was something
that took him back nearly 70 years to the day when he was at the Jordan River
with his teach, John the Baptist, and John had pointed to Jesus and proclaimed,
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, NIV 84)
The Apostle John knew what those words meant. He knew how the angel of the Lord had swept
through Egypt on the First Passover so many years before. He knew how the angel had struck down the
firstborn in every home but passed over these homes with the blood of the
sacrificial lamb smeared on the doorposts.
John also knew the meaning of the blood of all those lambs, hundreds of
them, thousands of them, sacrificed on all of the Passover celebrations since
the first one in Egypt. He knew how the
blood of all those lambs pointed to the blood of the real Lamb, Jesus Christ—God’s
own Lamb, sent from heaven. His blood
would be so precious that it would cancel all sin. His blood would be so precious that those
covered by the blood of God’s Lamb would be spared when God’s eternal judgment
passed over.
This is what the Lamb of God meant to the Apostle
John, but what does it mean to you that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world? In answer we look
especially at the blessed meal the Lord places before us today. In his Holy
Supper, the Lamb himself is present to serve us. In it he offers the very body
that he gave and the very blood that he poured out for our sins on Calvary’s
cross. With his body and blood, he wants to assure us of the blessed truth that
he was indeed slain for us. As we come to his altar, he puts his hand on our
shoulders, looks into our eyes, and reassures us individually that he was slain
for us. “Here,” he says, “my body, given for you. Here, my blood, shed for you.
Your sins are forgiven. Go home in
peace.” In this blessed way, he reassures us of his forgiveness and strengthens
our trust in him as our Lamb. Now we can look forward to the day when we have
to appear before the judgment seat of a holy God. We can take that step with
confidence and joy. Only because of the Lamb who was slain for us. The Father
in his grace has washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
The Father in his wondrous love has made us his little ones through faith in
his Lamb. How we look forward to singing eternal praises to such a loving Father
and to the Lamb slain for us!
In our lesson John describes those praises as golden
bowls full of incense, as he writes, “they were holding golden bowls full of
incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 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. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve
our God, and they will reign on the earth.”" (Revelation 5:8–10, NIV84)
Tonight we join in praising the Lamb of God for his
wondrous acts of love for us. We praise
him for the forgiveness of sins that he won for us through his death and
resurrection. We praise him that he made
us a kingdom of priest who are able to share the message of salvation with all
those around us. We praise him by living
our lives in such a way that our words and actions clearly reveal that we
belong to the Lamb who was slain for us.
Though it is easy to sing God’s praise here, the Lord wants us to praise
him in every aspect of our lives. So let
us do just that! Let us carry the Lamb
of God, our Savior, with us wherever we go, like a child carrying that
cherished toy animal. Let us carry the
Lamb of God with us as we enter our workplaces, where unbelieving employees
sneer at our words and scoff at our actions. Let us carrying him close to our
hearts in the high school hallways and college classrooms, where so many try to
scratch through the varnish of our protected childhood religion. Let us carry
the Lamb with us on the hospital bed, where reality never takes a nap, in our
families, where visually and verbally the love of God’s Lamb needs to be
conveyed, in our congregations, where there’s always so much to be done and so
few, it seems, to do it, and in our synodical fellowship, where we, as fellow
priests in God’s kingdom, join hands to take the gospel to every nation and to
train workers to go in our place.
In the same way that little children are so often
attracted to little lambs, so also we, as God’s children are attracted to the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What great love he has revealed in our lives
by making us his own through faith. Not
only have we been made his own, but we have the opportunity to carry the Lamb
of God with us wherever we go. God grant
that we never leave him on the dresser top of our lives, but always hold him
close to our hearts, ready to share him with everyone who needs to learn about
this special Lamb of God, our Savior. Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
