Behind the Words

The scriptures referred to are John 1:29-42.

When encountering something new, we tend to look for comparisons among what we are familiar with. When encountering the unknown, we try to find analogues among what is known. The Bible does this all the time. Every time it tries to describe or label God it uses a metaphor from the time and culture in which it was written. Therefore God is spoken of as a shepherd, not a boss or general manager. In Jesus' parables a king or landowner or farmer or father is a stand-in for God, not a president or an agribusiness CEO or a legal guardian. Jesus compares the Spirit to the wind to illustrate that he has great power though he is unseen. Paul speaks of the church as the body of Christ, not the machine of Christ. And while we are free to use modern metaphors for such things, though carefully, to understand such expressions we need to go back to the time and culture of the Bible to understand just what they mean.

In today's gospel John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God.” To work out what John meant we need to examine its meaning to Jews of that time. The most commonly sacrificed animal at the temple was the lamb. One was offered up each morning and evening for the sins of the people. (Exodus 29:38-39) As the son of a priest, John knew that well. And so did every other Jew. So he may very well have meant that Jesus was the one chosen by God to deliver people from their sins through his sacrifice. 

However Passover was near. The gospel of John mentions it in the very next chapter. So it is possible that the Baptist was thinking of the major holiday fast approaching and was comparing Jesus to the Passover lamb. This was not, strictly speaking, thought of as a sacrifice but a meal. Yet the blood of the lamb was supposed to be smeared on the door frame. On the original Passover, the idea was that in executing judgment on Egypt, God would spare and death would pass over the houses on which the blood of the lamb was painted. (Exodus 12: 5-7, 13) So John may have meant that Jesus is the one chosen by God to deliver people from death by his blood.

There is a third possible source for John's metaphorical title for Jesus. In the 53^rd chapter of Isaiah, the fate of servant of the Lord is described. We are familiar with this passage because of the uncanny way it fits what happened to Jesus: that he was despised and rejected by people, that he experienced pain, that he bore the punishment for our sins, that he received an unjust trial, that he willingly submitted to death, that he should have been buried with criminals but was laid in a rich man's tomb. And in verses 6 and 7 it says, “All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth.” (NET Bible) Again we have the idea of a lamb led to slaughter upon which everyone's sins are laid. In fact, according to the Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, in Aramaic, the dialect that most of the Jews of Jesus' day spoke, the word talya can mean both “lamb” and “servant.” If he was thinking of Isaiah 53, John may have had both meanings in mind.

William Barclay adds an intriguing thought. In between the Old and New Testaments, Israel gained its independence from the Hellenistic rulers of Syria. And the symbol of the great freedom fighter, Judas Maccabeus, was the lamb, specifically a horned lamb. He died in battle in a war that ultimately freed Israel. Barclay said that, unlikely as it seems to us, thereafter the lamb stood for the champion of God.

So which of these meanings did John intend and which was understood by his audience? Whenever it comes to the Word of God, I have no trouble seeing multiple layers of meaning. Were knowledge of God reducible to one thing, we wouldn't need the whole library of books we find in the Bible. So John could have been thinking of one of these images or more than one. And the church may have seen things in the phrase “Lamb of God” that did not occur to John. What is common to all of these is the idea of sacrifice and salvation, that the shed blood of one delivers others from sin, oppression and death.

There is another symbolic animal in this passage and that is the dove. In Matthew and Mark it is Jesus who sees the Spirit alight on him in the form of a dove. Luke doesn't specify who saw the dove. In today's account John says he saw the Spirit come down as a dove and remain on Jesus. What is the significance of the dove?

Like the lamb, the dove was also used as a sacrifice. In fact it was the animal offered by those too poor to afford a lamb. (Leviticus 5:7) Besides being a offering for sin, doves and pigeons were offered as sacrifices for purification after childbirth and for cleansing of leprosy and other things.

But a much more prominent role for the dove was when Noah was waiting in the ark for the flood waters to recede. Three times he sends out a dove to see if any land has emerged from the waters. The first time the dove returns having found no place to rest. The second time it returns with a olive leaf. The third time it does not return, having found a place to nest. As the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery puts it, “Although Noah's dove is seemingly nowhere mentioned or even alluded to in the Bible outside of Genesis 8, the image of a dove with an olive branch in its beak has appropriately become a sign of peace: the storm is over.”

But how do we get to the dove symbolizing God's Spirit? It all goes back to the second verse of the first chapter of the first book in the Bible. Right after telling us that God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis says, “...the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water.” Usually this is translated to say the Spirit was “moving” over the face of the water, but the Hebrew word's basic meaning is “hovering.” In other places of the Hebrew Bible where it is used of birds, it is translated as “fluttering.” It is related to a word in the middle Aramaic dialect Syriac that means “brooding,” as a bird does over its eggs. The Talmud also sees it that way. In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God is brooding over a new creation about to hatch. And so it is appropriate that the Holy Spirit manifests itself as a dove, hovering over Jesus as he comes out of the water because he is the one who inaugurates God's new creation.

Furthermore Jesus is said to be the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Again what does this mean? The Greek word for “baptize” basically means to “dip” or immerse,” as when a cloth was dipped into or soaked in a dye. But the word was flexible enough to simply mean “cleanse.” It was also used of cleansing tables which would hardly involve immersing them in water. The early church did baptize by immersion, though. When on a study trip in college to Rome, Greece and Israel, our group came upon the ruins of an ancient church. Archaeologists had unearthed a huge cross-shaped baptismal font. The priests and deacons would stand chest-deep in three of the arms and the candidate for baptism in the fourth arm. The new Christian would be lowered into the center of the water-filled cross and rise again. But in the first century, before there were church buildings, people were baptized in the local river, as Jesus was by John. So to be baptized with the Spirit means to be immersed or soaked in the Spirit.

The involvement of the Spirit is essential. Neither baptism nor the Eucharist are magical. They do not work if the person doesn't receive them in the proper Spirit. As Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5, NRSV) (That weird thing about the rock is based on Jewish lore that the rock Moses struck to give the people water in the wilderness must have accompanied them the whole forty years of their wandering.) Paul's point is that the water, the wine and the wafer have no magical properties in themselves to save us or grant us immunity from evil. Luther emphasized that the water of baptism must be accompanied by the Word of God and by faith to be effective. Again we see that grace is participatory. God gives us the opportunity, the means and the power but consent and cooperation on our part is required. We must receive and use them in the right Spirit.

We do not live in a largely agrarian society today. Most of us have little or no contact with sheep outside of a petting zoo. Many people have parrots and other pet birds but rarely have doves or pigeons unless they race them. Very few people outside of Santeria have sacrificed an animal or had one sacrificed for them. That's why it is necessary to try to understand these things.

This might help. As a nurse I have an affinity for medical metaphors. So if Lamb of God doesn't resonate with you, think of Jesus as the Organ Donor of God. People today may have a hard time with the idea that the sacrifice of a lamb had a positive effect on one's spiritual life, but we know of people giving blood, bone marrow or some other vital part of themselves to save others. We may even have been the recipient of such a costly gift. In the case of replacing a failing heart, it requires the death of the donor. And indeed the Bible uses language that makes this metaphor not as bizarre as one would at first think. In Ezekiel, God says, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26) Our culture speaks of a person repenting as "having a change of heart.” It is not that far a leap to think of Jesus as our heart donor. After all Jesus gives his life that we might live. As it says in 1 John, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life...He is true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:11, 12, 20) Jesus Christ is life. Our new life is Christ's life. As Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Last week I spoke of thinking of the Spirit as your physical therapist. When I awoke from my coma 4 years ago and learned of what had happened to me and how the doctors had saved my life and put me back together, I knew that the key to me getting better was doing physical therapy. And some days it was a real struggle and some days it hurt. It wore me out at times. But I kept at it because I wanted to walk again. It says in the verse in Ezekiel that comes after the one I quoted, “I will put my Spirit within you; I will take the initiative and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.” (Ezekiel 36:27) And sure enough the instructions the therapists gave me became part of me. You would not believe how complicated walking is. It involves 9 major muscle groups. You need to think about stride, heel strike, shifting balance, alignment and a lot of other stuff. And toddlers master this without specialists advising them! But when you are broken it becomes a challenge and you need help. As you walk your therapist holds you and watches you and gives you advice on each step if necessary and encouragement throughout. That has been my experience with the Spirit, though it doesn't come in the form of audible words. Mostly I feel the Spirit tap me on my shoulder and point to what I am doing wrong or what I need to do and often give me a shove in the right direction.

A few weeks ago we had the large extended family of a Lutheran pastor worshiping with us and as we talked after the service, I mentioned my penchant for using medical metaphors for spiritual realities. And one of the pastors in the family suggested that baptism was like getting vaccinated. I kinda like that! A vaccine protects your health against certain infectious agents. Next time you are in a very old cemetery, look at the ages of children who died more than 100 years ago. Up until we had vaccines nearly half of all children died before the age of 5. Vaccines are the reason life expectancy nearly doubled in the 20th century. Just so, being baptized also offers protection. While I can't find statistics on whether the people studied were baptized, scientists, using the only solid metric they could find--church attendance, have shown in multiple studies that people who go to church weekly reduce their risk of alcohol, tobacco and drug abuse, are less likely to indulge in sexual promiscuity, don't get ill as often, recover faster, tend to decrease their blood pressure, boost their immune systems (just like a vaccine!) and add about 3 years to their lives. People who regularly attend church have stronger social support and less depression. They are less likely to get divorced, tend to have more sex, and find a purpose in life.

And those are just the earthly benefits. Through baptism we are reconciled to God, united with Christ, become part of God's family, members of the body of Christ, receive forgiveness of our sins and new life in the Spirit. And since this earthly life is temporary, the spiritual benefits of life everlasting are more important.

All metaphors break down. Unlike a sacrificial lamb or a heart donor, Jesus didn't stay dead. Unlike a dove, the Spirit doesn't leave a mess on your car and unlike a physical therapist, the Spirit doesn't only work during business hours. Unlike a vaccine, you don't need to get rebaptized periodically like a booster shot. But if these word pictures help you understand certain aspects of God and spiritual matters, then good! If the ones I provided don't help you, drop them. See if you can come up with your own. As you read the Bible ask yourself, how is God both like and unlike a father? How is Jesus both like and unlike a bridegroom? How is the Spirit both like and unlike the wind? Metaphors give us glimpses of the reality; just don't mistake them for the reality itself.

Our experience with God can add to our understanding of God. Francis Schaeffer said what we learn about God in the Bible is true but not exhaustive. John's gospel says as much in its final verse: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25) And indeed, he is still doing things. He is doing them through the body of Christ on earth. He is doing them through you.

I, for one, can not wait to see the next chapter.