Dear Friends in Christ,
What makes a lamb so attractive to children? They may never have seen a live lamb or stroked its soft fleece. Yet, in their beds, they clutch its facsimile close as they fall asleep.
One special Lamb is also attractive to us as God’s little ones. This attraction is because of the wondrous love that caused our Father to send his Lamb for us. It is also because of what that Lamb in equally wondrous love has done for us.
Tonight’s Name of Wondrous Love is THE LAMB. Slain for us,
Served by us.
In the book of Revelation, the apostle John names Jesus the Lamb some 20 times. Here John describes Jesus as a Lamb “looking as if it had been slain.” This picture took the apostle back some 70 years to the day when, at the Jordan River, John the Baptist, pointed to Jesus. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29).
The apostle John knew what those words meant. He knew about that Passover night centuries earlier when the angel of the Lord had swept through Egypt. That angel had struck down the firstborn in every home but passed over those homes with the blood of the sacrificial lamb smeared on the doorposts. John knew also the meaning of the blood of all those countless lambs God’s people had sacrificed on all the Passover celebrations since that first one in Egypt.
The blood of all those lambs pointed to the blood of God’s own Lamb he sent from heaven. Jesus’ blood would be so precious that it would cancel all sin. When God’s eternal judgment passed over, he would spare those covered by the blood of his holy Lamb.
John further describes that Lamb as “standing in the center of the throne.” We might expect to find a slain lamb sprawled lifeless in the dust. But this Lamb is standing very much alive in the middle of God’s throne in heaven. Jesus Christ is sharing with the Father in all divine power and majesty. He is pictured as having seven horns and seven eyes. The horns show his strength and the eyes show his wisdom, times seven, so that we gasp in wonder at the almighty power and all-knowing wisdom of this Lamb.
What is the risen Christ revealing to John about his name of wondrous love, the Lamb, that John has told us? Look at our parament. The Lamb is stepping lively forward, holding a banner of victory; not just a Lamb who was slain but who has slain our enemy. Not just a Lamb whose blood stained the cross on Calvary but whose blood satisfied the penalty for all sins. Not just a Lamb who went silently to the slaughter but who stepped out of the grave in victory over sin, death, and the devil.
The Father sent this Lamb. Each of us can say that he sacrificed this Lamb for me. God’s precious Lamb is my Lamb. Someone once said, “To say Christ died is history. To say Christ died for sinners is theology. To say Christ died for me is salvation.”
What does the Lamb slain for sinners mean to you? On Maundy Thursday, we look especially at the blessed meal the Lord places before us to remember him, and to receive forgiveness of sins. In his Holy Supper, the Lamb is present to serve us. Here Jesus miraculously offers the very body that he gave and the very blood that he poured out for our sins on Calvary’s cross. With his true body and blood, he assures me that he was indeed slain for me. Jesus declares, “Here is my body, given for you. Here, my blood, shed for you. Your sins are forgiven, the ones you slip into so easily each day and the ones from the past that still trouble you. Depart from here in peace.” What greater proof of his wondrous love do we need? How precious this Lamb is to us!
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 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 in heaven before the throne of such a loving Father and to the Lamb slain for us!
2. John describes the company of heaven offering their prayers and praises to the Lamb. Jesus the Lamb was slain, and with his blood purchased men for God. The redeemed come from the four corners of the earth “from every tribe and language and people and nation.” John saw their prayers as incense going up before God, a picture we use in the Order of Evening Prayer in Christian Worship. It is fitting that we sing this with them now already since God has made us in Christ the Lamb “to be a kingdom and priests to serve God” and reign on earth with him who rules all things.
Don’t those words give you the feeling that our God calls us to more than just to be savor what we have in the Lamb? He calls us to be busy serving that Lamb. We are kings and priests who not only sing “Oh, that we were there” about heaven. While we are still here, we are to work while it is day. We are to use our daily lives to spread the gospel message of the Lamb who was slain so he might truly also rule in the hearts of others with his love.
In our congregation, there is always much to do. In our synodical fellowship, we walk together with fellow believers to take the gospel to every nation and to train workers to go in our place. We call it work and sacrifice. It is also grateful response from us who value the Lamb once slain for us and who now has control of all things in his majesty and glory at the Father’s right hand.
May we always hold the Lamb of God close to our hearts until we fall asleep in Jesus’ wounds. Lord, in your grace make it so for each of us. Amen. <SDG>