One day, with his disciples, John the Baptist sees his cousin Jesus and proclaims,
Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
For those of us who have been Christians for a long time, our familiarity with phrases like this one can lose its power. Familiarity may not breed contempt, but it does breed disinterest. The imagery of the “Lamb of God” is overfull with significance. John’s disciples probably took John’s words to mean something like this,
Behold, the Passover Lamb of God who Atones for the sin of the world.
In John’s sentence, the power and beauty of Passover and the Day of Atonement are brought together in one line. Thanks be to God!
