07.10 | Problem/Solution
John 1:29-51
‘The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”’
John 1:29
You can’t find a solution until you’ve identified the problem.
From a broken appliance to a software malfunction to a health issue or a blocked drain, correct diagnosis of an issue is essential to sorting it out.
The Gospel message is a solution scenario. It is ‘Good News’ because it is entering a situation of bad news. It is God’s response to a messy situation.
And yet, the problem identified in the Scriptures is not a popular idea:
Sin.
The main word used for sin (hamartia), and variations of it, appear 267 times in the New Testament. That’s around one in every thirty verses. If we included other words (such paraptoma, or parabasis — translated ‘transgression’; or anomia — ‘lawlessness’) this list gets longer, and we find one of the most common themes of the New Testament message.
And yet, sin is a word we find uncomfortable. We find it critical, legalistic, ‘judgy’. When we hear about sin we tend to quickly run down the dead end roads of either personal entitlement (‘Who are you to tell me what I can and can’t do…’) or shame. Sin is a word we associate with religiosity and condemnation, and with a picture of God that is cold and harsh. When we hear about ‘sin’ we get the feeling that we are being criticised, but without any real offer of help in fixing it.
Be encouraged. There is a pathway of understanding that is no dead end.
Look at the words of John the Baptist:
Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Lamb. The lamb, in Jewish thought finds its root imagery in the Passover meal. The Passover was the festival that began the night the enslaved Hebrews left the land of Egypt for a whole new world of freedom and promise before them. The Lamb was the animal whose sacrifice marked the households of God’s people with life,1 that they may escape death and slavery in one movement. Lamb of God is a potent symbol of a life given in pursuit of your freedom.
Sin. The word hamartia means, more literally, to ‘miss the mark.’ Don’t let that ruffle your feathers — for if you and I have missed a mark, that means that we were created for a higher mark than we have lived to. To have missed the mark is not merely a statement of critique, but one of potential. Before it says that we have failed at something, it says that we were made for something higher. Before it says that we have lived a small life, it says that we were made for an expansive one. Before it condemns us of mistakes, it reminds us of possibilities.
Be honest. Be honest about our fears. Be honest about our anger. Be honest about our thought life and our words and our actions. Be honest about our motives. Sin is not a word to shut us down — defensive and offended and spoilt. It is not a word to shut us out — shamed and failing and excluded. It is a word to open us up — awakening that inner instinct that tells us that we were somehow made for greater than this. That our anger is a toxin that has invaded our truer gentleness and zeal. That our fear is stifling a courageous person that could be. That within this mess and muddle of me is a glorious creation of God that is in desperate need of rescue.
Take heart, dear child of God. You are greatly loved. You are greatly known. Your Father is ambitious for a measure of beauty in you beyond your deepest hurts and your wildest imaginings.
And your solution, simply, consistently, daily — in every pain and shame and wound and failure — is always, only, and truly,
Jesus.
Reflect:
How do I react to the word ‘sin?’ How might I see this differently today?
Pray:
Father,
You are
Holy;
You made me for
Glory;
And yet I have
Sinned.
I have been stuck, lost, corrupt, and broken.
Father,
In Jesus,
Take my sin;
Take my shame;
Take my pain;
Heal this life—
For only in Jesus,
The Lamb of God,
Do you restore me to the fullness
Of Glory.
In the Name of the Lamb,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
2 Chronicles 19-20 | Psalm 118:14-24
In Hebraic thought, blood was not a symbol of death, but of life. The belief was that ‘the life … is in the blood’ (Leviticus 17:11) — and thus to paint blood on the doorframes was to mark your home with the most vivid symbol of life.