Thoughts on the Divine Service
25. The Agnus Dei
Dear friends,
I always want to smile when I read John 1:19-34. John the Baptist is busy preparing the way of the Lord by preaching and baptizing, and the chief priests and Pharisees take notice. They send a delegation from Jerusalem to ask him who he is, and why he does what he does. John is enigmatic, telling them who he isn’t: he isn’t the Christ, Elijah or the Prophet foretold by Moses. After some interrogation, he finally tells them that he’s the fulfillment of prophecy (cf. Isaiah 40:3).
Unimpressed, the delegation asks, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” That’s when John drops a bomb and says, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
In other words, John says, “I am not Christ, but the Christ is here. He’s standing in the crowd!” I can imagine his startled interrogators looking around the multitude, looking for the Messiah—He must stand out from the rest, right? Maybe He’s head-and-shoulders taller, or He’s got a bit of a radiant glow about Him. But no, there is nothing special about His appearance: He has no special form, majesty or beauty (Is. 53:2).
How will they know who is the Christ in the crowd? They will know the same way that everybody comes to know Jesus—through the proclamation of His Word. The next day, John the Baptist sees Jesus coming toward him and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Thus John reveals the Christ for the first time; and when he does so, he calls Jesus “the Lamb of God.” You’d think that the Messiah would have some sort of apex-predator name, like “the Lion of God,” but John calls Him a lamb. Lambs are far better at dying than they are at defeating predators; in fact, the most common role that lambs play at the time is that of sacrifice. Think especially of Passover, when every Jewish household sacrifices a lamb to remember how the Lord delivered them from death and set them free.
That’s exactly what John the Baptist is thinking. He’s declaring that the Christ has come to be sacrificed. For what purpose? To “take away the sin of the world,” to deliver His people from death and to set them free.
It’s worth noting that when families sacrificed the Passover lamb each year, the lamb didn’t go to waste. The family ate it as their supper. Its blood and its body both served to preserve their lives as God’s people.
In the liturgy for Holy Communion, we sing the Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”) just after The Words of Our Lord and the Pax Domini: the pastor has just consecrated the elements, then held the bread and wine towards the congregation to say, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” In saying this, he is saying, “Here is Jesus for you.”
That’s when you respond with John’s words formed into a prayer: “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us … and grant us Thy peace.” Clearly from the words, you are directing this prayer to Jesus; and to a casual bystander, it might look like you’re addressing it to the bread and wine. That’s not wrong, because that bread and wine is now His body and blood. Jesus is as present there as He was by the banks of the Jordan. Why is He present? For the forgiveness of sins. For peace, life and salvation. At the Supper, He still has no special form, beauty or majesty that makes Him look like the Christ; but He is the Christ present in bread and wine, because He says so. Your Savior comes to you!
Behold the Lamb of God, who comes to take away your sin. What joy!