-
Listen
- Watch
Summary
Last week as I was preparing our message on the “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” I flipped on the morning news and saw 10 elderly Palestinian men kneeling in a prison cell, all wearing the same shirt. On the back was a Star of David and these words in Arabic: “We will not forget or forgive.” These men were being forced to wear the shirts. I thought, “Don’t they realize that this means that they (whoever made those men wear those shirts) refuse to live in a world where the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world?”
By “we,” I think they meant “Israel,” and that’s rather troubling, for I know the origin of that name. It’s the name that was given to a man named Jacob 3,800 years ago after a night of getting the hell beat out of him by a mysterious God/man at the edge of the Promised Land.
“Jacob” means “heel-grabber,” for Jacob was a twin born grabbing the heel of his firstborn brother, Esau. Later, the name “Jacob” was confirmed when he took his brother’s birthright through extortion and his brother’s blessing through deceit — the deception of his father Isaac. At a certain point, fleeing Canaan and his brother’s anger, Jacob lay down with his head on a stone and had a dream. He saw a ladder upon the “erets” (land or earth) reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending upon this ladder. God promises to give the “erets” on which Jacob sleeps to him and his Seed (It’s the birthright.) “And,” says God, “in you and your Seed shall all the families of the earth (adamah) be blessed.” I doubt that Jacob thought this through at the time, but that would include Esau and his family (Edom), Ishmael and his family (the Arabs), Palestinians, and you.
Many years later, Jacob returns. This is when he wrestles the God/man who gives him his new name: Israel (“wrestles with God”). And then he meets Esau and says, “I have seen your face which is like seeing the face of God” (Gen. 33:10). And then God sends him back to Bethel (“house of God”) where he had the dream all those years before. There, God says, “Be fruitful and multiply.” It’s just what He said to Adam, which sounds almost exactly like Edom (Red, Ruddy), which is the name of the firstborn from whom he took the birthright and blessing.
Didn’t we all steal the birthright and blessing of the firstborn, only begotten son of God?
And didn’t God give us the birthright and blessing of the firstborn, only begotten son of God?
And didn’t it seem as if Jesus (the firstborn), He hated, and Jacob (us heel-grabbers), He loved?
And yet, God was in Christ Jesus, drawing us to Himself that we might die with Him and rise with Him and “inherit” all things. It happens on a tree in a garden when and where He cries, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”
Who would have the audacity to say, “We will not forgive”? I did a search and found a video of our former leader saying, “We will not forgive. We will hunt you down.” I found another video of our current leader saying that we will “own Gaza,” then threatening Palestinians with “hell to pay,” and another defining hell as burning in flames forever and ever (and I think he meant without end). “The measure you give is the measure you get,” and “unless you forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you your trespasses,” said Jesus, firstborn of all creation and King of the Jews (the people of the tribe of Judah).
They crucified Him. That doesn’t mean that they won’t get the birthright and blessing. “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” It means that when they do, they will not have fulfilled the dream, and no foreign nation will have fulfilled the dream for them, but God will have fulfilled the dream, and they will be blessed to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, including Gaza. If you’re a Christian, you are a Jew, for you’re married to the King of the Jews and His blood runs in your veins. You are “they”; you took His life, and He gave His life that you would inherit His birthright and blessing.
John had a vision of a New Jerusalem coming down. Its gates are always open by day, and in the city, it is never night. It fulfills Old Testament prophecy. “The Sojourner (the immigrant) will be to you as native-born children” (Ez. 47:23). The Stone that the builders rejected is its cornerstone. The 12 apostles are the 12 foundation stones. The names of the 12 tribes are above the doors. It doesn’t replace “Israel”; it is the Israel that God has created, filling the Israel that we heel-grabbers think we have created. It’s the building not made with human hands. In the city, there is a throne, and on the throne, a lamb as if newly slain, and the Word of God says, “Behold, I make all things new.”
In John 1, John the Baptist warns the Pharisees that one is coming, “the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” John 1:34, He is “the Son of God,” the anointed, the King. We would expect Him to conquer the way the Kings of this world conquer….
John 1:35-51: We meet the King and watch Him conquer. “The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, ‘What are you seeking (what do you want)?” They said, “um… where are you staying.” He said, “Come and see.”
I am telling you: Do NOT follow the Beast from the Land or the Beast from the Sea who rides the Great Harlot; follow the Lamb. The kings of this world may conquer real estate, but they are unable to conquer one heart. To conquer a heart, something infinitely more powerful is required. “No one has ever seen God. The only begotten God, from the bosom [kolpos] of the Father, he has made him known” (John 1:18). From the perspective of the earth and this age, He looks as if He’s just walking around bleeding; but from the perspective of heaven, seals are being opened, trumpets are sounding, thunders are crashing, and bowls of blood that are also wine are being poured over the surface of the “erets,” the land, the earth. “This is the victory that conquers the world,” writes John, “our faith.” Faith in you is the Life of Christ in you, flowing from the beating heart of our Father in Heaven.
Jesus says to His followers, “As the Father sent me, so send I you.” And so, how did He conquer? Read John 1:35-51. 1)He went for a walk; maybe you could go for a walk in your neighbor’s world. 2) He asked questions; maybe you could ask your neighbor, “What is it that you want?” 3) He invited folks to “come and see.” 4) He valued incompetence. 5) He made people competent. 6) He wasn’t easily offended. 7) He celebrated honesty. 8) He recognized the Kingdom at hand: God’s dream planted in His neighbor’s heart. 9) He is the Kingdom at hand: God’s dream planted in the heart of Adam.
He said to Nathaniel, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending (NOT on a piece of real estate) on the Son of Man.”
I think He’s saying, “I am Israel, and I am the firstborn from whom you stole the birthright. I am the presence of the Father from whom you stole the blessing. I am your birthright and blessing. I am the edge of the Promised Land: Eden. I am taking you home to the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden. I am the Son of God, and the Son of Man. God is my Father. Man is my mother. You, Adam, will give birth to me and all things with me. I am the decision to humble oneself and join the dance.”
There is a Jacob who exalts himself with extortion and deceit by seizing the birthright and blessings in such a way that everything dies. And there is an Israel that inherits the birthright and blessing in such a way that everything lives.
There is an old Jerusalem built with stones, and it’s been condemned. And there is a New Jerusalem descending from God even now. It is your birthright, and it’s filled with the blessing which includes every Jew and every Arab; it includes Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel. “For whatever you do to the least of these my brothers,” says the firstborn, “you do to me.”
#10) He invited folks to come and see His heart. And sometimes a body has to be broken for a heart to be revealed.
There is only one other place in the Gospel of John where the word “kolpos” (bosom) appears: John 13:23. “The disciple whom Jesus loved (This is how John describes himself; it’s not arrogance but humility) was reclining at table in Jesus’ bosom.” His head was on Jesus’ chest as Jesus said, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel when I have dipped (“bapto,” as in baptism) it.” He gave it to Judas (of Judah, Jew); they were all Jews, all his followers are Jews, and He is the King of the Jews. How His heart must’ve broken. And John felt it. Well… that’s how the King of the Jews conquers and becomes the King of all Creation.
Many years ago, I was publicly tried and defrocked for preaching that “the Lamb of God… takes away the sin of the world,” and so we can hope that no one is endlessly tortured for committing “the sin of the world.” At my trial, as they posted the vote and announced the verdict, my friend and brother, Andrew, just grabbed my head and held it tightly to his “kolpos,” just above his heart in front of all of my accusers. It felt like a sanctuary, the very presence of another world and the age to come.
Funny side note: In 24 years, not even once (I’m pretty sure)… not even once, have Andrew and I voted for the same candidate, but I’m convinced we follow the same lamb.
Vote for whomever you think would be our best employee, but always follow the Lamb.