Jesus Himself is the Successful System!

I am already getting tax document notifications. We are one week away from the beginning of tax season and people are already talking about it. If we are honest with ourselves, then we would have to admit that we think and talk about taxes all year long. Whether sales, income, federal, state, property or some other kind of tax, most of us have an opinion. Some people could talk all day long about how taxes are too high or mismanaged, or ways to improve the system or their desire not to pay, which just to remind you, the Bible does tell us to pay our taxes. Much time is spent talking about fixing the tax system along with many other systems of our society.

The sacrificial system of the Old Testament was a failed system. Many of the sacrifices God commanded in the Old Testament revolved around a lamb. A few examples include the Passover lamb, which was slaughtered, and its blood put on the doorframes so that the Lord would pass over the Israelites homes sparing them from the death of their first born. After the first Passover, the meal was to be celebrated annually to remember God’s deliverance. There were also lamb sacrifices for the Tabernacle and later Temple like the daily offering, which we read about in Exodus 29, 38 “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight.” There was also the burnt offering, which was an offering of the entire lamb with nothing shared or eaten. Or a fellowship offering could be made where some of the lamb was given as an offering to God and the rest shared between the priests and worshippers. Finally, there was the sin offering of a lamb to make atonement for general sins and guilt offering made for a specific sin. In some cases, God permitted another animal to be used for the sacrifice if a person could not afford a lamb, but often it was a lamb. These give you a small idea of the sacrificial system and how often a lamb would be sacrificed in connection with sin. For all the many kinds of sacrifices, this sacrificial system failed. It failed because God never intended animals to take away our sin. Instead, the lamb and other animal sacrifices pointed to and ended with the sending of the Son of God, Jesus.

John the Baptist announced the end of the sacrificial system in our Gospel reading today from John 1. For hundreds of years the Israelites sacrificed countless animals. Countless pints of blood were shed testifying to the penalty of sin, which is death. Countless times a substitute lamb or other animal stood in the place of the sinner. Then, we hear John the Baptist announce the appearing of a new kind of sacrificial system in John 1, 29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” John pointed to Jesus as the one who was after him, since Jesus was born after John, but also the one who surpassed him as the eternal Son of God. John and Jesus were familiar with one another as relatives, but God revealed Jesus as the Messiah or Christ when he was baptized. Last week we focused on Jesus’ baptism in our Gospel reading from Matthew 3, which John the Baptist went on to summarize in John 1,

32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

John 1:32-34

John testified to Jesus’ fulfillment of Isaiah’s 700-year-old prophesy that we read last week in Isaiah 42, 1 “I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.” God had sent John to baptize, and God used Jesus’ baptism to reveal him as the Chosen One, literally as the ‘Son of God’ in the Greek. Jesus the Son of God would be like no one else; he would be greater than Abraham, Moses and Elijah, who themselves put their hope in the promise of Jesus’ coming. Jesus is greater because he ended the animal sacrifice system.

At the time of John the Baptist and Jesus, many had lost themselves in the system. The death of animals did not satisfy God’s wrath, nor did the remaining dried blood, ashes and bones have any power to help the people. A lamb, a grass eating utilitarian creature would not save them. Hope in the animals of the Old Testament sacrificial system would be like someone putting their hope in their car to save them as if you could get in your car, program ‘heaven’ into your phone and drive to paradise. The sacrificial lambs put the seriousness of sin in front of the people and their need for a substitute. You and I do not have the sacrificial lambs as part of our lives to either distract us from Jesus or point out our sins. Instead, we get a warning for New Testament believers from our New Testament reading from Colossians 2, 8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” The answer to salvation is not found by reasoning our way out of sin by explaining it away as character flaws or changing the mindset of society into acceptance and justification of any whim or feeling. Nor do we need to bring back Old Testament sacrifices and the Temple. We cannot reason our way out of, remove or transfer our guilt to any creature or escape the punishment of death and hell unless we have Jesus.

John the Baptist correctly pointed us away from ourselves to Jesus to be saved. Again, John the Baptist said in our Gospel reading from John 1, 29 … “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” This is the main theme of Scripture. This is the focus of every sermon, preaching and pastor. God sent Jesus to be the substitute who took our sins on himself and died. He was the whole system. The debt we owed God for our sins was paid by Jesus’ death on the cross and his perfect, sinless life was credited to us as we read in our New Testament reading from Colossians 2, 13 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” You can think of it in terms of a perfect tax system. God wants to give us all the benefits you would want from a tax system like protection, freedom, security, healthcare, retirement, etc. which all comes at a high price, so he paid the price. The cumulative need of the entire human race was the price Jesus paid, so that we would have eternal life in heaven with all we need for peaceful, joyous life. Jesus was able to do this as the Son of God. He has established a sacrificial system that cannot fail because it has paid for all sins. He has also established a kingdom that is above all kingdoms that you are a citizen of as we hear again in our New Testament reading from Colossians 2, 9 “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” When burdened by our sins, the good news is that they have been taken away by the Lamb of God.

John the Baptist pointed to someone. Looking at Jesus, the Lamb of God forces us to see our sins. Jesus brought up the uncomfortable things like how you spend money, how you prioritize and schedule your time, what you do with your body, how you speak to others, how you physically interact with others, what you think about and how those things are often selfish, bad, hurtful, evil and thus sinful. Jesus shows how all this sin, whether ours or others, has broken the many systems in our society that God wanted in place to do good things. More than that, how sin when not removed condemns us. Looking at Jesus also points you to the solution. Jesus is the successful system because he saved you from your sins and he save you without any help, without cost or participation from you. And he has brought you into the benefits of that system as we read in Colossians 2, 6 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Continue to look to Jesus who took away your sins. Continue to look to Jesus and you will overflow with thankfulness. Look to Jesus and you will have good, godly answers to how to spend your money and time, how to use your words and actions, and how to avoid sin by relying on the Word of God.

Stop wasting your breath on failed systems. You have been saved. Your true home is heaven. Look to Jesus and spend your time hearing and focusing on the successful system that has given, gives and will give you all you need without cost by Jesus. Point people to Jesus when conversations about the failed systems in your life and others lives come up. Point others to the successful system. Tell them about the perfect plan. Tell them about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus himself was the successful system to save you, those you love and the world. Amen.