John 1:29

29.

CHRIST'S MINISTRY BEGINS.

At this point Jesus breaks suddenly in upon the narrative. The Fourth Gospel passes by all the details contained in the other three concerning the early life of the Savior; the miraculous conception, the birth at Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, the return to Nazareth, the visit to the temple when Jesus was twelve years old, and even his baptism. short time before in the Jordan. This is referred to, and. familiarity with it implied, but its history is not given. In these facts we have additional evidence that John wrote many years after the other evangelists and supposed his readers to be acquainted with the facts that they narrated.

Jesus was at this time thirty years old, had lived. singularly blameless life with his home at Nazareth, where he had worked at the trade of Joseph, and hence is spoken of as "the carpenter" and "the carpenter's son." He had never attended the great schools of the Jewish law in which all the Rabbins obtained their education, but went from the carpenter's bench to John's baptism, was anointed with the Holy Spirit, retired to the desert for forty days of lonely preparation, and then reappears at this point, to begin his ministry.

The next day John seeth Jesus.

The next day after the visit of the deputation of the Sanhedrim. It was not the first visit of Jesus to John. About forty days before he had presented himself and demanded baptism. He doubtless knew Jesus personally before this, for he testifies to the blameless purity of his life, but it had not then been revealed to him that Jesus was the Christ; only that the One upon whom he should see the Spirit descending was the King of whom he bore witness. After this baptism Jesus had retired to the wilderness to meet the tempter alone.

It is at the period of his return that John points him out as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

The lamb was. very familiar object of sacrifice to the Jews. It was slain by every Jewish family at the Passover, was commonly used for. sin offering (Leviticus 4:32); in the cleansing of the leper (Leviticus 14:10); at both the morning and the evening sacrifice (Exodus 29:38); at all the great feasts, and on special occasions. When John pointed out Jesus, not as a, but the Lamb of God, it can only mean that God had provided him as. sacrificial offering. Every lamb offered on Jewish altars pointed to him; Isaiah, in chapter LIII, points out that he was "lead as. lamb to the slaughter." In Revelation he is declared to be the Lamb, "as it were slain." There is no escape from the idea that Jesus became. sacrificial offering for the world. This is entirely in harmony with the class of passages which affirm that "his blood cleanseth from all sin." We may not be able to fathom all the mysteries of the atonement, but it is the part of faith to accept and trust fully, what is so clearly taught. It will be seen, also, that John, by inspiration, is enabled to grasp the magnitude of the Savior's work. He is to take away the sin, not of Jews only, but of the world.

The reader should not fail to note, at the beginning of the Savior's ministry, that the idea that he is more than. Jewish deliverer comes into prominence. He is the Lamb of God who taketh away sin, not the sin of Israel only, but the sin of the world. John, by inspiration, is enabled to rise above the idea of. Jewish Messiah, the sphere of whose blessings would be confined to the narrow limits of the race of Abraham, and at once points his followers to Jesus as the Messiah of man, the Redeemer of the world who taketh away the sin thereof. Here, at the outset, is. divergence from the Messianic ideas of the Jews, and the germ of that disappointment of their hopes by seeing in Jesus the founder of. universal spiritual kingdom, rather than. worldly national empire, which led to their rejection of the Christ.