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Sunday Message for July 16, 2006
The Lamb of God
The Bible drama introduces us to a colorful and fascinating
biblical character, John the Baptist. We remember him as one who
came out of the wilderness, wearing rough clothing, disdaining material
things, denouncing worldly powers and, in harsh language, sternly warning
everyone to “Repent,” or
else! And yet, John the Baptist is also the one who introduced us
to Jesus with the gentle dove-like words, (John 1:29)
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world.”
JOHN THE BAPTIST
John the Baptist, of course, represents something
very important in our own spiritual development. John was the forerunner
of Jesus. In us, he symbolizes the intellectual perception of spiritual
things that prepares for the advent of spiritualized consciousness. Jesus
said about John: (Matthew 11:10-11)
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.' Truly I tell you, among those born of
women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
John, in his illuminated awareness, said about Jesus: (John 3:30)
"He must increase, but I must decrease." One of the greatest achievements of our intellect
is the realization that it must give way to higher spiritual understanding
and that even the least perception of spiritually quickened thought is greater
than the mightiest achievements of the human intellect.
John the Baptist symbolizes in each individual the “natural man” who has begun
to recognize the innate higher spiritual nature – the intellect, which has
turned toward the light. He typifies the intellectual consciousness that
has begun to think about things on a higher level than just facts, theories,
or opinions. He has glimpsed what he knows to be a higher Truth and he
readily pays homage to it. But John still strives with evil as a reality. He
has an intellectual perception of Truth, but he is not yet quickened by Spirit.
The John the Baptist level of consciousness continues to work almost entirely
under that law given by Moses – the operation of cause and effect that helps
guide and correct us within the provision of definite boundaries and limitations. Grace
and Truth, which came through Jesus, lead past the limits of the “natural man” into
a higher working of law, which fulfills all things in love.
LAMB OF GOD
The “Lamb of God” is a wonderful symbol of the love
activity seen so beautifully in the person of Jesus. The blood of
the Lamb is emblematic of the liberalizing, uplifting, perfecting quality
of God’s love in action. (To the ancient Hebrews a
“lamb” represented innocent, guileless harmlessness. “Blood” was thought
to be the actual form of Spirit.)
When John looked at Jesus and announced: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world,” he was introducing us to one of the most benevolent
qualities of God’s creation, the forgiving love of Jesus Christ – the love
of a pure heart that takes away all sins and washes them clean. John
was dramatically introducing us to the ever-present love of the living Christ
that offers us continuous forgiveness of all our sins.
Forgiveness is immensely important. To some degree the activity of forgiveness
is constantly at work – healing, dissolving, helping overcome the mistakes,
hurts, and vexations of life. But still, many things remain unforgiven
in each of us, and there is nothing that holds us back in life and in our spiritual
progress more than a state of unforgiveness.
Much of our unforgiveness is about ourselves. We all live with some continuing
sense of self-condemnation and punishment about anything for which we haven’t
forgiven ourselves. This often gives us a poor self-image. Unforgiveness
of ourselves blocks us – often completely stifles us – from expressing our
own best qualities. This deprives us of the things we want and need most
in life, and often makes us our own worst enemy.
Unforgiveness of others is equally devastating to us. When we hold unforgiving
feelings about others, we build a shell around ourselves and arrest ourselves
at that level. We are imprisoned by our own unforgiveness and are unable
to rise above the caliber of our own thoughts and emotions. Unforgiveness
is always supported and maintained entirely by negative, destructive, and poisonous
thoughts and feelings no matter how justified it may seem.
The unforgiving person is always stymied and restricted to the narrow, unpleasant,
binding memories of the past and unable to give and participate fully and freely
in the present.
Yet, it is almost “magic” that each time we experience forgiveness about anything
we immediately open ourselves to a more creative, constructive, and productive
life.
Few experiences can exceed the feelings of freedom, joy, and love that follow
a simple action of forgiveness for ourselves or someone else. Forgiveness
is always a transforming activity. First of all, it is a release from
the prisons of the past. Secondly, it is a breakthrough into new possibilities
for the future. And third, it is an activation of new forces for good
that go to work in our lives.
In an army barracks, a tough cynical soldier from the city badgered a young,
naïve country boy at every chance. One night, the youth from the country
kneeled down beside his bunk to pray, and his antagonist hurled a muddy boot
that hit him so hard it stunned him. The next morning, the boot-throwing
soldier reached for his muddy boots and found them cleaned and polished. It
changed everything. The two soldiers became friends, and the entire company
was brought closer together with new respect and true esprit de corps.
Forgiveness always releases us from some kind of bondage, puts us more in control,
and lifts us into new possibilities. It’s not easy, intellectually, to
forgive. At times it seems almost impossible.
Even with the high intellectual perception of John the Baptist there are serious
limits to our ability to truly forgive ourselves and others. We really
just don’t seem to have the ability to out-think negativity on an intellectual
level. We need help.
BAPTISM
Baptism is a symbol of purification. John’s
type of baptism, symbolized by water, is the first step in cleaning our
minds of deeply held mistakes and errors. It is the step that prepares
us to receive the cleansing that can take place by the all-powerful Spirit
in us. Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit, the ultimate purification
of the blood of the Lamb.
The intellectual baptism of John, by water purification, can be compared with
what we in Unity call denial. The mental activity of repenting means
changing our minds about our beliefs that are not in tune with spiritual Truth. Denial
convinces us intellectually that something isn’t true. We couple this
with affirmations that support new beliefs based on the spiritual possibilities
that can be brought forth. The work is done in consciousness – mentally
and spiritually. We prepare our minds and hearts for something higher – God
provides the increase.
Charles Fillmore advised that forgiveness really means giving up something. We
give up the lesser for the greater. We give up resentments, condemnations,
and overly immature sensitive feelings and replace them with greater, more
ennobling kinds of thoughts and feelings.
It is, however, the activity of Spirit that does the real work. By cultivating
our higher thoughts and feelings represented by John the Baptist, we remove
some of the obstacles, and then Spirit can become an active factor in our consciousness.
Perhaps from an intellectual point of view we can think about forgiveness as
a “point of agreement” between two mature and loving parents who settle an
argument between children. Establish that kind of mental control in your
inner life and you automatically open yourself to greater understanding, tolerance,
humor, good will; and you will considerably brighten your life.
JESUS’ FORGIVENESS
One of the most beautiful and memorable qualities
in Jesus’ life was His forgiveness. He forgave everyone. Truly, He
was the Lamb of God – the loving forgiveness that takes away the sin of
the world. The loving forgiveness of Jesus Christ is one of God’s
greatest gifts to each of us. It can clean and purify any part or
level of our consciousness, removing deep hurts, grudges, resentments,
painful memories, and even wrongs that have never happened. It can
flood our minds and hearts with a powerful spiritual medicine that purifies
and heals everything that holds us back from spiritual growth. The
blood of the Lamb is one of the most precious qualities of the Christ of
God. It is one of the most precious truths you can know about.
God’s love and its healing qualities can redeem anything in us. It is
constantly available, but it needs to be accepted. It needs our attention
and acceptance now. There are many things in life and spiritual growth
that require patience. But forgiveness is always a “now” thing; it is
not something to put off.
Two of England’s greatest authors, Charles Dickens and William Thackery, developed
a rivalry and finally a bitter animosity toward each other. Eventually
they met and at first refused to recognize each other. But Thackery suddenly
turned back and grasped Dicken’s hand. He told him that he could no longer
bear the coldness between them and the old jealousy was dissolved on the spot.
Almost immediately afterward, Thackery died suddenly. Dickens said that
one of the deepest joys in his life was that he had accepted his friend’s warm
handshake before the opportunity had been lost forever.
In Revelation is the promise: We can wash our robes – our human garments, our personalities – and have them made (Revelation 7:14) “white in the blood of the Lamb." We can be led into the fountain of living water which will wipe the tears from our eyes!
REFERENCES: Great Dramas of the Bible William Earle Cameron
SCRIPTURE: John 1:29; Matthew 11:10-11; John 3:30; Revelation 7:14
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Last updated July 15, 2006
