It was 3:30pm on June 14, 2003. My cheeks were sore from smiling. My shoulders sore from standing up straight. And my heart was beating a mile minute—because the moment had finally come. Canon and D echoed beautifully in the Calvin chapel.
And then I saw her. The one people were waiting for. The blond from Wisconsin, the softball player with a cannon for an arm, the girl with a smile that could stop a freight train. As she walked down the aisle, everything faded to the background. A bomb could have gone off and I wouldn’t have known.
A thought crossed my mind, “She is perfect. And she is mine? I don’t deserve this. She chooses me? Out of all the guys out there—she picked me?” Tears rolled down my face and I cried like a baby in front of all my friends and family.
Have you ever seen something so beautiful you were moved to tears? This week is Easter. It’s a time where we fix our eyes on our Savior Jesus, the Lamb of God. When you picture Jesus, what do you see? And are we like the Lamb?
He was the simple Lamb. A lamb is the simplest of God’s creatures. It has no schemes or plans for helping itself – it exists in helplessness and simplicity. Jesus made Himself as nothing for us, and became the simple Lamb. He had no strength of His own or wisdom of His own, no schemes to get Himself out of difficulties, just simple dependence on the Father all the time. Jesus says in John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but only what he sees the Father do.” We read in Isaiah 53:2 that “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” He emptied Himself and took the nature of a servant.
Are we simple? Like the lamb? How complicated we are! May we embrace simplicity and find freedom. May we be wholly dependent on the one who supplies all our needs. May we believe that less is more. That as we decrease, He will increase. May we beware of the slippery slope that is having more and more stuff. And may we be simple, like Jesus, the lamb of God…
He was also the shorn Lamb. Just as a lamb is shorn of its wool, Jesus was willing to be shorn of His rights, His reputation, and every human liberty due to Him. He never resisted. After all, a lamb never does. “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isa. 53:7). When He was reviled for our sakes, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not. He never said, “You cannot treat Me like that. Don’t you know I am the Son of God?”
So may we, like Jesus, be shorn of our rights. And like a lamb, die to ourselves, and surrender…
Then further, He was the silent Lamb. “As a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so He did not open His mouth.” Facing the ridicule of men, we read, “He answered nothing.” He never defended Himself, nor explained Himself. Jesus came and totally flipped the definition of ‘strong’ upside down. What you think is strong, He said, isn’t actually strong. And what you think is weak, isn’t actually weak. Jesus introduced that ‘weak’ is the new ‘strong’. He modeled that turning the other cheek, putting away your sword, and keeping your mouth closed is actually strength. Resisting saying what is so easy to say is a sign of strength. He was the most misunderstood, wrongly accused person in the history of mankind. A perfectly innocent man sentenced to execution. He had plenty of reasons to defend himself. But He remained silent. Because He loved them.
He was also the spotless Lamb. Not only did nothing escape His lips, but there was nothing in His heart but love for those who had sent Him to the Cross. There was no resentment towards them, no grudges, no bitterness. Jesus wept aloud, because he had nothing but love in his heart for them. And he knew the only way was the way of the cross. Jesus was sent by his father on a mission—to BE the spotless lamb. Without blemish. Blameless. Without default. Without sin.
Our spotfulness reminds us of His spotlessness. Our sinfulness reminds us of His sinlessness. Our greed reminds us of His grace. And our lust reminds us of His love. So may we not select the lambs of the world to cover our spots, but may we select the spotless lamb of God to cover our spots…with His blood…
For He is not only the simple, shorn, silent, and spotless Lamb, but above everything else He is the substitute Lamb. Jesus came to the people as the Lamb of God. Jesus, the sinless Messiah who would die on humankind’s behalf. ”He who knew no sin became sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Friends, we’ve all been sent on a mission to find the one. And here we are at the altar. Messed up. Screwed up. Lost. Hurting. Confused. Guilt-ridden. But, like a father releases his bride, our Father in Heaven has released His lamb. His only lamb. For you and I. Our hearts go pitter patter as the lamb draws towards us. For He is simple, shorn, silent, and spotless. The perfect and permanent substitute. We are undeserving of such spotless love. But the lamb comes anyway—and the Father entrusts us with His one and only.
So may our eyes be fixed on the lamb. May we know His blood was poured out on the cross so we might receive the forgiveness of sins. May we accept this beautiful, spotless bride as our own and say “I do.” May we celebrate and jump for joy because we have been selected and chosen by God to be His beloved.
An may we discover that the more we watch the lamb, the more we become like him.
Like Jesus.