First Fruits: Lamb and Dove

Matt 3:13-17,  John 1:29-42

“Lamb and Dove”

We begin our first sermon series of the year, First Fruits, we read about John the Baptist calling Jesus the Lamb of God and consider the meaning of the dove. 

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Trinity It is january eighteenth, twenty twenty six. Our readings today are from Matthew chapter three verses thirteen through seventeen and John chapter one verses twenty nine through forty-two. I am married into a family of property managers. A property manager rents out residential or commercial property or both, keeps it in good working order, and arranges for all the cleanup, painting, anything else that might be required after someone moves out before the next tenant can move in. Property managers see a lot. They see how people present themselves, their actual financial situation, how they live, how they caretake their environment or not, sometimes how they die. Property managers see the results of life choices. They see who people actually are as revealed by the evidence that surrounds them. People leave behind furniture so nice, they either don't know its value or have a great deal of money. People leave behind kitchens with cabinets smashed, drains clogged, and all the refrigerator shelves broken. You wonder if at a certain point they thought, well, I'm never getting that deposit back anyway. Might as well break it all. People also live quietly and leave properties sparkling in better condition than they found them. Anyone can have a bad run or a good year. Property managers make their best guess about an applicant and then wait and see who they prove themselves to be. You just never know. A dentist once said if everyone actually flossed as much as they say they do, there should be dental floss spilling out of every trash bin. Today we have readings from John 1, 29 through 42 and Matthew 3, 13 through 17. Both are about the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the Baptist. Our first reading is from the Gospel of Matthew. We don't know who actually wrote this Gospel, but we believe it to be a second or third hand account passed from the disciple Peter to someone else who then shared it with the person we call Matthew. Matt was an educated Greek-speaking Jewish person living in Antioch, then Syria, today Turkey. The gospel was written about 50 years after Jesus died. For Matt, Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He goes to great length to thread the story of Jesus into the Hebrew Scriptures. He sees Jesus as bringing Scripture to fulfillment, transforming hearts. Our second reading is from John. We don't know who actually wrote the Gospel of John either, but we believe it was a second or third hand account passed from the disciple John to someone else, and possibly even passed on to the person who wrote it down that was named John. It gets a little confusing. John was an educated Greek-speaking person living in Ephesus, then Asia Minor, today Turkey. This gospel was written about 10 to 30 years after Matthew's. For John, Jesus is the logos, the word. He goes to great lengths to tell of Jesus' divinity. He sees Jesus as the preexistent Son of God who has come from heaven to reveal the Father and bring eternal life. Two different focuses. Internal and changing of hearts for Matthew, external knowledge of a preexisting God for John. Again, this is our first short sermon series of the year, and we're considering how Jesus is revealed in his early ministry. John and Matt both use the same symbol, the dove, to show a revealing of who they believe Jesus to be. Messiah and Logos. The trick with this symbol is that we are non-Greek speakers, 2,000 years removed, and also without cultural Jewish identity. So the nuance is easy for us to miss. It's kind of like dropping into a conversation where you don't know all the players and you don't know the history. It's a little bit like driving in the fog. You might be on the road, but you'll you're gonna miss some of the landmarks. But the gospel writers want you to notice the landmarks. They really do. They want you to see how Jesus is revealed, how his life is bearing the fruit named in the Hebrew scriptures. For first century followers of Jesus, the dove not only represents the Holy Spirit, the dove also represents a shift in history and the beginning of a new era. The presence of the dove that descends and rests on Jesus tells us who he is and what to expect before his ministry even begins. Look at how these accounts are different. John 1, 29 through 42, Matt 3, 13 through 17 may both be about the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan by John the Baptist, but they use the symbol of the dove differently. In Matthew's Gospel, the symbol of the dove verifies John the Baptist's knowledge. In John's Gospel, the dove is used as evidence by John the Baptist to publicly testify to who Jesus is. It's a subtle distinction. Also, in John's account, by identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God, John is comparing Jesus to the Passover Lamb, whose blood secures life. These differences should not surprise us. The Gospel of Matthew is about private inner knowledge, fulfilling the law and transforming our hearts in Christ. The Gospel of John is about publicly asserting who Jesus is, his divinity and his saving role, connecting humanity back to God. Both Gospel writers want to be witness to Hebrew Scripture brought to fruition by Jesus of Nazareth. You know the tree by its fruits. How are the fruits of your faith showing up in your life? In his letter to the Galatians, Paul famously names the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. In this new year, which of these most needs your attention? Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Which of these most needs your attention? How then are you patiently growing these fruits? Or what small steps could you be taking now? The new year is a good time to think about this. I don't know your answers. I am working out my own. But I do know. You know the person by the way they leave the apartment when they move out. Amen. Trinity. This has been a production of Trinity United Methodist Church, located at 511 Oak Street in Calusa, California. Visit us online at CalusaUMC.org. Rights retained by original copyright holders, all other rights reserved.