"what is worship?" (part 2)

*This is the second part of a two-part post on worship; scroll down to see the first post that precedes this one"
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“Behold the lamb of God!” (John 1:35; cf. 1:29)

I would like to take up again the question that was posed by a friend recently: “What is worship?”

As I mentioned in my last post, this is a question that I feel cannot be answered in any short response. So I am approaching it once again; this time I wish to discuss the connection between ‘worship’ and the biblical roots for ‘the Lamb of God’. The connections are many – and as the apocalypse of St. John reveals, the Lamb of God is worshipped in Heaven for all eternity:

“’Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’ And the elders fell down and worshipped” (Revelation 5:12; cf. 5:13-14).

When Jesus approached John the Baptist in the Jordan River, John addressed him in words that were truly prophetic: “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:29; 1:35). It seems probable that John knew well the historical and prophetic roots for the Lamb of God, of which he rightly attributed to Jesus, “who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). What are those historical and prophetic roots?

Recall the story of Abraham’s sacrifice, when the Lord asked him to offer his son Isaac “as a burnt offering” (Genesis 22:2). God tested Abraham; when Isaac asked his father, “where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”, Abraham responded: “God will provide himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:7-8). These words were certainly prophetic. If we consider the fact that in the original Hebrew there were no punctuations, we could read that verse in a way that John the Baptist might have read it: “God will provide Himself, the Lamb, for the burnt offering, my son.” What is also significant is the fact that the region where God had asked Abraham to offer the sacrifice of his son – “the region of Moriah” (Genesis 22:2) – was the same region where the hills reside just outside the future city of Jerusalem. It was the region of Calvary, where God would indeed provide the Lamb of God.

John must have also understood the prophetic connection of the Passover with Jesus as well. The Passover is when the Lord instructed the Israelites who were in bondage in Egypt to sacrifice and eat a lamb (see Exodus 12). The lamb had to be “unblemished, without broken bones” – which we see Jesus fulfilled on the Cross (see John 19:36; cf. Exodus 12:5, 46; cf. Psalm 34:20). They had to “eat the meat roasted over fire, with bitter herbs, and with bread made without yeast” (Exodus 12:8). The Passover was to be commemorated every year, with detailed liturgical formulas (see Exodus 12:14-28). The sacrificial lamb was a ransom, in place of the firstborn of the Israelites household; so the Passover – and its annual commemoration – was in a real sense an act of redemption – a “buying back”. It therefore seems probable that the Baptist saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover, the true Lamb of God who definitely completes Redemption for Israel – and all humanity.

John probably also knew well the prophetic words of Isaiah, who spoke about the suffering servant, who appeared as “a lamb lead to be slaughtered” (Isaiah 53:7). It was this suffering servant – this “lamb” – who made his life “an offering for sin”, according to the Lord’s will (Isaiah 53:10). Perhaps this, too, was what was in the mind of the Baptist, who beheld Jesus as the Lamb of God, “who takes away the sin of the world”. Some years later, it would be the apocalypse given to John the Apostle on Patmos, who beheld the Lamb, “as if slaughtered” (Revelation 5:6; cf. 5:9, 12).

“You were slaughtered and by your blood you have ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

How truly prophetic were those words of John of the Baptist, who seemed to connect worship with the Lamb of God – a connection confirmed in the apocalypse given to the apostle John on Patmos.