A Goat in the Wilderness

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29

Takes Away – How did Jesus “take away” your Sin? That’s Sin with a capital “S”. We’re not talking about all those individual misdeeds and rebellious acts and injuries. We’re talking about the big S, the guilt that you bear before a holy God. And, by the way, we all share in that burden. Jesus came to “take away” the Sin of the world – all of it – one huge block of unholiness. You might have your individual sins forgiven, but the solid mass of unholiness that the entire world shares is the subject of Jesus’ mission.

So, once again we need to ask, “How did Jesus take this away?” Did He erase it from the record book or blot it out with spiritual white-out? Not a chance. The penalty for Sin is death. It can’t be covered up or erased. It has to be dealt with. And for that, we need to see the provision of God in Leviticus 16:21. Jesus took away the Sin of the world by carrying it off on His own back into the wilderness. He was sent to His death as the scapegoat for the world.

The Greek word is the verb airo. It means, “to lift up and carry away” or “to take up and place on oneself”. The older spelling of aeroplane shows the Greek influence – a surface that lifts up. Every time you take a trip by air, you can think of Jesus, lifting the burden of Sin from the ground and carrying it away.

But John was no Greek. He had the Leviticus passage in mind when he shouted this proclamation. In Hebrew, the verb is nasa (another easily remembered word because NASA is about lifting off and carrying burdens into space). This verb is very clear. The burden is lifted up and taken away. Now we can answer the question.

Jesus had the burden of Sin placed on Him and He carried away that guilt by going to his death just as the scapegoat in Leviticus carried away the Sin of the people on its journey to destruction in the wilderness. Sin was not erased. It was not “taken away” like clearing plates from the table. Jesus accepted the burden of death in order to bear away the weight of Sin. He was the black goat sent out of the camp to die.

Centuries before Golgotha, God gave us a picture of the sin-bearer. John the Baptist saw it because he knew his Bible. And now you know.

The Sin of the world was put on Him when He carried my burden away.