"4 O'Clock”

The writer of the Gospel of John tells a different story from his fellow writers – he’s got a different message, different characters, different details – so when you notice something you’ve never heard in one of the other gospels, it is worth digging into.

John 1:29-42

January 18, 2026

Dr. Todd R. Wright

The writer of the Gospel of John tells a different story from his fellow writers – he’s got a different message, different characters, different details – so when you notice something you’ve never heard in one of the other gospels, it is worth digging into. I want to explore three today.

The way he tells it, John the Baptist stopped his preaching to the crowd gathered in the wilderness to point out Jesus. He called him the Lamb of God.

He does it again the next day, making sure that his disciples notice him.

It is the only place in the Bible where this term is used.

What do you suppose John is trying to tell us by calling Jesus the Lamb of God?

Scholars are divided. Some even admit confusion.

Richard Swanson asks, “Does the lamb belong to God, or come from God, or possess some sort of godly status? All of those are possible readings of the Greek.” [2]

At first glance, the term seems to cast Jesus as some sort of sin offering; someone who “takes away the sin of the world”. But in those days, bulls, goats, and adult sheep were the typical animals used in sin offerings, not lambs.

Maybe John was thinking of the Passover lamb.

You remember the story in Exodus: God was trying to free Israel from bondage in Egypt. Pharoah didn’t want to let them go. God pressed, using plagues as a negotiating tactic. Pharoah just got more stubborn. Finally, things reached a tipping point and God told Moses to tell the people that each family needed to get a lamb – to paint their doorposts with its blood, and roast it over a fire, and eat it hurriedly as travelers making ready for a journey.[3]

Some of John’s audience would have had their own memories of keeping Passover and celebrating how God liberated them.

So, perhaps when John pointed out the Lamb of God, they heard it as a reference to the one who would liberate them from sin and its “constraining, oppressive, death-dealing effects.”[4]

Or maybe John was thinking about that scene where Abraham, after a lifetime of waiting to have an heir and what seemed like an impossible birth, was told to sacrifice his only son.

You remember that story in Genesis: How old Abraham rose early in the morning and took his son and the wood for a burnt offering. When Isaac asked where the lamb for the offering was, Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb.” After a tense moment, God sort of did![5]

John’s audience would have wrestled with that story of faith and loyalty, of sacrifice and trust. And they would have cheered when God finally provided what was needed.

So maybe John’s invocation of the image of a Lamb of God would have signified God’s provision when all seemed lost, and the miracle of life snatched from the teeth of death!

We don’t know for sure what John the Baptist meant or how the people understood it. What we do know is that it moved people!

Two of his disciples saw who he identified as the Lamb of God, and sought him out.

The gospel writer tells us that it was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

That seems like an oddly specific detail.

Elsewhere, John will tell us that Nicodemus meets with Jesus “by night” and that Jesus went to the Temple “early in the morning.” There a woman caught in adultery was thrust before him.[6]

Clearly he will use time symbolically.

But what does 4 o’clock mean?

Karoline Lewis asks, “Is it still light? Getting dark? What time of the year is this again? If the meaning isn’t something about being in the light or being in the dark, believing or not believing, why mention the time of day when these first disciples get to hang out with Jesus?” [7]

Some scholars wonder if the time is a clue that it is the Sabbath since 4 o’clock is that twilight time when the day is ending and people are limited to travel of just a half mile outside the city limits.

They speculate that 4 o’clock means that these two disciples have extended time with Jesus as a result – kind of like the literary plot device of being trapped in a stuck elevator with someone.  

Melissa Bane Sevier wonders about that time: “Do they see him interacting with family? Hosting the Sabbath meal? Praying over the food? Singing a psalm? Laughing at a joke? Telling stories? Do they see him sharing leftovers with the poor? Talking to unclean people on the way home? Talking about what to do about a widowed neighbor or a depressed friend? Do they hear some of his teaching, or is just seeing how he lives on a random day life-changing enough?” [8]

Whatever they see and hear and experience is enough to change their lives.

Karoline Lewis has a different explanation of the significance of 4 o’clock. She thinks remembering the specific is what you do when something changes your life. Listen:

“I remember the specific moment he said that he loved me. I remember the exact moment she walked across the stage to accept her diploma. I remember the particular moment when I heard my diagnosis. I remember the precise moment when I heard about [9/11].” [9]

Maybe you can identify with that specificity of memory. Maybe you aren’t surprised that the gospel writer can remember the precise time. Maybe you have such moments in your life.

The moment is so powerful it sets them on a new path.

Jesus asked them, “What are you looking for?” and that question acted like yeast.

Debie Thomas reflects on that moment:

“So much for small talk; Jesus goes straight for the jugular. What longings keep you up at night? What hopes and hungers are you afraid to name, even to yourself? What fills you with joy? What breaks your heart? What are you looking for?

I wonder if the two who hear the question have any idea how to answer it. Maybe they don’t. Maybe no one has ever asked them a question so inviting or vulnerable-making before. Maybe they’ve never considered the possibility that their own deep wants matter to God.

Maybe that’s why Jesus asks. Because he knows that if they just take in the question, their lives will change.

Their wanting will shape their finding. Their hungers will trigger transformation.” [10]

Thomas then turns the question on herself and invites us to do the same: What are we looking for? Do we even know? Or has the world dictated the terms for so long we no longer ask?

This passage invites us to go back to the beginning and ask:

Who is the Lamb of God for you?

When did the identity of the Messiah become real? Was it a flash of light or a slow dawning?

What are you looking for – in your relationship with God, in your closest connections, in your work, in your church, in your community leaders, in your service to others, in your prayers?

Who are we called to be as a community as we ask and answer these sort of questions?

Ponder those questions as we start a new year.

A warning: asking such questions can set off a chain reaction. We’ll see it throughout John’s gospel. Maybe you can already see it in your life. But failing to ever do so leaves us adrift. Amen