Behold the Lamb of God

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

We celebrated the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord two Sundays ago and if you recall, I mentioned that the Epiphany or Manifestation of the Lord is commemorated in three events, namely, the Visit of the Gentile Magi, the Baptism of the Lord at the River Jordan (which we celebrated last week) and the Wedding at Cana. Although we are now in the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Church refuses to allow us to let go of the import of the Epiphany event(s), and continues to direct our attention to its significance. This is what we hear in today’s gospel. Saint John the Evangelist lifts the veil over the visible to reveal what is invisible to the naked eye but only apparent to those who possess the vision of faith – the testimony of Saint John the Baptist helps us see – that the Baptism of the Lord is actually a showing forth or manifestation of the Lord, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

If last week’s gospel drew our attention to the voice of the Heavenly Father when our Lord emerged from the waters of baptism, today’s gospel focuses on the voice of Saint John the Baptist. In fact, it is so concerned with this testimony, the testimony of the Baptist being so central, the passage does not even mention the baptism itself. It is as if John the Baptist is so intent with his testimony about the Greater One that he does not consider his own action worth mentioning. “He must increase, I must decrease.” All his action and being point to the being and to the action of the Other; he himself is comprehensible only as a servant of the Other.

Here again, in this passage found only in the Fourth Gospel, we find the enigma of Saint John the Baptist and his relation with our Lord. The former probably knew the latter as a man, indeed as a relative (according to Saint Luke). If he nonetheless says, “I did not know Him myself” that must mean: I did not know that this unassuming son of a carpenter, the son of my mother’s kinswoman, was the One Israel yearned for, since He “existed before me,” that is, as the One who comes from God’s eternity. We can see here echoes of the Prologue, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Here lies the irony of the Baptist’s title – he is the Forerunner of the Lord, but the Lord, whose Way he was preparing, preceded him.  Before John could prepare the Way for the Lord, the Lord had already prepared a way for him, his mission was already written before time and was assigned to him in his mother’s womb. If we are like John, true witnesses to Jesus, we shall find in Jesus the conscious purpose of our being, and His glory will be the clue to all the windings of our lives. For this purpose, were we born, and for this end have we come into the world, that we may bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

John the Baptist also understood the nature and content of his mission (though not completely): that he and his water baptism were intended to acquaint Israel with the coming One. John knew the content of his assignment even if he did not know the goal and the completion of it. But John has also received the criterion for recognising the significance of this moment when this fulfilment began: the Spirit-Dove who descends and rests on the Chosen One. With this “proof”, John was able to testify and declare, “He is the chosen One of God,” this is the “Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world”

The reference to the Lamb makes sense, as you know, in the Jewish tradition. A lamb was sacrificed every year at the Passover. It commemorated the liberation of Israel. That sacrifice saved the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The Jews also made sin offerings as atonement for their sins (Lev 4:32-35). But the truth of the matter, is that none of these could actually take away sins (Heb 10:4). That whole system was pointing forward to what would happen someday in a final and most perfect sacrifice for sin. And John is saying: It’s happening now. God is sending His own Lamb into the world to take away sin, once and for all.

The new Lamb of God to be sacrificed once and for all had to be an unblemished sacrifice, a spotless sacrifice, a sinless sacrifice. Only then could this Lamb have power to release us from the slavery of sin. Jesus was holy. He was without sin. No original sin. And the reason He was without sin is that He was God. And now we see the connexion between the old sacrifice and the new: just as the lamb was sacrificed in Jewish homes, so too Jesus, the Lamb of God, was sacrificed. They drained its blood; likewise Jesus lost His Blood during His Passion. Just as the blood of the lamb on the door-posts was a sign of salvation from death in Egypt, so too the Blood of the Lamb of God is a sign of salvation from sin. But there was something very important about the lamb of the Jewish rite of Passover: it had to be eaten! Likewise Jesus now is ‘eaten’ in Holy Communion. No ordinary human being can be “the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.” Only Jesus, the Chosen One of God, the One who existed before John, in fact, before any of us, was capable of taking away the sins of the world.

Though none of us can boast of being present at that great moment of revelation, when Saint John the Baptist pointed in the direction of the Lord and identified Him as the “Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world,” we are indeed privileged to experience that moment today and whenever the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is made. The words of Saint John the Baptist continues to echo in the liturgy through the centuries. “Behold, the Lamb of God” the priest says when he lifts up the Body of Christ, “behold Him who takes away the sins of the world”. 

In fact, we can claim to be far more privileged than the hearers and audience of John’s testimony. When John first spoke these words, the “Lamb of God” was seen in a very ordinary way.   The eyes of all present saw only an ordinary man approaching the scene. They could never make the connexion until this man gave up His life on the Cross, where He made the ultimate sacrifice for the atonement of our sins. But now when we look at the Sacred Host, as it is held up at Mass for all to see, we see Jesus, the Sacrificial Lamb, in an even more veiled way.  We see, with our eyes, a piece of bread.  But with the eyes of faith, once again we behold the Saviour, who died for us and for the salvation of many, and is alive again.

When the priest holds up the broken host, the wounded, yet resurrected Christ, we are reminded of the image given to us by Saint John describing Heaven, the eternal banquet of salvation, in Revelations 5:6 which says,” And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders, a Lamb standing, as if slain…” Let’s take a moment to envision this.  A Lamb, the Lamb of God standing as though slain.  The Missal could have just as easily said, “Behold Jesus Christ,” but instead, we have “Behold the Lamb”.  That’s profound.  The image of Heaven we are given from the Book of the Apocalypse is the Mass!  Likewise, the Mass is Heaven on Earth, a foretaste to our experience of the eternal life with God where we will be present with Christ who is the Lamb of God, who conquered death and was resurrected, and whose broken Body and Blood are elevated by the priest, standing as though slain, victorious over sin. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” Seek Him out, discover Him with the eyes of faith and rejoice as He draws near.