Behold The Lamb Of God!

(Homily 2^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr-A)

          At the event of the Baptism of Jesus last Sunday we saw what could be plausibly considered the best introduction of the Son by the Father, before the Son officially began his ministry. The Father served as the first introducer or rather Presenter of the Son to the world. An in-depth reflection on the liturgy of the word today reveals the universal destiny of Jesus in connection with the three readings. The servant of Yahweh, as Jesus was prefigured, was called to be light to the nations, that salvation may reach the end of the earth” (first reading). In the Gospel John the Baptist presented Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”. On his part St. Paul announces to the Corinthians that they are called to be God’s people together with all those who invoke the name of Jesus Christ in any place (second reading). From the beginning of the ordinary time the Church invites us to reflect on the Salvation of Christ, which is destined to all and it has to reach all the end of the earth in order to render present his Kingdom among men. The Church thus presents herself as the community of salvation and she wants to communicate this truth in all the angles of the earth. The word of God offers us a synthesis of our faith, where the past confirms the future. The promises and the ancient prophecies were realized in Jesus, the true Lamb of God, and this serves as a guarantee that the part of the promises that have not been fulfilled will certainly be fulfilled. God is faithful to His words.

          The first reading (Is. 49:3.5-6) by means of prefiguration continues the theme of servant hood and manifestation of Jesus at the event of the Baptism. This passage is the second of the servant songs in Second Isaiah. In this second song, the prophet affirms that God formed his servant even from the womb. This idea of predestination is common among Hebrew prophets. We see this equally in the prophecy of Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jer. 1:5) and in the New Testament it recurs in the Pauline corpus: “But when God, who had set me apart from the time I was in my mother’s womb, called me through his grace” (Gal. 1:15). As a matter of fact, this idea of predestination in the Bible is not to be understood from the point of view of an infringement of the human freedom or a limitation of it, rather it is a form of a doxological expression of faith in a given situation. It appeared also in the annunciation and the infancy narratives of the Gospels. Again, the passage expresses the universality of the servant’s mission. The first song talked about him as “a light to the nations”. The second song extended the horizon of the servant’s mission thus: “I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth”. The universal dimension of the servant’s mission serves as a bridge connecting the first and the Gospel readings.

          In the responsorial psalm (Ps. 40) the Psalmist maintains that God desires obedience to His will, and not sacrifice and burnt offering for sins. Therefore, that self-oblation must accompany our sacrifices to God. This psalm has a Christological background, referring to Christ, the servant, who offered himself in his baptism to a life of total obedience to the Father, a life that will lead Him to the sacrifice of his very self on Calvary. He offered himself wholly for the realization of the Father’s will. The theme of this Psalm raises our gaze from the event of His Baptism to the reality of his immolation on the Cross.

          The Gospel (Jn. 1:29-34) is a narrative of the event of the Lord’s Baptism by St. John but not in a very detailed and direct manner. In that episode he presents John the Baptist bearing witness to the theological implications of the Baptism as evidenced by the voice from heaven and in the descent of the dove. In his words: “I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptize with water had said to me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit”” (v.33). Drawing the issue further, the voice from heaven declared Jesus the Son of God, thus in reference to the title given to him by John the Baptist at the beginning of the passage: “Lamb of God” who takes away the sins of the world. This could be seen in relation with the identification of Jesus as the servant of Yahweh in Second Isaiah. In his Gospel John affirms two important elements about the event: First, that Jesus “is the Chosen One of God” (v.34), as such, the theological meaning of his Baptism is incumbent upon the manifestation of Jesus as the servant of Yahweh. Second, that Jesus’ mission as the servant involves bearing the burden of our sins (cf. Is. 53:5). Be that as it may, the Baptism event points already to the Passion and his saving death. Jesus is indeed, the sacrificial Lamb that takes away the sins of the world.

          In the episode of today’s Gospel the Father is now using a human agent to introduce the Son and that is, the Precursor, John the Baptist. John the Baptist was indeed a faithful witness and presenter of the Son. He bore authentic, humble and selfless testimony to the Son. John baptized Jesus as he saw Him coming towards him, and then presented Him to his disciples saying: “Look, there is the lamb of God” (Jn. 1:36). Indeed, the title “Lamb of God’ is one of the greatest titles and attributes of Jesus. What could be John’s reason in introducing Jesus as the Lamb of God? We can make three considerations here: ●First, maybe he got inspiration from the Passover lamb in the book of Exodus. Therein, it was the blood of the lamb that protected the Israelites on the memorable night they left Egypt (cf. Ex. 12:11-12). The blood of the lamb that delivered the Israelites from destruction and death is a prefiguration of the Real Lamb: Jesus, who will shed his blood on the cross for the remission of sins and for the liberation of mankind. In the same vein, St. Paul in one of his epistles will equally identify Jesus as the “Passover Lamb” (1Cor. 5:7). With that expression we may well posit that John the Baptist was invariably telling his disciples that Jesus is the Real Lamb. ●Second, maybe John the Baptist as a son of a high priest, Zechariah, was trying to make reference to the temple sacrifices that are performed on daily basis in Jerusalem, where lambs were sacrificed in the temple for the sins of the people, “This is what you must offer on the alter: two yearling male lambs each day in perpetuity. A perpetual burnt offering for all your generations to come, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before Yahweh, where I shall meet you and speak to you” (Ex. 29:38.42). Until the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D this daily offering was made in the temple. Indeed, this daily sacrifice could be seen as in connection with the self-offering of Jesus on the cross, which is the same as the sacrifice we offer every day at Mass. However, the difference is that the sacrifice on the cross was bloody, but the one at the Eucharistic sacrifice is not bloody, therein Jesus is the Priest, the Victim and the Altar on which the sacrifice takes place (He is the Offerer and the Offering). ●Third, he might be alluding to the prophecies of Jeremiah and Isaiah. In the words of Jeremiah: “I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughterhouse” (Jer. 11:19). Prophet Isaiah said a similar thing thus: “like a lamb led to the slaughter-house” (Is. 53:7). The two prophets envisaged the one who through his humble sufferings and sacrifice liberates and redeems his people; the humble Lamb.

          Drawing the issue further, one of those disciples of John the Baptist that heard the presentation of his master: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” and he followed Jesus, is indeed the one who documented this for the Church: John the Evangelist. After so many years he remembers his first encounter with Jesus at the bank of river Jordan. This first presentation of Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God” was impressed in his heart, to the point that he continued to call the Master: “Lamb of God”. It became one of the delightful names of his Master, and this name penetrates deeply into the personality and mission of Jesus. As a matter of fact, what does this name say about Jesus? In the Old Testament there two figures of the lamb: one is a real lamb and the other is a metaphorical lamb. ►The real lamb was the one at the night of Exodus, through God’s order was sacrificed in Egypt and the blood liberated the people from slavery and enabled them to pass to freedom in the Promised Land. Beginning from that moment, every year during the Passover feast (Easter) the Jewish people, family by family sacrifice a lamb and in the night, they eat it all together, in remembrance of the liberation from slavery in Egypt. ►The metaphorical lamb was the “dumb lamb that was led to the slaughterhouse” of the prophecy of Isaiah. Is part of the passage that we read in the first reading, where Isaiah announced the servant of Yahweh who will save Israel and all peoples. As a matter of fact, something new was said about this lamb that was not said about the real lamb, a fact that will throw light on his mission: “He was wounded for our sins, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises” (Is. 53:5). Therefore, it is no longer about a lamb that saves and liberates only a people from social and political slavery, but a lamb that liberates all peoples from perdition, by bearing on himself the burden of all their sins. That Lamb is in our midst even now!

          Indeed, when the people around heard that presentation by John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” they understood that finally the Liberator sent by God has appeared in the world, the Redeemer of all mankind. With this affirmation at the beginning of his Gospel, St. John preannounces the final destiny of Jesus; he already introduces the reality of the Cross. That Lamb according to prophecy will be sacrificed for our sins. For this, on the Calvary at the moment of his immolation, St. John will be intent on reminding us again that he is the Lamb of God. He does that by attaching to him the prescription of Exodus: “nor may you break any of its bones” (Ex. 12:46; Jn. 19:36), referring to the paschal lamb which evokes implicitly the mystical lamb of Isaiah 53 that was “wounded for our sins”.

          Indeed, the death of Jesus did not even stop the title of the Lamb. He was awaited in the New Testament as the spotless lamb (1Pt. 1:19), and after his Resurrection he awaits humanity as the “Lamb seated on the throne”, he awaits and accompanies mankind until all on earth gather around his throne, that is, those who bear the seal of his blood. That is how St. John presented the Lord in the book of Revelation as “a Lamb standing that seemed to have been sacrificed” (Rev. 5:6), that is the symbol of the slain and risen Lamb (it depicts his Death and Resurrection), who waits for the bride for the eternal wedding: “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:9), those who will go to meet the Lord in the new heaven, are blessed because “He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain” (Rev. 21:4). Salvation reaches all men through the Lamb of God, who was the victim for the expiation of our sins. Jesus is the Paschal Lamb that liberates every man from the slavery of Egypt (Ex. 12), that is from sin. He is the Gentle Lamb that was taken to the slaughter house for sacrifice, carrying upon himself all our pains and sufferings (Is. 53). He is the Glorious Lamb, who is capable of opening the book of the seven seals, that no one was able to open, and to decipher for humanity and for every man the enigma of human history and destiny, the lamb slain, yet standing (Rev. 5).

          Drawing the issue further, the fact that Jesus is the real Lamb and metaphorical of God has to inspire us. Jesus is the Lamb that takes away the sins, that is, he saves sinners. Therefore, in order to be saved by Him, we need to recognize and accept that we are sinners. He did not come for the just. However, we should not develop the complex of a sense of guilt, rather we need to recognize our sinfulness and our need of Him, for according to the Scriptures: “For we all trip up in many ways” (Jm. 3:2). We should not try to shy away or try to escape from our sins just like Adam. Instead, we need to adopt the sensibility of the prodigal son, by going to the Lord to say: “Father, I have sinned”. For those who shy away or try to escape St. John says that they will know “the anger or retribution of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16). The sacrament that God has given to his Church in order to offer salvation to the entire humanity is Baptism. Christ will baptize as John the Baptist said, with water and the Holy Spirit. The Church will continue this mission of Christ, forgiving sins and baptizing with the Spirit, because the Spirit makes the presence of Christ the Savior efficacious in the course of human history.

          The second reading (1Cor. 1:1-3) is the introductory greeting of the epistle. The epistle was addressed to the church of God, those sanctified in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints. His greeting depicts the form of a Christian greeting: of grace and peace. In this epistle, St. Paul laid emphasis on the universality of the Church, for this he reminded the Corinthians that they are the Church of God in Corinth, and as such, part of the universal Church. He assured them that they are not alone, and again, that they are called to be saints together with all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus, and he is the Lord of all. St. Paul insisted on this to correct the bad impression or rather understanding of the Corinthians, who thought that they were the only people of God. For this, the apostle made known to them their spiritual progress and problems as well, they attempted to segregate themselves from the whole body, that is the Church.

          Even the Eucharist that we are celebrating summarizes all that we have said. It renders present amongst us the liberating lamb of Exodus, the redeeming lamb of Isaiah “wounded for our transgressions” and the Lamb that John the Baptist presented to his listeners and followers, the Lamb of the Cross and the Lamb seated on the throne waiting for us. The Eucharist renders present and alive all that we have just said. Little wonder, during the time for the reception of the Holy Communion, we will greet Jesus with the same words that John the Baptist used to present Him to the world so many years ago: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”. The word of God invites each and every one of us today not only to admire but to imitate John in his ardent and passionate witness for Christ, through our words and deeds. Let us embark on the mandate of giving a convincing witness to the Lamb by touching the lives of the people through our words and action and not by proselytism.  

(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)