Behold the Lamb of God
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
Lectionary: 64
“Behold, the Lamb of God”
For the people listening to John the Baptist that day, the expression “Lamb of God” made them think of sacrifice.
For the Jews, sacrifice was about making a gift that represents ourselves, and helps us come closer to God. Sacrifices were accepted for the forgiveness of sins, but forgiveness of sins was not the goal.
It is the same for us.
Forgiveness is a necessary thing so that we can come closer to God, but it is coming closer to God that is the goal. The Hebrew word for offerings or sacrifices means “to draw near.” Every sacrifice has the purpose and the effect of bringing a person closer to God.
God accepted various animals in sacrifice, but it was the lamb who was the best offering. It was the lamb God provided to clothe Adam and Eve. It was the lamb God provided for Abraham to offer on Mount Moriah, in the place of his son Isaac. It was the lamb the people offered at Passover, and whose blood saved them from death. They called the Passover lamb, “The Lamb of God.” So, when the people heard John say “Behold, the Lamb of God,” they thought of the lamb sacrificed for Passover.
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, but Jesus did not only come to take away sin. Jesus came to be our Passover sacrifice so that we can come closer to God.
Jesus told Pilate that the purpose of his birth is to bear witness to the truth. Pilate asked “what is truth,” but he was asking the wrong question. The truth is not a what, but a who. Jesus told his disciples at the last supper that “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”
Jesus came into the world to show us the way to come close to the Father. He shows us the way, and he is the way.
This is the way it should work: As we look upon Jesus, we begin to know God. We begin to understand God’s love for us. We begin to desire to be close to God. Then we realize that our sins separate us from God. So, out of desire to be closer to God, we repent of our sins. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God, we are forgiven. Forgiven, God can draw us closer. Closer, we see, know, and love God better, and discover again whatever hinders us from being closer to God. So, we repent again, and are forgiven again, and drawn closer.
This is what it means to “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
In a few minutes, what looks like a piece of bread will be elevated, and we will hear again the words of John the Baptist calling us to behold “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”
We are not worthy, but he can make us clean.
Is there something that you know prevents you from being close to him? That prevents you from receiving him?
Even when we knowingly commit a very serious sin, God is waiting to forgive us. God wants to remove every obstacle that keeps us far away, or that prevents us from receiving Jesus in the Eucharist.
Last week, Pope Francis confirmed that the right to life is the preeminent social and political issue of our time, because “if you are not alive, you can’t do anything else.” This week, we grieve the unjust decision in Roe vs Wade. The Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that made abortion illegal, except to save the mother’s life. Ironically, they used the 14th Amendment, which guarantees all people equal protection of the laws, to deny legal protection of the right to life to the most vulnerable among us. Sixty one million babies have been killed since that day fourty-seven years ago.
Choosing to have an abortion, working to promote abortion, and especially pressuring someone to get an abortion are grave sins. But the Lamb of God takes away even these grave sins through the ministry of his priests in the sacrament of reconciliation. There is nothing beyond the power of the Lamb of God, who is the Son of God.
Or, perhaps no serious sin keeps us away, but we feel far away. The remedy is the same. Behold the Lamb of God.
If we will allow him, he will take away our sins. If we will allow him, he will give us power to become children of God. If we will allow him, he will baptize us with the Holy Spirit, who will stay with us.
Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and our sin, so that we may be close to God.
