2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

As we begin our post-Christmas observance of Ordinary Time, which will lead us into the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday (Wednesday, February 26th), the Church invites us to look more closely at the public life of Jesus. While this year we will hear from the Gospel of Matthew on most Sundays, today we hear from John’s Gospel, telling us about John the Baptist identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God. It is primarily from this Gospel passage that we speak of Jesus as the Lamb of God in our liturgy. Why the word lamb? After all, a lamb is a young sheep, and the term could be used to indicate an unsophisticated, immature person.

But a lamb is also known as a gentle or innocent person, and that truly describes Jesus. Jesus was hardly an unsophisticated person; he could relate to people at all levels and from all walks of life. So, it is the gentleness and innocence that fit his title as Lamb of God. Even more, the prophesies of the Old Testament proclaimed that the Messiah would be like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers (Isaiah 53:7). Jesus would be the lamb that would be sacrificed for the sins of the world. John the Baptist announced to his followers, and to all the world, that Jesus was that lamb.

Remember, too, that God had called for the slaughter and roasting of an unblemished lamb for the Passover meal, as the Israelites were about to be led by Moses out of captivity in Egypt. The blood from that lamb would be smeared on the doorposts of the home, to spare the occupants from the Angel of Death that was to take the life of the first born of every human and animal family. Consider also that the Jewish people of Jesus’ time and for centuries before, regularly offered lambs and other animals as sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem in atonement for sin. By identifying Jesus as ”the Lamb of God,” John the Baptist is identifying him as the one who would offer his life on the wood of the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

John went on to testify to what he saw when he baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. He saw the Spirit of God descend upon Jesus, making it clear that this truly was the Son of God. In today’s Gospel, John is telling his followers to become followers of Jesus, for he will truly lead them to the path of eternal life. We know that this was John’s primary role in salvation history. Just a few weeks ago, in our Advent season, we heard in the Gospel of Luke how John told his followers not only to follow Jesus, but to be prepared for a baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16).

John acknowledges that he is God’s servant, and that he has been called to share this message with the world. Yes, John’s message is given specifically to the Jews, but it is the whole world that would be saved by Jesus. We hear this prophesied in today’s First Reading, in which Isaiah speaks of the Servant of God, who will bring back the Israelites to faithfulness, but also be a light to the nations. He will bring the message of salvation to a world in need of hope.