Sunday, January 15, 2023
Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: ISAIAH 49:3, 5-6
Responsorial Psalm: PSALMS 40:2, 4, 7-10
Second Reading: 1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-3
Gospel: JOHN 1:29-34
Two testimonies of John the Baptist stand out in the Gospel today. John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He continues, “He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.” In these words, John is telling us who Jesus is and His mission.
When John the Baptist said Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” he was making reference to the Passover lamb during the Exodus when the people of God were protected from the angel of death that struck the firstborn of the Egyptians. Keep in mind that the most deeply formative narrative in all Judaism is the story of the Exodus, Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The people of God were mistreated by their Egyptian taskmasters, they cried out to God and God heard their cry and intervened, leading them from slavery to freedom in the promised land.
At the yearly feast of Passover, the Jews celebrate their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. The Passover lamb is always associated with deliverance from slavery and from death. By calling Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John is telling us that Jesus is the true Passover lamb of the new Exodus, the Passover lamb whose blood will protect us not only from physical death but spiritual death. In the first Exodus, the flesh of the lamb was eaten so as to be preserved from death, and the blood was smeared on the door lintels to protect the people of God from the angel of death. Jesus will later say, ‘unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, you will have no life in you’ and His blood protects us from evil.
Although the lamb of God points to the Passover lamb which was associated with deliverance from slavery and from the enemy, the Passover lamb did not immediately contain the idea of ‘taking away sin.’ So, where did John get that idea from? The idea of taking away sin refers to the oracle about the suffering servant of Yahweh. In Isaiah 53, we read about the prophecy of the suffering servant. Isaiah describes the mysterious figure of the servant who will take upon himself the iniquities of all the people. Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter and upon him was the punishment that made us whole. By his wounds we are healed. “My servant will justify the multitude; he will bear and take away their sins” (Isaiah 53: 11). John the Baptist is revealing that Jesus is the true Passover lamb and the true suffering servant of Yahweh.
This is confirmed in the account of the crucifixion of Jesus in John Chapter 19. St John tells us that it was the day of preparation, about the sixth hour. It was the day and hour the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the temple precincts in preparation for the Passover meal. So, while thousands of lambs were being slaughtered on the altar in the Temple, just outside the city walls, in the place of the skull, Jesus laid down His life and is executed as the true Passover lamb prefigured in the thousands of Passover lambs sacrificed throughout the centuries. All this was a promise and a prefiguration of the true lamb, Christ, the victim in the sacrifice of calvary on behalf of mankind. St Paul will later say “behold, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed (I Cor. 5: 7). He is the true lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
In the first reading today, which is the second song of the servant of Yahweh. We see two aspects of his mission: recovery of the exiles and extending salvation to the ends of the earth. He is to renew the people in such a way that even non-Israelites can see the light and attain salvation. Jesus fulfills this prophecy. He is the light that enlightens all men. He is the sacrifice of atonement for our sins. His blood was poured out to reconcile us to God overcoming our alienation brought about by sin. So, in Him is our reconciliation with the Father and with one another.
We know from the Scripture that John is six months older than Jesus. So, why does he tell us that Jesus existed before him? This is a clear reference to his divinity. It speaks about his preexistence, an attribute of God. Later on, Jesus will say, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8: 58). He is the preexistent son of the God, the eternal son of the Father in whom God the Father has reconciled Himself to the world by taking away sin.
Happy Sunday
Rev. Fr. Chidi Onwuka m.ss.cc.