Jan 19, 2020

Post date: Jan 20, 2020 5:2:36 PM

Jan 19, 2020 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray

Isn’t it a strange title - “Lamb of God” – that John the Baptist gave our

Lord? You’d think he might have said, “Look there is the man of God” or

even “a Son of God” but he didn’t.

We pray it every Mass, but we don’t think too much about it. We like it, but

we don’t linger over it! Why did John use it? What did it suggest?

Let’s listen to the thoughts of John, this other disciple of the Baptist.

He is John, the future Beloved Disciple.

As the Baptist spoke, I imagined a lamb as gentle as Jesus and, like him,

pure and innocent. I was confused, but as his disciple, I trusted John. Then

I began to meditate on his statement that Jesus was the Lamb of God.

When John the Baptist used the phrase ‘Lamb of God’ he might have

been thinking of what Isaiah wrote in Chapter 53, where the sufferings and

death of the Suffering Servant of the Lord is compared to a lamb.

Indeed, the Aramaic word tayla means both servant and lamb.

So, when John said, ‘Behold, the lamb of God’,

he was saying “there is God’s servant.” But he was saying more.

John had to be thinking, too, of the Passover lamb. What is that?

As our Jewish ancestors made their exodus from the slavery of Egypt,

they smeared the blood of a lamb on their doorposts

as God had instructed them. This protected their firstborn children from

the deaths that were inflicted on the firstborn of the Egyptian children.

The angel of death passed over those homes that had the blood of the lamb on them. Does John mean that Jesus will be an innocent sacrificial lamb? Will he shed his blood like the Passover lambs and protect us with it in some way?

Is he really the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?

Not just Israel, but the whole world, all nations?

But how can he take away the sin of the world? Will he somehow carry our sin on his shoulders as Isaiah prophesied that the Suffering Servant would do and be pierced for our offenses and crushed for our sins?

John said, “Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God.”

I need to follow the one who John testifies is

the Lamb of God and the Son of God.

Andrew and I trusted John and shyly followed Jesus as he walked away.

He turned, saw us following him and gently said, “What are you looking

for?” His question is one that everyone must examine his conscience to

answer. Do I want to follow a worldly king who will liberate us from the

Roman occupation? Am I looking for fame and fortune, power and glory?

Or, do I want to know the truth about him and his teachings and

humbly submit to them? Do I want to leave my father, his fishing business and my first teacher, the Baptist?

Why not? He’s the one who has pointed out Jesus as the Son of God.

We asked, ‘Rabbi, where are you staying’?

He gently invited us, “Come and see.” He didn’t tell us what we would see.

He simply asked us to come and stay with Him.

So, we went and shared his humble lodgings.

So, there you have it, John’s word ‘lamb’ suggests three things—

a suffering servant, a Passover lamb, and our redemption.

Let us pray together, with understanding and love,

the Lamb of God Prayer.