Behold the Lamb ~ reflex on John 1:29-34

St. John the Baptist is the model of simple evangelization: he understands what God is currently doing and asking of His People, and he testifies to what he has experienced to point to God.

John uses an image that was very familiar to the Jews of that time, and helps them see that image is now finding its full meaning in Jesus: the Lamb of God.

We might easily forget that God required the Jews to sacrifice a lamb TWICE A DAY to expiate the sins of the people; this sacrificial lamb was a symbol of the price to be paid for sin. John is pointing out that Jesus will pay the price for our sin.

The primary holy day of the Jews was Passover, in which each family sacrificed and ate a lamb to recall their liberation from the slavery of Egypt, and how those who marked their doors with the blood of this lamb were spared from the death inflicted on the firstborn of all the Egyptians and their animals; this Passover lamb signified God’s merciful and saving love. John is pointing out that Jesus is God’s merciful and saving love in the flesh.

Finally, the Messiah was foretold by the Prophets to be a lamb who went silently to the slaughter, to take the sins of the people on himself and wash them away. John is pointing out that Jesus is the Messiah who will take away the sins of the world. And this is what we proclaim at every Mass, right before we receive him in Holy Communion: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”

As we continue to rejoice in the coming of our Savior in the flesh, let us repeat the Responsorial Psalm for this week throughout our day: “All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God.”