lamb-of-god

SUNDAY 18 JANUARY 2026: SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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The Lamb of God: Triumph and Salvation, Stained Glass Inc., Greenville, Texas, USA.

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John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.      John 1:29.

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The Old Testament is very clear about the sacrificial offerings to be made to the Lord. Among many other instructions, every day, one lamb, spotless, without blemish, was to be offered in the morning, and one to be offered in the evening. On the Sabbath, two were to be sacrificed in the morning, and two in the evening. The lamb was chosen presumably symbolizing purity and innocence, offered as an atonement for the sins which we humans have committed. Originally these sacrifices were to be made outside the Tent of Meeting during the 40 years wandering in the desert, then in the Temple in Jerusalem (which was discontinued after its destruction by the Roman army in AD70). Certainly there is something about lambs gamboling about in the joy of life. They are an expression of innocence and vivacity! It is entirely possible that the  crucifixion of the Lord took place at the time when the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the Temple, preparing for the Passover celebration… So, for John the Baptist to have declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God certainly has a depth of meaning which is astonishing. Jesus, like the lambs, was utterly innocent of any crime or misdemeanor yet underwent a death as brutal as can be imagined. We Christians say that he was punished for our sins in order for us to be liberated and live as the children of God. We have no excuse in that case for any sins we might commit; in a sense we add to the suffering of the Lord when we sin. That thought should at least give us pause before entering upon a sinful pathway. So, instead of lambs being offered as atonement for our sins, God’s Only Son offered himself in their place. The wages of sin are death; Jesus dying for us in a sense changed that – we now can enter heaven when we leave this world having followed his teaching and, especially, his example. After all, he conquered death itself! And that echoes the blood of the lamb marking the homes of the Hebrews in Egypt when the 10th plague was visited upon the country, the death of the first-born sons. Those homes with the blood of the sacrificed lamb were spared death – so the sacrificed lamb’s blood meant life. So imagine, how much more, the blood of Christ, the Anointed One, THE Lamb of God, allows us to live lives pleasing to God, with sins forgiven and our soul’s life spared.

John the Baptist, in today’s gospel, states that he was witness to the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus at his baptism, and that was, indeed, the very reason he had been called by God – to bear such witness to the arrival of God’s Son, the longed-for Messiah. Isaiah’s teaching in today’s first reading is, as it were, a premonition of that event. That Jesus was, indeed, the light to the nations, and that God’s message would be extended to all the nations of the world, even to the Gentiles. And today’s second reading, to the Christians in Corinth, was one of salvation: “called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” quite a message to a rough and ready port city. Typically ports at all times and places were, and are, not exactly places of peace and quiet but are often rough and ready places of vice of every kind. The message and power of Christ took root even there! There is something to be said of peace, hope and the happiness of clean living!

The Lamb of God, AI Generated, unknown provenance.

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SUNDAY 14 JANUARY 2024: THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME.

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Ecce Agnus Dei (Behold the Lamb of God), unknown artist, Heritage Hall, Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, St. Meinrad, Indiana, USA.

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John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”       John 1:35.

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All Catholics are very familiar with the words “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world”. They are said at every Mass, just before communion. It could be said that they represent a final reminder of God’s love, and our own willingness to ask forgiveness for sins, before receiving the Lord.  The Latin Mass states those words as “Ecce Agnus Dei…” and many of us will be familiar with that, found as mosaics or artwork in many Catholic churches to this day, and also in the picture above. John the Baptist was the first to confer that title on Jesus, the Lamb of God. So far, so good. But why “lamb”? It’s not the first image that occurs to one when seeing a holy man. In fact, it is strange applying this to any man. What was in John’s mind?

Not being a sheep farmer or anything like it, I rely like many others on the Internet. There I found this. You will find there a picture of utter innocence, energy and love of life, all of which certainly applies to our Savior. Then there is the lamb of the Passover. You will recall God’s instructions to Moses on the night before the death of all first born males, the 10th plague: An unblemished lamb was to be killed and its blood spread on the doorposts of all the Hebrew homes. In that way the Angel of Death would pass over their houses, hence protecting life. But also, they must eat the prepared lamb in readiness for their journey to the Promised Land, beginning that night, as sustenance. And finally there is the image of the lamb from Isaiah:  “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7). Remember that many lambs were slaughtered in the Temple in Jerusalem as an offering to God at Passover time. Indeed, it is thought that was happening as Jesus, Lamb of God, was hanging upon the cross, as Passover was beginning.  Remember that the previous night, at the Last Supper, Jesus had given them his own body as sustenance, under the guise of unleavened Passover bread, for the journey through this life. The parallels are simply breathtaking.

The Angel of Death and the First Passover, Foster 1897, Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us.

But the other readings follow a different route. The first reading, from the first book of the prophet Samuel, concerns his vocation, his literal call from God, which is the meaning of the word vocation. And the second reading, Paul writing to the Christians in Corinth, is a blueprint on how to run our lives, and so be open to God’s call, and to conduct ourselves based on the model of the life of the Lord himself. So today’s readings, taken together portray the perfect Christian life, well-lived, vibrant with goodness and purity, open to God’s call to each of us, and centering on the source of all life and happiness, the Lamb of God himself.

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Hubert and Jan van Eyck 1432, St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium.

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Reflections on next Sunday’s Mass Readings will be posted on Wednesday.

Please send your reflections to: RogerJohn@aol.com

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