by Fr. Tommy Lane
John the Baptist introduces Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). It is a most unusual description. A lamb suggests gentleness. It suggests Jesus will not condemn us when we sin but will gently encourage us to get up again. We see this in the Gospels. Just a short while after today’s Gospel passage, the evangelist says, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17) Jesus said to the sinner woman brought to him by the Pharisees, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” (John 8:11) Later again in the Gospel, Jesus said, “I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.” (John 12:47)
A lamb suggests gentleness. It suggests Jesus will not condemn us when we sin but will gently encourage us to get up again. Jesus does not lock people into their past but frees them to live a new life in union with him. We see many men and women in the Gospels whose lives were turned around after meeting Jesus. Zacchaeus was a tax collector known for defrauding, but Jesus accepted hospitality in his house and afterwards Zacchaeus was completely changed (Luke 19:1-10). One of the twelve apostles, Matthew, also called Levi, had previously been a tax collector and we can assume he also had been suspected of fraud before he met Jesus (Matt 9:9; Luke 5:27-28). Peter denied Jesus three times in the courtyard of the high priest but three times by the Sea of Galilee Jesus asked him if he loved him and asked him to feed his sheep (John 21). The woman who entered the house of Simon the Pharisee, while Jesus was having dinner there, showed hospitality to Jesus which the Pharisee as host should have shown to Jesus but neglected to do so. Jesus defended her and said, “her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.” (Luke 7:47) In the Gospels we truly see Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
When John the Baptist said Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he was asking his contemporaries to think in a new way because for them it would have been unthinkable to imagine that Jesus could forgive sins. When Jesus forgave the paralytic man his sins, the scribes complained and said, “Who but God alone can forgive sins?” (Mark 2:7) Until then, when someone wanted his sins forgiven, he went to the temple and the priests offered an animal to God in sacrifice on his behalf. On Yom Kippur every year, the Day of Atonement, a bull and two goats were offered in sacrifice to God by the high priest in the temple to forgive sins (Lev 16). Every morning and evening all year round, a lamb was sacrificed in the temple to God in atonement for sin, and all Jews contributed to the payment of that sacrifice in a once yearly collection about a month before Passover (Ex 30:14-16; Matt 17:24. The Mishnah (m. Seqal. 1:3) tells us that on the 15th day of the month before Passover the moneychangers set up their tables in the provinces outside Jerusalem and on the 25th they set them up in the temple). So, when John the Baptist described Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he was describing Jesus in terms that they would understand but at the same time asking them to think of God’s forgiveness in a new way. Lambs no longer had to be offered in sacrifice for sins after Jesus became the lamb offered in sacrifice for our sins on the cross. His one sacrifice of himself for us for all time replaced all the Old Covenant sacrifices every day. In every Mass we are spiritually present at Calvary and receive the graces of Jesus’ sacrifice and we receive God’s forgiveness every time we confess our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Jesus is the gentle lamb always waiting for us, always waiting to lift us up again after we fall down. In the first reading, Isaiah prophesied about Jesus that he would be a light to the nations to bring salvation to the ends of the earth (Isa 49:6). Jesus is always waiting to lead us into his light out of whatever darkness we are in. Jesus wants the best for you, and the best for you is his light, not darkness. Let no prejudice of any kind prevent us from going to Jesus for his forgiveness, mercy, and healing. He is the gentle lamb who offered himself in sacrifice for us once for all time, and he is always ready to make us new and take away our sins.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2020
This homily was delivered near Regensburg while on a research sabbatical.
More Homilies for the Second Sunday Year A
Baptism changes the quality of our souls forever 2011
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world 2008
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins
Can you see Jesus in the crowd?
Related Homilies: The dove at Jesus’ baptism 2018
On taking away the sins of the world: homilies on the Sacrament of Reconciliation