the lamb of God - january 3

As we move our way up to the feast of the Epiphany which means the manifestation of the Lord, our gospel slowly introduces and unravels for us the person of Jesus.  Who is Jesus?  Who is he for us?  Why was he born?  What is his purpose? 

In our gospel today John points to Jesus as the Lamb.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  This title given by John recalls the image of the sacrificial lamb offered in the temple in both the Old and the New Testaments.  The Lamb of God was the lamb that was sacrificed for the sins of the people.  The lamb was made to bear the punishments due to the guilty and the wrongdoers because of their offenses.  The lamb was made to suffer the consequences of sin which the people committed.  It was the death of the Lamb, it was the shedding of its blood that puts an end to the cycle of sin in the life of the people.  Hatred, anger and the desire for revenge stopped in the lamb; selfishness and greed and the lust for power stopped in the lamb; infidelity and lies stop in the lamb.  It has to end in the lamb.  The Lamb was innocent.  It has done nothing wrong.  But it was the Lamb who must bear the consequences of sin.   And Jesus is that Lamb, said John the Baptist. 

There are times in our lives when we too are invited to share in this unique role of Jesus - to become the lamb of sacrifice.   There are times in our lives when we are invited to share and even to bear on the other’s behalf the burden and consequences of their mistakes, failures, neglect and sins.  There are times in our lives when we too are invited to become the lamb - innocent and yet able to share in the suffering, to share in the pain.  Other times we are invited to put an end to the cycle of sin by ending it with our person through forgiveness and compassion.  This is taking up the role of the lamb.  Of course we cannot become like Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  But we can become like him in our own little way.

We gather today to share in the sorrow of the family of the bereaved.  We take up a little of what is in their heart.  We share in their grief, we share in their tears.  That too is becoming a lamb.  Look, it’s not our death, it’s not our grief and it’s not even our problem.  But we gather, we sympathize, we carry each other’s burden.

By being the lamb who takes away the sins of the world, Jesus also opens the possibility among his disciples sharing each other’s burden, bearing each other’s faults, and putting an end to the vicious cycle of sin in our lives by forgiveness and compassion.