We have now left the Christmas season, and have come back into Ordinary Time. Just like in Advent when we heard a lot about John the Baptist, so too – we start off this Ordinary time hearing about John again in todays Gospel. And, no surprise here, our Gospel reading today is layered with deeper and deeper meanings. Indeed, it even begins in an interesting way, when John, seeing Jesus, says – “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John doesn’t say, “Behold, the Messiah.” He doesn’t say, “Behold, the Son of God.” He says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” So, lets break open that statement a bit,
Lambs are very important to a shepherded people and, of course, we think of the lamb most of all when Jesus says that he is the shepherd and the lambs hear his voice and follow him. But this is not what John has in mind. What John has in mind is something much deeper, something much more important. He is telling his disciples that this is the sacrificial lamb, offered at the time when the people were under the slavery of Egypt. And the sacrificial lamb was offered that terrible night and the lamb’s blood was placed upon the doorposts of all the children of Israel and the lamb became the sacrifice by which all of them were freed from slavery. This is the Messiah who comes to us, not with great armies, but as a sacrificial lamb who, as John says, offers his whole life that our relationship with God be restored.
Behold the Lamb of God. We hear that phrase at every Mass, don’t we. It is said after the priest, elevating the body of Christ in the sacred host and the chalice of the blood of Christ says, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb” And how do we respond? We take our response from the words that the Centurion used when he asked Jesus to heal his servant who was paralyzed. And so we say -“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed,’” And like the Centurion, we are expressing our faith that God is present in every place and time, to bring us healing. But we are also saying “Be there Lord, as the mark on the doorpost of my house, as the mark on the doorway my soul, as the mark on the doorposts of my life, that I may become more completely set free to love and serve you.” How profound indeed is that simple phrase that begins todays Gospel.
Yet it doesn’t stop there – for God is revealed to us in a way that we, and even John the Baptist, didn’t expect. John had attracted huge crowds and gotten them very excited, telling them that he, John, was not that person, but that when that person came, you’d know him. And yet, when Jesus came, John did not know him. He says twice in this gospel that even with Jesus standing right in front of him he looked right past him as just another follower, one of the many who surrounded him,until somehow, through the actions and signs of Holy Spirit, God revealed to John, that this person who up to that point looked like everyone else was the one John had been looking for. And even afterwards, John had reason to wonder if he was right, we hear that later when John was in prison, he sent people to ask Jesus, Are you the one? Should we still be waiting?
Nothing about Jesus, so ordinary, so unspectacular, nothing seemed like what John had spent so long waiting for. We usually don’t think of John the Baptist having anything in common with us. But today, we can see ourselves in him, in his not being so certain, looking for someone, wanting to see God, and not seeing — or at least, not seeing what he expected to see. Apparently even this great saint, inspired by God, didn’t immediately realize that God doesn’t do anything the way we would expect it.
So here we are, facing this same challenge that God gave John. We have just spent Christmas hearing the stories of how close God wants to be to us. But Christmas is over, and the world is back surrounding us with scenes where we want to see God present, even in the middle of this world with so much conflict and just mean spiritedness, we want to be inspired, we want good to be visible and triumph, we want to know where to turn, and what to do and who to follow.
But Jesus’ presence, especially his presence in other people, his active presence redeeming this world,
is not always where we’re looking for it. God sent a suffering servant to a world that was looking for a great man, and even now, God is trying to point our eyes away from the supposedly great, towards where God sent Jesus, towards people whose problems are great but who look ordinary, towards people whose love is unspectacular, towards people who need help and redemption just as much as we do. That is where Jesus wants us to look for him, and it’s the only place we will be sure to see him.
Will you and I behold the Lamb of God today? Absolutely. But not only in the Eucharist that we share. The Lamb of God is there when we are present to those who are bowed down by life. When we strive to lift some of their burdens, That is where God is present, and where God wants us to be present too. Are we worthy to stand beside God to serve God’s children? Are we worthy that God should enter under our roof And into our life? No. But God indeed says the word, and enters our life – and our souls are healed,