Homily for 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year A 2023
Introduction
It is customary that before the keynote
speaker comes on stage, someone usually introduces them. An introduction is considered good not
because it is humorous, but because it prepares the audience, for example by
telling them the qualifications of the speaker, so that they are excited and
look forward to the keynote speech.
Scripture and Theology
If Jesus
is our keynote speaker, then John the Baptist is the one who introduces him. And as far as introductions go, John the
Baptist does an excellent job. In
today’s gospel we have just heard him point to Jesus and say: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world.” John chooses to
introduce him as a lamb. Why? Why introduce the long-promised Messiah as a
lamb?
And yet
John uses those words deliberately, because the image of a lamb was one the
Jewish people would understand perfectly.
When they heard the words: “Behold,
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” they were reminded of
the Passover Lamb and of the lambs sacrificed in the Temple.
If you
recall from the book of Exodus, Pharaoh had refused to let the people of Israel
return home. God struck him with several
plagues: blood, frogs and lice; flies, dead livestock and boils; hail, locusts
and darkness; but Pharaoh still refused.
God had one final trick up his sleeve; the final plague was the death of
the first-born Egyptian children and animals.
But how
would the angel of death tell the Jewish homes from the Egyptian ones? God told the people of Israel to smear the
doorposts of their houses with the blood of a lamb; in that way the angel of
death would pass over their houses and spare their children and animals. This blood
came from the lamb that the Israelites had eaten at their Last Supper on the
night before they were to leave Egypt.
And so the Lamb then becomes the sign and symbol of the liberation of
God’s people from slavery and oppression.
But
there is another lamb, that John’s listeners would think about, when he
described Jesus as the Lamb of God. The
people of Israel worshipped God primarily by offering him an animal
sacrifice. The book of Exodus commands
that every day, two one-year lambs were to be sacrificed on the Temple altar,
as atonement for sin. One was to be
sacrificed in the morning and another in the evening. Now we modern people might think of this
practice as cruel and senseless, that is of course if we don’t think about
where our steak, veal and lamb shank come from.
For a people who lived from hand to mouth as the Jewish people did, every
lamb sacrificed was one less sheep to provide food, wool, milk and skins. The sacrifice of a lamb was their way of
giving God their most treasured possession.
This lamb was the symbol of their love for God.
And so,
whether John’s words evoked the image of the Passover lamb or the image of the
daily sacrificial lamb, the message was still the same. John was telling them that this man Jesus
whom you see, has come to do once for all, what our sacrificial lambs have
tried to do over and over again without much success. “Behold,
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” once and for all.
Christian Life
And so, the title of "Lamb of
God" brings something special to the table, something without which his
identity would not be complete. For
Jesus is the Lamb of God, who offered himself completely for our sake. He is a much superior sacrifice than the
sacrifice of lambs offered by the people.
They had failed to satisfy God, because the spirit in which they were
offered lack complete love. That is why
God cried out, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." But now Jesus Christ in his sacrifice on the cross
offers him both: mercy and sacrifice, love and sacrifice. That is why Jesus the Lamb says that there is
no greater love, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And that is exactly what he does, because he
is the Lamb of God.
Jesus
is the Lamb of God, who offered himself completely for our sake. God allowed the Jewish people who had sinned,
to substitute for themselves a sacrificial lamb to die in their place. In the same way, we are the sinners; but God
has allowed his Son, to take our place and die for us. That is why Jesus says that there is no
greater love, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. It is true that Jesus is indeed many things
for us: that gentle baby in the manger, we saw at Christmas, a Prophet and a
Teacher, the Prince of Peace and King of the World, the Bread of Life and the
Light of the World; but under all of them is the fact that he is our Sacrifice,
our Lamb.
In fact at Mass, just before communion, we
sing three times: “Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the World.” And
then the priest holds up the Host and says: “Behold the Lamb of God, Behold him who takes away the sins of the
world, Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb.” The reason we say these words is so that, even
when we are having the banquet of the Lord, a sign of joy and communion, we
have to be reminded, that this all came about, because of the blood of the
Lamb. And to the priest’s words we
reply, “Lord I am not worthy that you
should enter under my roof, but only say the Word, and my soul shall be healed.” By these words we recognize our unworthiness
before the Lamb.
One of my favourite movies is Saving Private Ryan, a movie from which
one can draw many moral lessons. There
is a scene that could help us understand the message that Jesus is the Lamb of
God. As you probably remember, this
movie is about a group of soldiers during World War II, sent to save Private
James Ryan who has already lost his three brothers to the war, so his parents
could have at least one son. Many men die in the process of saving him,
including Captain Miller, who just before he dies tells the rescued Ryan,
“James. Earn this . . . earn it.”
James seems to have taken these last words
very seriously. In this particular scene, now he is an old man who has returned
to Europe to the cemetery where Captain Miller is buried. Staring at the grave
marker he mumbles to his dead commander telling Captain Miller that every day
of his life he has thought of Miller’s dying words. He has tried to live a good
life, at least he hopes he has. He hopes he has earned the sacrifice that
Captain Miller and his men made for him.
But James is not really sure. He wonders
how any life, however well lived, could be worth the sacrifice of all those
men. Now wobbly on his feet he stands up, but does not feel released. Trembling
and filled with anxiety he turns to his wife and pleads to her, “Tell me I’ve
led a good life.” Confused by his request, she asks: “What?” He has to know the
answer, so he asks her again: “Tell me I’m a good man.” Finally she responds to
him and says: “Yes, you are.”
If Jesus is the Lamb that gives his life
for us, do we deserve his sacrifice? Are
we ready to lay down our lives for our family, friends and even strangers, like
Captain Miller and his men? Can we lay
aside our sense of entitlement, when we make unreasonable demands from our
family, from the church, from our employers, from the government? Can we see be like the football player, who
is successful only because he invests time and effort in a healthy diet and
training, endures a little suffering?
Can we accept the joy of Christian life as well as the cross of the
Lamb?
Conclusion
Tomorrow this country remembers Martin
Luther King, a man who like the Lamb of God was willing to undergo beatings,
imprisonment, and even death for a just cause, the end of segregation and
racism. Are we similarly offering up our
minor daily hardships and sacrifices, adding them to the great sacrifice of the
Lamb, for the far too many people in the world who need our intercession? The Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God
has offered up everything for us; what can we in turn offer to show our
gratitude, to testify that we have come to believe in him?
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