Behold
the Lamb of God
Fr.
George Smiga
January
19 – 20, 2008
John
1: 29 – 34
The
scriptures use images to try to tell us who God is and who
Jesus is. In today's Gospel we receive a very important image.
When John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him he says,
“Behold the Lamb of God.” Now what does this image mean? Why
does John call Jesus a lamb? It seems like such a soft symbol.
Is John saying Jesus is cute and cuddly? Not at all. Anyone
at the time of Jesus would know immediately the significance
of a lamb. Lambs were associated with sacrifice. In the temple
of Jerusalem lambs were killed to atone for the sins of Israel
. So when John calls Jesus a lamb, he is pointing to Jesus'
sacrifice on the cross. A sacrifice which we believe atones
for our sins and reconciles us to God. But what makes Jesus'
sacrifice effective is not that it is bloody but that it is
motivated by love. And so calling Jesus a lamb is pointing
to Jesus' sacrificial love by which we are saved. We are called
to imitate Jesus action, to live with sacrificial love.
He
was eight years old and in a hospital room anticipating a
serious operation. He was afraid. He asked his doctor, “What
is it like to die?” His doctor said, “You're not going to
die, don't worry about it.” The nurses and the medical staff
assured him there was nothing to worry about and that he should
put his fear out of his mind. But no one would speak to him
about death. So he continued to be afraid. One night a black
woman on the maintenance staff came in to mop the floor of
his room. The boy asked her, “Are you afraid to die?” “Yes
I am,” she said and she put down her mop and pulled a chair
up to his bed. “I am afraid but I believe that God is with
me.” She spoke to the boy as an equal not as a superior. She
told him of her belief of God and the comfort that she took
in the words of Jesus. And the two of them spoke for some
time. And when she left, he was at peace because someone had
hear his question and listened to his fear. Behold the
Lamb of God.
You
had a tough day at school and yes today you have homework.
Before you get to it, you are spending some time at the computer
surfing the net. You notice through the window that your mother
has just pulled into the driveway and opened the trunk. The
trunk is filled with groceries. Funny, but you never reflected
before on how many groceries it takes to feed your family.
The bags look heavy, and your mom looks tired. Exhausted would
be a better word. She gets that way after running around for
hours. You turn back to the computer screen, but then you
stop and you make a decision. You put on your coat and go
out into the driveway and help her carry the heavy bags into
the kitchen. Then you say to her “I'll put these away. I know
where they go.” Behold the Lamb of God.
She
was only 27 and in the last month lost both her father and
her mother. Her husband and she did not know how to cope with
the loss. Thad never faced anything like this before. She
was devastated and found it difficult at times to make it
through the day. Her husband for his part felt keenly inadequate.
He could not figure out what to do to lift her grief. Then
the evening came for them to go and see the musical Wicked
. They had bought tickets months ago. Two of the leads
sang a song that reminded her of her mother and she began
to weep. Suddenly her husband realized what his role was—to
hold her hand, to have the Kleenexes ready, and to let her
know that he would still be there when the music ended and
the lights came back on. Behold the Lamb of God.
Every
day you and I have opportunities to act with sacrificial love,
to set aside our agenda and our priorities and to reach out
to someone else in generosity and compassion. Every time we
take up one of those opportunities, the Lamb of God continues
to walk in our midst. Christ uses our actions of sacrificial
love to continue to bless and heal. When we seize the opportunities
that are presented, Christ continues to save the world through
us.
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