Second Sunday In Ordinary Times
JOHN 1:29-34 (Isaiah 49:3, 5-6; 1 Corinthians 1:1-3)
The context from which today’s gospel reading is taken is the preaching of John the Baptizer. John had just humbled himself by a public proclamation that there is a man among them whom they do not recognize and that he (John) is unworthy to render the duties of a slave to that One. The next day Jesus comes upon the scene where John was baptizing on the east bank of the Jordan River. Upon seeing Jesus, John proclaims: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” These words should be familiar to all who participate in the Mass, since they announce the approaching Communion with Jesus in the Eucharist.
Since the gospels are frequently a rewriting or new application of Old Testament concepts, one must look at Old Testament passages to understand what John the Baptizer or John the author of this gospel had in mind when he applied to Jesus the title, “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” There are four poems or songs in that part of Isaiah we call Second Isaiah. These poems describe a “Servant of the Lord,” his origin, his mission, vicarious death, and glorification. New Testament authors were so familiar with these poems that they relied heavily on them to describe Jesus and the events of his life, ministry, death and resurrection.
If we turn to the fourth of these poems, we find these oracles of the prophet, “Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter…, so he did not open his mouth. He was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. He makes himself an offering for sin,” Isaiah 53:7-8. In Acts 8:32-35, Luke applies explicitly to Jesus these oracles of the sixth century B.C. prophet Second Isaiah. In addition to this background of the title “Lamb of God,” is the usage in the Old Testament of sacrificing a lamb to atone for sin. For example, Leviticus 4:32, “If one of the people brings a lamb for a sin offering…, (the priest) shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering, and kill it…. The priest shall (in this way) make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.”
The Baptizer is depicted as again proclaiming Jesus as eminently superior, “After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he existed before me.” The author thus picks up a thought from the beginning of his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” For those who imagine (with the Gospel of Luke and the depiction by artists) a close kinship and association between John and Jesus, note this saying attributed to the Baptizer, “I myself did not know him.”
Then the Baptizer once more proclaims his mission, “…for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” Note that in the Gospel of John, Jesus is not baptized at all. What this gospel however has in agreement with the other three is the descent of the Holy Spirit. The Baptizer says, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven and it remained on him.” The Songs of the Servant of the Lord, noted above, again provide background: Isaiah 42:1, “I have put my Spirit upon him….” And from the third part of Isaiah’s oracles, 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted, etc.” The Spirit may also be witness to Jesus’ royal descent, as in Isaiah 11:1-2, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stem of Jesse (King David’s father), and a Branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.”
The Baptizer repeats that he did not know who or what Jesus was, but received a direct revelation from “him who sent me to baptize with water.” Thus we have at least an implicit revelation of the Blessed Trinity. The Father who sent John is revealed, as we read in John 1:6, “There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” The Spirit is revealed in this scene as he descends on the Lamb of God to identify Jesus. Later the author will write in 14:26, “The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my Name, he will teach you all things.” Finally, Jesus is revealed as Son of God, as the author concludes today’s gospel reading in the words of the Baptizer, “I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
ISAIAH 49:3, 5-6
This reading is part of the second of the four “Songs of the Servant of the Lord” noted above. The liturgy sees Jesus in the words of this poem, “I will make you the light of the nations, so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
1 CORINTHIANS 1:1-3
In this preface to Paul’s first letter to his Corinthian congregation, Paul first states his credentials as an apostle. Then he greets these Greek converts with the assurance that they are called to be saints. All is wonderful in this introduction as Paul praises them before he resorts to the exercise of tough love sorely needed in this unruly community.
