The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 15, 2023

John 1, 29–34

John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’ I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.” John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

At the time the Lord Jesus walked the earth, John the Baptist alone fully understood that the Messiah promised by God through the Prophets would take away the sins of the world, dying a sacrificial death.  The Pharisees and the rabbis of the time did not understand this.  For them, the Messiah would free Jerusalem from the Romans and rule as the new King of Israel.  The Holy Spirit revealed this to John because John was fully open to the will of God.  The others had locked themselves in their fantasies.  When John declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, he was using a term not found in the Scriptures.  The term might have been understood as a lamb destined for sacrifice in the Temple, but to call it “the Lamb of God” would have sounded ridiculous.  It singles out a particular lamb for special notice while large numbers of sheep were sacrificed every day.  It made far less sense to speak of a man in this way.  The use of the phrase would certainly have caused people to stop what they were doing and listen to John to see what he meant by this novel combination of words.

First, John was designating a particular individual within his sight.  Second, he explained that it was of this man that he had spoken earlier: “A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.”  Now, we should keep in mind that Jesus was at that moment standing in the crowd or just on its fringe.  John proclaims, “I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him.”  John here gives us his own description of the Baptism of the Lord.  It is from his words that we learn for certain that he, and not Jesus alone, saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him.  John would have proclaimed this to the crowd after watching in wonder as Jesus climbed out of the river onto the shore and disappeared into the crowd of people also seeking baptism.  Marveling at what had happened — the appearance of the Lord, his words, and the descent of the Holy Spirit — left John struggling for words.  “I did not know him.”  The Greek gives the sense of, I did not know that this was him.  Thus is fulfilled Isaiah 53, 2: “He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”  The Son of God makes himself so much like us that he has no distinguishing features.  He looks just like us.  This “lamb” looks like every other lamb.  Only the revelation by  “the one who sent me to baptize with water” identified him both as the One who was to come after him, and that he was the Lamb of God.  Further inspired by the Holy Spirit, John confesses, “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God.”

We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God through the gift of Faith given us by the Holy Spirit.  For so many people, he is no one, of no account.  In today’s society, he is hardly known at all.  He is just a meaningless face in the crowd, one lamb among thousands in a pasture.  Through the Holy Spirit, you and I are John the Baptist, pointing to him with our words and deeds.