Homily for the 2 nd Sunday of OT, Year A, 2017 (Jn 1:29-34) Of all the animals that God created, the lamb has been the most important in the Story of Salvation. From Genesis to the Book of Revelation, the Lord continually put forward a lamb to be offered in sacrifice for the salvation of humanity and the redemption of the universe. Silent, docile and obedient, the lamb went willing to his death so that others might have life and life eternal. Consider firstly the interrupted sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham on the heights of Mt. Moriah, that same mountain that the Jerusalem Temple would one day reside upon. As Isaac began his ascent to the summit of the mountain of sacrifice with wood stretched across his shoulders, a mountain that Jesus would one day also ascend, he asked his father look we have the wood and fire but where is the lamb for sacrifice (Gen 22:7)? Abraham told his son that God Himself would provide the lamb of sacrifice (Gen 22:8). Just as Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son, an angel steadied his hand and showed him that a lamb had appeared to take
the place of his son, suspended above the earth with his horns caught in a thorn bush. As Christians, we see in this episode a foreshadowing of what would one day take place on another mountain called Golgotha that stood near the summit of Mt. Moriah. In the Gospel of St. John, Jesus tells us that the lamb of sacrifice that Abraham foretold God would provide was none other that the Son of God made flesh, who would take the place of Isaac and all of humanity to be slain for the salvation of a fallen creation. The lamb which Abraham and Isaac sacrificed was also a foreshadowing of the crucified Son of God, who too was lifted high above the earth, with a crown of thorns upon His head, suspended from a tree as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. During the time of the Exodus, God once again provided a lamb for his people to save them from the Angel of Death. God told Moses that the Angel of Death would pass over Egypt, claiming every first born of man and beast. But if the people sacrificed a lamb, put its blood above their doors and ate a sacrificial meal of the lamb and
unleavened bread, that they would be spared from death, as the blood of the lamb would be the sign that they had been saved through the sacrifice of one of God s innocent creatures. During the time of the Prophet Isaiah, the greater seer of Israel spoke of the coming of the Suffering Servant of YHWH, who like a lamb lead to the slaughter, would willingly lay down his life for his people. As Christians, we believe that Isaiah spoke of Jesus Christ, who scourged, beaten, spat upon and ridiculed, willingly offered His life in sacrifice, remaining silent as a lamb to the accusations and lies made against Him, bearing the full wages of death that came from the sins of humanity. During the years of Jesus public ministry, it was a sobering yet solemn sight to visit the city of Jerusalem during the Passover festival. In the days preceding the paschal feast, thousands of lambs were brought into the Jerusalem Temple. As their throats were cut, their blood was drained into a drainage network that would flow out of the east side of the temple and down into the Kidron valley. Water
would also continually flow through this drainage network to push the blood into the valley below. After the lambs had been sacrificed, they were fastened by their front and hind legs to wooden stakes, so that when people brought their lamb home for the Passover supper, the lamb looked to be crucified with his appendages fastened to wood and its torso stretched out like a body upon a cross. When St John noted that the death of Jesus took place at the very hour that the Passover lambs were being sacrificed in the temple, he revealed how what was taking place in the temple was but a shadow and sign of the ultimate sacrifice taking place upon Mt Calvary. Upon this mount was the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God, who like the lambs in the temple had His blood drained from His body and His hands and feet fastened to the wood of the cross. After Jesus had died, the solider who pierced His side and saw blood and water flow forth revealed that Jesus was the true temple of God. As the blood of lambs and water gushed forth of the
Jerusalem Temple into the Kidron Valley, so too on that day did blood and water from the heart of the True Temple, the Sacred Body of Lamb of God, Our Lord Jesus Christ. When we consider the quintessential role that the lamb played in the story of salvation, it gives an us an incredible appreciation and wonder to the meaning behind the words of St. John the Baptist Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Those who heard the Baptist s prophetic announcement would have realized the deep significance attached to his words. He was revealing that the One who had been baptized was the lamb that Abraham had long ago prophesied would be provided by God for the one true sacrifice for sins! Standing before them was the Passover Lamb who would not only save them from the Angel of Death but more importantly free them from the everlasting death of hell! Standing by the River Jordan was the Suffering Servant of YHWH who would soon begin proclaiming the Good News of Salvation to the Poor and prepare His heart for rejection, suffering
and death. The one revealed that day was Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who in three years would mount the wood of the Cross and wash clean a fallen creation with the blood and water that flowed from His Sacred Heart. Those who followed Christ after hearing that He was the One True Lamb of God were those who had believed God was faithful and would fulfill all that been foretold in the scriptures! They invite you and I to now follow the Lamb of God wherever He may go, trusting that a life spent in His service, daily seeking to draw closer to Him and joyfully bringing others to know Him is the only life that is worth living; for to live this life is to prepare oneself to meet Jesus in what the Book of Revelation calls the Marriage Banquet of the Lamb, that is, the joy of being in the Heavenly Kingdom and anticipating the arrival of the New Heaven and New Earth at the end of all things