John 1:29-34
Dear Friends, St. Matthew is our guide as we walk with Jesus in the beginning of Ordinary Time of our liturgical year. I always look forward to a new journey that is the same but always deeper, always more inviting as we grow more in our personal maturity and in faith.
Today, however, we start out with St. John, and not only St. John, but seemingly the same story we had last week about Jesus’ encounter with the Baptist. This has got to tell us that we need to dig deeper for the message from John’s version of the baptism to grasp how it connects to St. Matthew’s journey.
A note about St. John’s Gospel will be helpful. John was written many years after all the other Gospels. It has a deeper and more mature understanding of the identity of Jesus. That is one of the reasons that it is so different than the other Gospels.
John realized that Jesus was the fullest and most perfect revelation of who God is. In the person of Jesus, we have that glorious discovery.
To see Jesus is to see God. Today’s “I am” statement as the Lamb of God is the first of many. They all are revelations directly about God in the person of Jesus. This is one of many titles John gives to Jesus such as the Light of the World, the Living Water, the Bread of Life, the Life and the Resurrection and, of course, the Way, the Life and The Truth.
There is a second point in John that is helpful as we begin our endeavor with Matthew. It is the title, “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. This title leads to a Messianic expectation in a different way. It was not the national liberator or the person of political and economic power. It was the beginning of a transformation of the idea of salvation and the nature of the Messiah that was much more meaningful and richer and universal than the common anticipation of the people in Jesus’s time. The seeds of the Suffering Servant Messiah were being sown right at the beginning.
We still struggle with the idea of a crucified Messiah rather than a “make me feel good Jesus” in our day also. We still are much more prone to see God as the answer to our problems than the God who will deliver us from our selfishness and call us to service and surrender on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus.
The message of today’s Gospel is clear and to the point. Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation. He will lead us on the journey to salvation. We need to be faithful to his call because He has the answer to the deepest yearnings of the human heart.
As we begin the journey with St. Matthew we need to know the answer to our search is in an openness to God’s call in the person of His Son. Jesus is the Lamb of God leading us to the freedom of the Gospel message of Good News. This is why the Church invites us to begin with this passage at the beginning of John’s Gospel, a picture of Christ that is strong and forceful right from the very beginning.
Just as the disciples walked the dusty roads of Galilee, we, too, have the opportunity to walk once again with the Son of God made flesh who calls us out of darkness into the light.
The refrain of the Responsorial Psalm captures this Lamb of God image for us. Jesus is the servant, the Suffering Servant for a sinful, broken world. He has come to deliver us from the consequences of sin that is our heritage from Original Sin. We are called also to be servants in that cause of salvation. The Psalm has the answer for us: Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.
