|
Friends,
our Gospel for today contains one of the most important and
misunderstood lines in all of Christian Scriptures. Spying Jesus, John
the Baptist says, “Behold the Lamb of God.” In a very casual survey, I
asked a number of people what this phrase means, and the answer I
typically got was this: it means that he is gentle and humble and good,
like a lamb.
But
for a first century Jew, the phrase had little if anything to do with
that: it had to do with sacrifice. It meant that Jesus was someone who
was destined to be sacrificed as a sin offering to God.
John
the Baptist’s characterization of Jesus as the Lamb of God has to do
with temple sacrifice. He will be the one who offers the final and
definitive sacrifice which reconciles divinity and humanity. He will
offer something to the Father which will deal finally with the problem
of sin, and in this we will find our salvation.
| 
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment