“Behold, the Lamb of God”

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In today’s Gospel Reading we hear for the first time the title ‘Lamb of God.’ Saint John the Baptist uses this title in reference to Jesus. Throughout our attendance of the Mass, we have heard this title ‘Lamb of God’ many, many times. “We have got used to the words ‘Lamb of God’, but nevertheless they are still wonderful, mysterious words; powerful words.” [1]
 
Why are the words ‘Lamb of God’ powerful? When John the Baptist calls Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’ he “reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel’s redemption at the first Passover. Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: ‘to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” [2] The words ‘Lamb of God’ are powerful because this title gives us insight into the identity of Jesus. How would a person living 2,000 years ago understand this title? How do we understand the mystery and power of these words?
 
In this lesson we look to the Old Testament and three major Old Testament events that link Jesus to the title ‘Lamb of God.’
 
Abraham (Gen. 22:1-14)
The first person we look at is Abraham and the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham is known as our ‘Father in Faith.’ God establishes a covenant with Abraham and promises him many generations of ancestors. God fulfills His promise to Abraham in the birth of Isaac. However, God tests Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. On the way to the sacrifice, Isaac asks, “Here are the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for the holocaust?” (Ibid. verse 7) Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust.” (Ibid. verse 8) Abraham then goes to the mountain to sacrifice his son, but at the last minute an angel of God stops him. Afterwards, Abraham finds a ram and slaughters it as the burnt offering. See how Abraham sacrifices a ram and not a lamb. Abraham’s faith that God would supply the sacrificial lamb did not go unnoticed. God Himself indeed provides the lamb, His own Son Jesus Christ, to be the sacrifice. In the story of Abraham God’s provision of a ram has a “now and not yet” dimension. God provision to Abraham points to the ultimate provision which is the Cross of Christ. In this story, Abraham as the Father represents God the Father and Isaac represents Jesus. The ram, which is caught by its horns in the thicket, foreshadows Jesus when the crown of thorns is placed upon His head. Some teach that Isaac would have been a grown man at the time of the sacrifice and could have easily overpowered the elderly Abraham. The elderly Abraham would not have been able to lift the grown man Isaac unto the altar of Sacrifice. Isaac, like Jesus, voluntarily resigned Himself to the sacrifice.
 
Search: Abraham
 
Moses and the Passover (Exodus 11-12:30): The next person we look at is Moses and the Passover. Moses was chosen by God to free the Israelites from the bondage of slavery by the Egyptians. God had sent nine separate plagues to show the pharaoh that the God of the Israelites, Whom Moses worshiped was indeed the one true God and the false gods of the Egyptians were powerless. When the pharaoh refused to let the Israelites to go, the tenth and final plague was rendered. God sent an angel at midnight to destroy every first-born in the land of Egypt. To protect the Israelites, God had very specific instructions on to how to prepare for the Passover. “Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every one of your families must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a family is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join the nearest household in procuring one and shall share in the lamb in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it...That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.” (Ibid 12:3-8) We will see in the next lesson how Jesus is the new spotless lamb of the Passover. Through the blood of the lambs, the Israelites were saved and were freed from the bondage of slavery. Jesus is the Lamb of God, by His blood we are saved from our sins. Through His sacrifice, we are freed from the bondage of sin and death.
 
Isaiah (Isaiah 52-53): The final example is from the prophet Isaiah. Many times during the seasons of Advent and Lent the Church reads from the prophet Isaiah. In the book of Isaiah we read his prophecy of the coming Messiah. He speaks of a very different type of Messiah. Not one of military or political power, but one that would be highly exalted, “See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted;” (Is. 52:13) but then in an instant brought to be killed. “Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our suffering that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed…Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny? When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people, A grave was assigned him among the wicked and burial place with evildoers, Though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.” (Is. 53:4-5, 7-9) Jesus is the Lamb of God who was led to the slaughter. He takes away the sin of the world through His death. He was harshly treated yet he submitted and opened not his mouth. How else is Jesus like the lamb that Isaiah describes? 

[1] John Paul II, Homily, 18 January 1981
[2] CCC 608