Gospel Reading: Jn 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 the sky 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.”
Reflection
TESTIMONIALS TO JESUS
In the Fourth Gospel, John the Baptist is described as a truthful witness for Jesus. He shares with others the function of giving witness to Jesus before the court of world opinion: the Holy Spirit, the works Jesus performed, the Father who sent him, the Scriptures, persons like the Samaritan woman, the crowds, and eventually Jesus’ own disciples. The Baptist’s testimony is always honest, humble, sincere, and direct. In the Gospel’s kind of “snapshot” presentations of Jesus, the Baptist gives witness to four titles that can be given only to Jesus. One title we may call “The Greater One”: he existed before me, says John (v 30). A second title under which the Baptist sees Jesus may be termed “The Vehicle of the Spirit” (vv 32f). The Baptist recounts that, even before Jesus’ baptism, God told John that the one upon whom the Spirit would descend would himself be baptizing with the Holy Spirit (v 33). At Jesus’ baptism, the Baptist sees the Spirit come down like a dove (v 32). John the Baptist, in speaking of the Spirit, means the Jewish ruach, wind, and by extension, power, life, and God – especially God. The Old Testament prophets foretold an outpouring of the Spirit in the Messianic age. The New Testament sees its fulfillment in Pentecost and in baptism.
A third title of Jesus for the Baptist is “God’s Chosen One” (v 34), an allusion to Isaiah (42:1), recognizing in Jesus the special Son of God, the chosen in whom God delights. But the most previous of all the titles the Baptist poignantly ascribes to the loving, lonesome Jesus is “Lamb of God” – the vulnerable Lamb of God, who dies that we might live. This image, which will immediately capture the imagination of early Christians, is very suggestive. The Savior, the Lamb of God, surrenders his life to nourish us, his people, in love, in innocence, and at his own cost.
The Evangelist sees in the figure a reference to the Passover (Paschal) lamb. When the Jews were in Egypt and the Angel of Death was killing the firstborn of every human and animal in Egypt, the Jews received instructions to smear the blood of a lamb on their doorposts so the angel would know them and pass over them (cf Ex 12:11-13). It was the blood of the lamb that protected them.
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord,” ST PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.