HW: Jesus, the Lamb of God — richness and potential for today

A reflection on the Gospel for the Second Sunday of the year, John 1:29-34, written and spoken by Kieran J. O'Mahony OSA

Gentle piano music to close the meditation

Transcript

John’s Lane
D08 F8NW
18 January 2026
Lamb of God based on John 1:29-34

Welcome
Welcome, again, everybody. Next Sunday, we start reading from the Gospel of Matthew, beginning at the beginning with the preaching of Jesus. With the Gospel reading from John, this Sunday lies still within the Advent and Christmas cycle. This cycle started on the First Sunday of Advent and closes now with three “epiphanies”: the coming of the Magi, the Baptism (last Sunday) and today’s Gospel from John 1.

Topic
It gives us a chance to reflect again, away from the pressure of Christmas, on the birth, baptism, teaching, ministry and destiny of Jesus. If asked, what would you say lies the heart of Christian faith?

Steps
While it might feel natural to put Christian behaviour first, I think that would be a mistake. The ethics of most religions are more or less the same. Not that how we live as Christians doesn’t matter — it clearly does. But at the centre of it all stands the person of Jesus and, in a loose phrase, what happened for us in his death and resurrection. We have just celebrated his birth and in a few weeks we start the journey of Lent to mark his death and resurrection. What did all this mean and what could all this mean for us today?

Today, the Gospel of John comes to our help. You may like to take out your Bible when you get home and slowly read again the first chapter of John. It is quite an achievement. In that chapter, the Gospel writer presents rich descriptions, images, and metaphors of who Jesus is for us as believers. For example, in the prologue of John, which we heard more than once: in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word was made flesh, full of grace and truth, it is the only Son nearest to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. Building on that, in a couple of scenes in the rest of chapter one, we hear Jesus described as Rabbi, Messiah, Son of God, King of Israel, the one about whom Moses wrote. Today, on the lips of John the Baptist, Jesus is acclaimed as the Lamb of God and the Chosen One. The Gospel story proper begins with chapter 2. In the first chapter, the writer wants to inform us the readers and hearers about the deep identity of Jesus. The writer achieves this in two ways: first of all with poetry — the first eighteen verses — and then with symbolic narrative, starting with our Gospel today.

One phrase from today’s Gospel has made its way into the Mass: Look, here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Why is that image of the Lamb of God so important? The Lamb of God is an echo of the Passover lamb and meal. And the Passover meal celebrates freedom. In the biblical narrative, it points primarily to freedom from slavery in Egypt, political and religious freedom. At a different level, Jesus, our Lamb of God, our passover Lamb, as Paul puts it, also sets us free: from whatever binds us and holds us back, from sin, from death, from the power and even the fear of death.

This is a very important teaching of the Fourth Gospel — so important that it repeats across the Gospel and comes up again when he tells the story of Jesus’ death on the cross. Only in Fourth Gospel,  we are told Jesus was sent to death at noon, the hour when the priests began to slaughter the lambs for Passover. Only in the Fourth Gospel, we are told they lifted the sponge to his lips on a hyssop branch — the very plant mentioned in Exodus 12. Finally, only in the Fourth Gospel we are told they did not break his legs, following the instructions about the bones of the Passover lamb. Such an insistence means that the image of the Lamb meant a huge amount to the Gospel writer. Is there potential for us today?

Conclusion
The foundational teaching of the Fourth Gospel is that God so loved the world. The first “task” of the believer is to allow myself to be loved, to receive that love and to trust it. It is a breath-taking, comprehensive and liberating vision. 

The second key teaching is captured in the image of Jesus, the lamb of God who takes away the sin (singular!) of the world. To be free is a wonderful experience and we could reflect on how I experience my freedom in Christ. From what have I been set free? At a personal and spiritual level, from fear of death, the risk of absurdity, sins and false directions in life, addictions, lack of forgiveness and reconciliation...and so on. It is a big programme, captured in a succinct saying off St Paul: For freedom Christ has set us free. (Galatians 5:1) 

This is both a gift and a programme of life. Once I acknowledge the gift, it is good to ask, now that I have been set free in Christ, how will I act so that others too may know the same freedom. Many are not free in our free society. 

Devotional phrases can easily go in one ear and out the other. Perhaps today, when we hear the word “Lamb of God”, we might be reminded of the deep meaning — love, service and freedom. As we have received, so we are called to give.