Changing Gears

January 20, 2008     Epiphany 2 A

Isaiah 49:1-7             Psalm 40

1 Corinthians 1:1-9         St. John 1:29-42

The readings for this Sunday continue the theme of Jesus' servanthood and its manifestation in the baptism. This accounts for the selection of the first reading, the second of the servant songs in Isaiah.

When we compare the second servant song with the first, which we read last week, we note two points of difference. First, the second song states that God formed his servant "from the womb." This consciousness of predestination is characteristic of the Hebrew prophets (see Jeremiah 1:5) and recurs in Paul (see Galatians 1:15).

The second point to notice is the enhanced emphasis on the universal scope of the servant's mission. The first song simply included the phrase "a light to the nations." The second expands on this. "It is too light a thing" for the servant's mission to be confined to Israel: "I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

The Gospel lesson this morning departs from the normal rule of reading Matthew's Gospel during Year A, presumably because of the importance of Jesus' baptism to the Epiphany season.

The fourth evangelist avoids a direct narrative of the baptism of Jesus, probably because of claims of the "baptist" sect that coexisted alongside the early Church. This led Matthew to insert the dialogue between Jesus and John, as we saw in last week's gospel. To narrate Jesus' baptism, in the Fourth Gospel, would have made Jesus appear too much like the subordinate of John.

Instead, the Baptist bears witness to the theological meaning of the baptism as it was expressed in the voice from heaven and in the descent of the dove. The latter is explicitly mentioned (v. 33).

The voice from heaven is clearly alluded to in the words "This is the Son of God," and perhaps also in the reference to the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." This too may be an allusion to the identification of Jesus with the servant of YHWH of Isaiah.

In response to seeing Jesus after his baptism, John says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." In a way, John is changing gears.

No longer does he say: "Prepare." That would be out of place now that at last he who was being prepared for is seen, is before our very eyes. The nature of the case now calls for a different type of cry. An explanation is needed of who is present, and why he has come down to us from heaven.

So John says: "Behold the Lamb of God," of whom the prophet Isaiah told us in the words: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer he opened not his mouth."

In past ages the coming one was typified by the law of Moses, but because the law was merely a figure and a foreshadowing, its salvation was only partial; its mercy did not reach out to embrace the whole world.

But now the true lamb, the victim without blemish obscurely prefigured in former times, is led to the slaughter for all to banish sin from the world, to overthrow the world's destroyer, to abolish death by dying for the entire human race, and to release us from the curse: "Dust you are and to dust you shall return."

He will become the second Adam who is not of earth but of heaven, and will be for us the source of every blessing. He will deliver us from the corruptibility foreign to our nature; he will secure eternal life for us, reconcile us with God, teach us to revere God and to live upright lives, and will himself be our way to the kingdom of heaven.

One Lamb died for all to restore the whole flock on earth to God the Father; one died for all to make all subject to God; one died for all to gain all so that all might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.

Because our many sins had made us subject to death and corruption, the Father gave his son as our redemption, one for all, since all were in him and he was greater than all. One died for all so that all of us might live in him.

Death swallowed the Lamb who was sacrificed for all, and then disgorging him; disgorged all of us in him and with him; for we were all in Christ who died and rose again for us.

Once sin had been destroyed, how could death, which was caused by sin, fail to be wholly annihilated? With the root now dead how could the branch survive? What power will death have over us now that sin has been blotted out?

And so, rejoicing in the sacrifice of the Lamb let us cry out: "O death, where is your victory? O grave, where is your sting?"

 Henceforth death will be unable to denounce sinners for their weakness, for God is the one who acquits us. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for our sake, so that we might escape the curse brought down on us by sin.

In John's Gospel Jesus presents himself as the one who takes away the sins of the world. We hear the Baptist call Jesus the "lamb." This "lamb" will be sacrificed like the lamb of the Passover. He will be poured out for the sins of all. For John, Jesus teaches by his doings, his "signs" which reveal God's saving love.

It is easier for us to let Jesus be our teacher and we the learners. It is more difficult and yet more important, for us to let Jesus be our Savior. It is easier to admit that we do not know that we need to know. It is far more humbling to admit that we are in need of being saved from spiritual death to live toward life eternal.

The Baptist says to his followers, "look, see, take in, over there is the Savior, I am his advertising agent." This is the beginning of how John's Gospel is really a kind of introductory or initiating catechism.

The gospel invites its readers to "look, see, follow" and when you have seen, then, as with Peter at the end of the gospel, you will want to follow Jesus into the heart of the Christian Way or community.

For John it is all about seeing the signs, the gestures, the doings of Jesus and our being attracted by those signs to be a member of Christ's Way, Truth, Life.

We become initiated into this Way through baptism of water and the Spirit, but to live this Way truthfully is to allow ourselves to watch, look, listen, be attracted by his ways of inviting, healing, feeding, finding and constantly calling us to real life.

We are changing gears. From preparing for our salvation to living our salvation.