Hebrew Commentary to the Sunday Gospel excerpt – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time; Year A

Photo: KUL Heschel Center

John the Baptist calls Jesus “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29.36). This title defines the nature of Christ’s salvific mission and proves that the predictions present in the Law and the Prophets were fulfilled in the person of Jesus – observes in his commentary to the Sunday Gospel excerpt for the Catholic University of Lublin Heschel Centre Fr. Dr. Zbigniew Grochowski, doctor of Biblical Sciences and Archaeology, assistant professor at the Department of Exegesis of the New Testament of the Institute of Biblical Sciences of the Faculty of Theology of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.

The following is a full text of the commentary to the Gospel excerpt of the second Sunday in ordinary time (Jn 1:29-34).

 

Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (cf. Jn 1:29)

At the onset of his public ministry, immersed in the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus was called by John the Baptist as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29,36). This is an important mark of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. At the same time, this title defines the nature of Christ’s salvific mission. Moreover, it is proof that the predictions present in the Law and the Prophets were fulfilled in the person of Jesus.

 

1. “The Lamb” is one of the major Christological titles of the New Testament.

In the Gospel according to John, this motif is an inclusion, or a compositional frame that ties the whole work together. It appears at its beginning, and is the excerpt read during the liturgy of today’s Sunday, as well as at the end of the fourth Gospel, when it refers to the death of Jesus (namely, that his legs were not broken, among others so that the Scripture speaking of the Passover Lamb [cf. Ex 12:46] would be fulfilled in the person of the Crucified Jesus [cf. Jn 19:36]). Furthermore, the fact that Jesus was dying while lambs were being slaughtered in the Jerusalem Temple for Passover supper (cf. Jn 19:14,31) and the motif of the hyssop on which Jesus was given a sponge with vinegar (cf. Jn 19:29) allude to this truth.

In the Apocalypse of St. John, “the Lamb” is the most common title attributed to Jesus. The text uses almost 30 times the Greek noun arnion and perhaps the most telling scene is the vision of the “a Lamb standing, a Lamb that had been slain” (Rv 5:6). It is symbolic of the truth about the Resurrected Christ, whose body bears the marks of his salvific death on the cross.

Christ is referred to as the Lamb by both Peter (1 Pt 1:18-19) and Paul (1 Cor 5:7) in their epistles.

 

2. The Lamb in the Old Testament is on the one hand the most important animal sacrificed in the rite of the temple as an atonement for sin, and the Passover one, whose blood saved the Israelites from death on the day of the Exodus from Egypt. Both lambs are referred to in the New Testament. It is worth reading the several interconnected biblical texts:

 

3. The sacrificial Lamb:

Lv 1:3,10; 9:3; 22:19; 23:12 When any of you brings an offering, he can offer an animal either from the herd or from the flock. He must be an unblemished male; he will offer it at the entrance to the Tent of the Meeting, to make it acceptable to Yahweh (…) If his offering is to be of an animal from the flock, of a lamb or a goat to be offered as a burnt offering, he must offer an unblemished male. (…) Then say to the Israelites, “Take a goat to be offered as a sacrifice for sin, a calf and a lamb one year old (both without blemish) for a burnt offering.” (…) If he is to be acceptable, offer an unblemished male, be it bull or sheep or goat (…) And on the same day as you make this offering, you will offer Yahweh an unblemished lamb one year old as a burnt offering.

Lv 14,10-14 On the eighth day he will take two unblemished lambs, an unblemished ewe one year old, three-tenths of wheaten flour mixed with oil for the cereal offering, and one log of oil. The priest who is performing the purification will place the person who is being purified, with all his offerings, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, before Yahweh. He will then take one of the lambs and offer it as a sacrifice of reparation, as also the log of oil. With these he will make the gesture of offering before Yahweh. He will then slaughter the lamb on that spot inside the holy place where the victims for the sacrifice for sin and for the burnt offering are slaughtered. This reparatory offering, like the sacrifice for sin, will revert to the priest: it is especially holy. The priest will then take some blood of this sacrifice and put it on the lobe of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the big toe of the right foot of the person who is being purified.

Is 53:7,12 Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers he never opened his mouth (…) Hence I shall give him a portion with the many, and he will share the booty with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and for being counted as one of the rebellious, whereas he was bearing the sin of many and interceding for the rebellious (cf. Acts 8:27,32,35 [an Ethiopian, a courtier of the kandake, or the queen of Ethiopia, in charge of her treasury] the passage of scripture he was reading was this: Like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb in front of its shearers, he never opens his mouth (…) Starting, therefore, with this text of scripture Philip proceeded to explain the good news of Jesus to him.1 Pt 1:18-19 For you know that the price of your ransom from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors was paid, not in anything perishable like silver or gold, but in precious blood as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ.

Ex 29:1 This is what you will do to them, to consecrate them to my priesthood. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish.

Hbr 7:26-28 Such is the high priest that met our need, holy, innocent and uncontaminated, set apart from sinners, and raised up above the heavens; he has no need to offer sacrifices every day, as the high priests do, first for their own sins and only then for those of the people; this he did once and for all by offering himself. The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.

 

4. The Passover Lamb:

Ex 12:5 It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year old; you may choose it either from the sheep or from the goats.

Ex 12:7,13 Some of the blood must then be taken and put on both door-posts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten (…) The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I shall pass over you, and you will escape the destructive plague when I strike Egypt.

Jn 19:36 All this happened to fulfil the words of scripture: Not one bone of his will be broken (cf. Ex 12:46 It must be eaten in one house alone; you will not take any of the meat out of the house; nor may you break any of its bones).

Rv 5:6 Then, between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, I saw a Lamb standing, a Lamb that had been slain. He had seven horns and seven eyes; these eyes are the seven Spirits of God, sent to all parts of the world.

1 Cor 5:7 Throw out the old yeast so that you can be the fresh dough, unleavened as you are. For our Passover has been sacrificed, that is, Christ.

1 Pt 1:18-19 For you know that the price of your ransom from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors was paid, not in anything perishable like silver or gold, but in precious blood as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ.

 

5. Both the Passover Lamb and the sacrificial Lamb (offered in reparation for sins) are to be unblemished.

We can only be rescued from sin by Someone who has not experienced sin himself (just as a person drowning in a swamp can only be pulled out by someone standing on firm ground or a jetty).

Jesus Christ was precisely such a person. He was like us in all things, except sin (cf. Heb 4:15; 1 Pt 2:22; 1 Jn 3:5).

The Lamb of God, then, is Jesus Christ. It is worth following in His footsteps, like the disciples of John the Baptist who, having heard the words “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” left their former teacher and followed Jesus of Nazareth (cf. Jn 1:29.35-42).

 

About the Author:

Fr. Zbigniew Grochowski, Ph.D. in Biblical Sciences and Archaeology, an alumnus of the Pontificium Institutum Biblicum in Rome and of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, assistant professor at the Department of Exegesis of the New Testament of the Institute of Biblical Sciences of the Faculty of Theology of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. An expert in the texts of St. John and the subject of Jesus’ disciples, a lecturer at the Elbląg Seminary, an ordinary member of the Association of Polish Biblical Scholars and of the PIB Ex-Alumni Association.

 

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