Today has been called Hangover Sunday – a spiritual hangover from Christmas and Epiphany! It’s the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, but it’s actually a second version – especially in Year A – of the Baptism of Christ we marked last Sunday. Nor do we seem able to shrug off John the Baptist. He keeps talking. Now he knows the Lord in the flesh, he has led him into the River, he has seen the dove and heard the Father’s voice. Now he’s equipped to give his definitive testimony. He declares: this man coming towards me is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world”. And he says more. We have just heard it. It’s strong and its climax is, He is the Son of God. This is the faith of the Church. It will be taken up by the Apostles, written down in the New Testament and passed to catechumens over the centuries until the Lord comes again.
So, here we are this Sunday, “the Church of God”, not “in Corinth”, but in Aberdeen. Here we are: our new catechumens, our candidates for entry into full communion at Easter and all of us “called to be saints”, says St Paul. Here is Jesus coming towards us (that’s what the Liturgy is). And here is the Baptist, saying, Look! Look at this guy. Look at him steadily, contemplatively. Be-hold him, hold him in your gaze. And to this verbal declaration, Christian art has added a physical gesture. Painting after painting shows John raising his hand and pointing at the approaching figure. “With his finger”, goes an old text, “he pointed out God”.
This Sunday is for following that finger.
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Only the Holy Spirit could have given John these words. They’re few, a one-liner, but they say so much. John could frighten his listeners if he wanted to, but not here. They’re alluring words. Who is scared of a lamb, who isn’t attracted by a lamb? There’s so much of the Bible here, so much of Jesus. Let me mention four biblical connections.
“Behold, the Lamb of God!” 1) We’re taken back to that heart-wrenching story of Abraham told by God to offer his beloved son Isaac in sacrifice. Picture them, father and son, climbing the mountain. And young Isaac, blissfully ignorant, chirping up: “Dad, we’ve got some fire with us, we’ve got some wood, but where is the lamb for the offering?” And Abraham, his heart torn: “My son, God himself will provide the Lamb.” Abraham here saw more than he knew. And when John calls Jesus “the Lamb of God”, he’s saying he is the Lamb God provides. Deep in our hearts is the desire to put ourselves right with God, to make an offering of our lives. But who can do this? Only the Lamb that God provides, the beloved Son of the Father, eternally hidden in him and now revealed, sent into time to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away: the Lamb who comes from God.
2) Naturally, we also think of the Passover Lamb. Here he is, “unblemished” (1 Pet 1:19). He will offer himself at the time of the Passover feast, at the very time the paschal lambs were being killed in the Temple for every family, and no bone of his will be broken. The “precious blood” he will shed freely and lovingly, and the flesh he will give for the life of the world, will free us from the Egypt of our self-love.
3) This Lamb is Isaiah’s famous servant. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb” (Is 53:7). Here is the one who “bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors” (53:12). Here’s the vulnerable one who, though wounded, will not cease to love and the prayer of whose Passion will be heard. Here’s the One whose “Yes” can overwhelm all the “no’s” of our sin. How far into Jesus John has seen!
And further still. Where in Scripture does the Lamb most feature? 4) In the final book of the Bible, in Revelation, almost 30 times. There in heaven, though slain, he stands, risen and victorious (Rev 5:6). His place is in the midst of the Throne, ascended to the Father. The Lamb has become a shepherd there and “guides [the redeemed] to springs of living water” (7:17). He has become a Bridegroom, the Church his Bride (21:9) and the marriage feast is prepared. And those who share his Passover now “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (14:4). Our Lamb reigns!
Behold the Lamb of God! Here he is: the Lamb provided by God, the Passover Lamb led to the slaughter, taking away the sins of the world, leading us on to eternal life, the Lamb to follow wherever he goes.
Somehow, in this one saying, all of Jesus is contained, just as he is in every Mass, in every consecrated Host – shown to us with John’s very words.
How easy then to think and pray for those of you preparing for Easter! The time before you is for learning Jesus. To learn him personally, in your heart and your life, and to know him objectively, in his identity, his story. If just one word of a prophet can suggest so much, how much more the Tradition and Catechesis of the Church! May each of you see that whole, each of you hear a word of God or a story that draws together for you who the Lord is, that grabs you by the heart and takes you to his feast. May Christ become real for all of us!
St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen, 18 January 2026
