A reading from the first letter of saint John (2:29-3:6)
If you know that God is righteous
you must recognise that everyone who acts righteously
is a child of his.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us
by letting us be called God’s children,
and that is what we are!
The reason why the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
My dear friends, we are already God’s children,
but what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We know that when he appears
we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Whoever treasures this hope of him
purifies himself, just as he is pure.
Whoever sins, acts wickedly,
because all sin is wickedness.
And you know that he was revealed in order to take sins away,
and that in him there is no sin.
No one who abides in him sins,
and whoever sins
has neither seen him nor recognised him.
What does it mean to be ‘children of God’ (tekna theou)? The child of God is not recognised by the world. The child of God does not yet know what lies in the future, except that ‘we shall be like him’ and ‘see him as he is’. The child of God thus lives in hope, purifies himself, and knows that ‘no one who abides (menein) in him sins’. The theme of ‘sin’ (hamartia) will be taken up next.
Psalm 98 (97) The ‘new song’ is sung by the whole earth.
A reading from the holy gospel according to John (1:29-34)
The next day, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, “After me comes one who has passed ahead of me because he was before me.” I did not know him myself, yet I came baptising with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.’ And John bore witness, ‘I have seen the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven and it rested on him. I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptise with water said to me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit.” I have seen and borne witness that he is the Son of God.’
This part of the first chapter of the Gospel of John chronicles a series of days. This passage, with the words ‘the next day’, marks the second day of a week of revelation. John heralds Jesus with the title ‘lamb of God’ (ho amnos tou theou), and states that he ‘takes away the sin of the world’. The inspiration seems to come from the Servant Song in Isaiah 53. The Lord has ‘laid upon him the iniquity of us all’. He is ‘like a lamb led to the slaughterhouse’. John also testifies to seeing ‘the Spirit’ descend on Jesus (Isaiah 42), and asserts that he ‘baptises with the holy Spirit’. John bears witness that Jesus is ‘the Son of God’.
Is there also an allusion to the Passover lamb (Exodus 12) here?
Explore the Servant songs in Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 52-53.